Marked for Jonathan Brizuela
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maritimo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Maritimo
Maxime Dominguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Maritimo asked and Cesena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Carlos Daniel 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Maritimo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Red Bull Salzburg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Iacovelli has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Maritimo 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maritimo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Raphael Guzzo has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 May 2027
A falling-out at Maritimo
Alexander Bah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout31 May 2027
“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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Maritimo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enrique Peña Zauner 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.
The dugout31 May 2027
When it matters, Simo plays
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.
Market31 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bryan Limbombe’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout31 May 2027
Gabriel Tigrão knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maritimo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 May 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Maritimo will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market24 May 2027
Ikson hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maritimo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at Maritimo
Maxime Dominguez 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jonathan Brizuela has just signed for Maritimo, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad24 May 2027
Alexander Bah 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.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adrián Butzke, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 May 2027
Iacovelli gets picked when it counts
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 Iacovelli is on it.
Market24 May 2027
The name of Gonçalo Tabuaço keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Maritimo say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout24 May 2027
Edson Júnior asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
Franco Jara 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 Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to John Córdoba, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Instituto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Piris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Facundo Suárez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Instituto 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.