“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Coritiba can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The phone has started ringing about Walisson again, and this time the name on the line is Nomme Kalju. Coritiba are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Coritiba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacy Maranhão 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Coritiba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 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.
Match31 Jul 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Coritiba. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Coritiba lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Coritiba can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cruzeiro have kept their man, and Coritiba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Joaquín Lavega has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Add another name to the list: Independência have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Khensane. The answer from Coritiba has not changed — yet.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Coritiba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Melo 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 words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
The deal with Arouca is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Coritiba have gone to Grêmio 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.
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. 7.73 beside his name.
At 18 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 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.
7 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 May 2027
Jacy Maranhão 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.
Thalisson Gabriel 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.
“I watch every Coritiba game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Treze runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Paulo Tavares after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Coritiba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad10 May 2027
Jacy Maranhão 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.
Pedro Rangel 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.
A point taken on 94 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I watch every Coritiba game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Capital runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Coritiba can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Coritiba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacy Maranhão 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 watch every Coritiba game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Guarani runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 Coritiba, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matheus Bianqui signs something — a contract at Coritiba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Coritiba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Coritiba 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Coritiba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Melo 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 Coritiba, and 0 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tiago Cóser wants continental football; whether Coritiba can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Arthur Daniel is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“I watch every Coritiba game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Treze runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bruno Melo commits to Coritiba for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Coritiba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacy Maranhão 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Coritiba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Coritiba, and 0 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutWalisson asks for a word with the manager
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jacy Maranhão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
“I watch every Coritiba game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Capital runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matheus Bianqui signs something — a contract at Coritiba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Words at Coritiba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacy Maranhão 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 offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Bruno Melo 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.
Vítor 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Thalisson Gabriel has his answer from Coritiba; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 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 Coritiba will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Federico Sellecchia is living that version at Coritiba, and it tends to show in the first month.
At 18 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Jacy Maranhão 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.
Coritiba asked and Santos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Pedro Rangel 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.
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Coritiba have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Coritiba have paid $3.7M for Marco Antônio, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Athletico Paranaense did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.2M for Felipe Aguirre, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Marco Antônio has, at Coritiba, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The fee is $620.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Goianésia drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Coritiba had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonathan Rodríguez and Coritiba agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Coritiba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Brandão has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A 1‑0 win over Volta Redonda, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 8.40 — 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Éberth was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. 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.
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.