Marked for Michel
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Apr 2028
Derby days make names, and José Manuel López made his against Corinthians. 1‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Squad1 May 2028
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market1 May 2028
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Palmeiras hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Player ratings1 May 2028
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Palmeiras support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
Squad1 May 2028
Paulinho was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luiz Fernando is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad1 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luighi and Palmeiras agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market1 May 2028
No place for Michel in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Michel has his answer from Palmeiras; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Bruno Fuchs goes up and wins it — 7.88
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.88 for the rest of it.
Market5 Jul 2027
Add another name to the list: Atletico Goianiense have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Khellven. The answer from Palmeiras has not changed — yet.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gustavo Gómez and Palmeiras agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Paulinho runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Palmeiras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Piquerez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jhon Arias, and the manager let it.
Match3 Jul 2027
Flamengo left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A smaller club would suit Jhon Arias now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Palmeiras can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Market5 Jul 2027
Boa expected to open talks for Michel
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Palmeiras will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Jun 2027
Bahia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Palmeiras did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Juliano, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.99
A mark of 7.99 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market21 Jun 2027
Fluminense pay $5.9M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Match19 Jun 2027
Still nobody has beaten Palmeiras
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luiz Fernando is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match19 Jun 2027
A 2‑1 win over Atlético Mineiro, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Keven Samuel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market21 Jun 2027
Michel attracts admirers
The name of Michel has come up in conversations Palmeiras were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
The crowd has taken to Juliano
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Nobody could get near Paulinho
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Jun 2027
Vitor Roque wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Palmeiras hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market7 Jun 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Palmeiras have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Naves shuts the door
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Palmeiras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paulinho is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Keven Samuel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Loan watch7 Jun 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Palmeiras, and 6 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Gustavo Gómez
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Gustavo Gómez has come out of that comparison in the side, and Palmeiras have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.