Marked for Patrick Nuamah
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.30, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match26 Dec 2026
Catanzaro strike at the death to beat Bari
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Bari had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Catanzaro did not stop to explain themselves.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Mehdi Dorval in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Dec 2026
Bari made Catanzaro work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matteo Voltolini, and the manager let it.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 124% of the Catanzaro income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Market28 Dec 2026
He is 14, and nobody at Catanzaro signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Edoardo Bartoli kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Mehdi Dorval beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Dec 2026
Lazio ended it 0‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
A cup hiding at Lazio leaves Catanzaro explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom14 Dec 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Federico Di Francesco's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Dec 2026
Catanzaro win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 95th minute. Modena will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Pietro Iemmello takes the afternoon — 9.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pietro Iemmello provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Davide Buglio delivers — 7.75
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Davide Buglio scored, was marked 7.75, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Mehdi Dorval beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Pietro Iemmello’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Catanzaro.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jesse Joronen and Catanzaro agree another 3 years.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Antonio Candela at his very best
Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Catanzaro.
Squad7 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 8.18 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match28 Nov 2026
Catanzaro make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
At 20 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 126% of everything Catanzaro earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Fellipe Jack and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Jesse Joronen
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Matteo Voltolini dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Nov 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.
Match21 Nov 2026
Three points for Catanzaro, 1‑0 the final word against Reggiana in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Emanuele Pecorino at his very best
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Catanzaro.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Federico Di Francesco, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tancredi Vella and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Edoardo Bartoli kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad23 Nov 2026
7 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Mirko Pigliacelli has given nobody the chance.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Pietro Iemmello, 34, rolls back the years — 8.01
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match17 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Catanzaro
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A move Emanuele Modugno would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Emanuele Modugno is living that version at Catanzaro, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match17 Oct 2026
Three points for Catanzaro, 2‑1 the final word against Carrarese in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.62, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jesse Joronen 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
61 days out for Nicolò Brighenti after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catanzaro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Catanzaro
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Catanzaro are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Catanzaro
Mehdi Dorval and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad21 Sep 2026
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.49 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Catanzaro had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Market21 Sep 2026
Catanzaro have made Matias Antonini available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Catanzaro take on the side everybody is chasing
Monza arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.