The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Botafogo-PB people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Botafogo-PB can pretend not to have heard.
The name of José Cavalcante has come up in conversations Botafogo-PB were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botafogo-PB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
He is 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: José Cavalcante. 2‑0 against Ceará, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mathías Suárez
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Botafogo-PB they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mathías Suárez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 May 2035
Words at Botafogo-PB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Miguel 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Botafogo-PB has been clear about where Romário stands, which is more than many ever get.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Paulo Victor is living that version at Botafogo-PB, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botafogo-PB this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Luis Miguel falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say José Cavalcante is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 60 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Botafogo-PB, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marcos André wants continental football; whether Botafogo-PB can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Mathías Suárez 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.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Words at Botafogo-PB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Miguel 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botafogo-PB lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Botafogo-PB they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. José Lima is living that version at Botafogo-PB, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Botafogo-PB can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Gui Lobo is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Nobody at Botafogo-PB will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botafogo-PB lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Mathías Suárez 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.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Words at Botafogo-PB training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Miguel 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say José Cavalcante is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 123 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 122 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Junior Leboum Meli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Botafogo-PB the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mathías Suárez 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Internacional will make the call about Janderson this week. Botafogo-PB have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Luis Miguel falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.