There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 The request is on a desk at Fluminense, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hércules. 3‑2 against Vitória, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Gustavo Scarpa 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Fluminense, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
1 for Martinelli, marked 7.80, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
7.89, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and ABC waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Rodrigo Castillo again, and this time the name on the line is Palmeiras. Fluminense are listening politely and promising nothing.
At 40 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Up for the corner, and Samuel Xavier delivers — 7.77
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Samuel Xavier scored, was marked 7.77, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
In brief
Player ratingsHércules pops up at the right end — 7.85
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martinelli 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.
12 goals in 26 games at Pafos — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fluminense updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Nautico scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Martinelli 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.
Kevin Serna 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Agustín Canobbio has moved up it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fluminense know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
3‑2 against Independiente Medellin, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Match26 Feb 2027
Martinelli wins it after the whistle should have gone
116 minutes played. Martinelli found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Independiente Medellin went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matheus Reis did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 7.94 for the rest of it.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Martinelli 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.99 beside his name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fluminense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martinelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lima 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.
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 Martinelli is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fluminense know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Fluminense. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fluminense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme Arana 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 did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Fluminense will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 Rodrigo Castillo is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fluminense, another week without a signature from Kevin Serna.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fluminense has been clear about where Gustavo Ramalho stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Guilherme Arana signs something — a contract at Fluminense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Savarino 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.
2‑0 against Zamora, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 40 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7.97, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Martinelli 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Silva 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.
5‑1 against Zamora, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hulk provided it, and the 9.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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 7.68 for the rest of it.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Fluminense and Zamora in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hulk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1‑1 against Newell's Old Boys, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
At 40 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Fluminense and Flamengo, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme Arana 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.
8.09. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Germán Cano takes the afternoon — 9.02
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Germán Cano provided it, and the 9.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7.78, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Martinelli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Acosta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
1 for Julián Millán, marked 7.66, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“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 Fluminense hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thiago Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Julián Millán. 1‑0 against Bahia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fluminense, another week without a signature from Thiago Silva.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.