Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 The request is on a desk at Flamengo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Flamengo have gone to Cruzeiro with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Flamengo have gone to Bragantino with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$1.7M on the table at São Paulo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Flamengo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Flamengo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad27 Nov 2028
John Kennedy 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Jorginho
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamengo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Flamengo can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Gabriel Tavares to a room that had heard them before.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamengo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
1 for Allan, marked 7.83, 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dudu scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Flamengo heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Kennedy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
John Kennedy 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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Flamengo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jorginho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Sep 2028
John Kennedy 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.
Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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.
Nobody at Flamengo 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.
Jorginho 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
John Kennedy 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.
“I watch every Flamengo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Corinthians runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Flamengo 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.26 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Jorginho, marked 7.74, 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Benjamín Rollheiser. 3‑2 against Cruzeiro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Benjamín Rollheiser is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo Viana will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flamengo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Aug 2028
John Kennedy 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.
Lorran 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Flamengo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Kennedy 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Flamengo, and 0 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Fluminense on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Flamengo asked and Granada said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer went to Mirassol this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Flamengo 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 Flamengo can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from CSKA 1948 for Everton Cebolinha was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $19.8M — a club that wants Joaquín Piquerez enough to be asked twice.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Flamengo have paid $19.4M for Ramón Sosa, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. RB Leipzig have kept their man, and Flamengo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Flamengo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ramón Sosa has, at Flamengo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Flamengo offered $1.2M; Vasco da Gama said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Flamengo and Santos have settled on $26.9M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Vitória kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Flamengo will be asked about the last half hour all week.
The offer went to Nottingham Forest this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer from São Paulo for Wallace Yan was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Flamengo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Lorran, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
$1.1M on the table at Vasco da Gama. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.4M — a club that wants Daniel Fuzato enough to be asked twice.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Flamengo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriel Werneck is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Jorginho 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.
Squad22 May 2028
John Kennedy 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout22 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Gabriel Tavares left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Flamengo 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.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Nobody at Flamengo is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Flamengo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Flamengo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Kennedy 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.
Allan 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.
“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.
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 Gabriel Brazão is on it.
Jorginho 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Flamengo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Carrascal 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Gabriel Tavares after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Léo Ortiz signs something — a contract at Flamengo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Palmeiras? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Léo Ortiz’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Flamengo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Carrascal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Flamengo, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wallace Yan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamengo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Flamengo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Flamengo 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 Flamengo 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 Jorge Carrascal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The captaincy has been taken off Giorgian De Arrascaeta. Flamengo will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Flamengo than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamengo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giorgian De Arrascaeta and Flamengo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Atlético Mineiro will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ruan Tressoldi has pre-agreed a move to Flamengo, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Market6 Mar 2028
One of our own: Rafa joins the Flamengo first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rafa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Victor Nardo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Leonardo Viana has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Flamengo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Allan 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.
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Joaquín Freitas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgian De Arrascaeta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joaquín Freitas. 1‑0 against Atlético Goianiense, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 Léo Ortiz is on it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Igor Nogueira, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamengo can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Igor Nogueira left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Joaquín Freitas did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgian De Arrascaeta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Lorran 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Igor Nogueira left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Léo Ortiz 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 Flamengo, another week without a signature from Dudu.
At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dudu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Igor Nogueira after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Joaquín Freitas provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Lorran, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.22
A mark of 8.22 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Mirassol were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Flamengo and Mirassol, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joaquín Freitas. 4‑2 against Mirassol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I did not go to Estrela da Amadora to sit and watch. I want to come back to Flamengo and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 35 matches say the rest.
At 21 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Porto moved on, Léo Ortiz reports back to Flamengo, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
“I watch every Flamengo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Nacional runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Flamengo 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamengo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Léo Ortiz 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Flamengo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgian De Arrascaeta 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 goal that put Internacional ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Flamengo equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Fluminense next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
“I watch every Flamengo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Portimonense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Jorginho is on it.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Flamengo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Água Santa are out and Flamengo go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match21 Jul 2027
Diego Reyes wins it after the whistle should have gone
107 minutes played. Diego Reyes found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Água Santa went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 14 gone
That is the business done at Flamengo until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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 right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Add another name to the list: Atlético Mineiro have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bruno Henrique. The answer from Flamengo has not changed — yet.
Nobody at Flamengo 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.48 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Jorginho 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Flamengo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgian De Arrascaeta 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.
“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 Pisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Pisa have had the benefit of it.
Pisa had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Fiorentina, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The chase for Nicola Farinelli ended with $220.0K changing hands and Forli out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Arturo Calabresi 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.
Pisa asked and AC Milan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brian Calderara 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pisa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
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 Pisa 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 Gabriele Piccinini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
24 games, 2 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Pisa now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Arturo Calabresi had Pisa level again within 3 minutes, and Juve Stabia never got to play with a lead at all.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorran did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pisa 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 Brian Calderara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Pisa had all but put away. Padova will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Mantova spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pisa 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 Gabriele Piccinini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Pisa. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrea Petagna. 1‑0 against Mantova, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Hellas Verona next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
In brief
Player ratingsAndrea Petagna was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Two goals and a mark of 9.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pisa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pisa can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pisa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Piccinini 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.