Marked for Gabriel Simples
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Apr 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avaí they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matheus Jussa and Avaí agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Wenderson 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 Avaí this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
“I watch every Avaí game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Remo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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. Daniel Penha has moved up it.
Market5 Apr 2027
Otávio Passos is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Avaí has been clear about where Otávio Passos stands, which is more than many ever get.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2027
Del Piage 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 Avaí this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Gabriel Pires wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Avaí have no good answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Mar 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avaí they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alef Manga commits to Avaí for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avaí this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch8 Mar 2027
Thayllon wants to come home
“I did not go to Remo to sit and watch. I want to come back to Avaí and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to João Maistro, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Gaspar 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 Gaspar is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Avaí is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Avaí
Emiliano Martínez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Rafael Bilu gets it from the manager
“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.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
“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 Avaí, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Zé Ricardo knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zé Ricardo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Gaspar has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Avaí 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Avaí is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valladolid have kept their man, and Avaí go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avaí this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Avaí
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allyson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
When it matters, Gaspar 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The Alef Manga question follows Avaí around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alef Manga’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad11 Jan 2027
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“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 Avaí will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Nicolás Cabral 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 Avaí, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
-
Market
The window shut and Otávio Passos is still in the building
-
The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Hyan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Avaí have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Gaspar: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Avaí have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Avaí
Zé Ricardo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Time is catching up with Allyson
Everybody at Avaí saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lazio have kept their man, and Avaí go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Avaí will try again when the window opens; Volta Redonda may not be selling by then.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Avaí
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allyson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriel Simples and Avaí agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Dec 2026
Avaí say no — this time
The offer from Iguatu for Gabriel Simples 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.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
An offer of $630.0K for Tiago
Avaí 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Avaí can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Market21 Dec 2026
Add another name to the list: Maranhão have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gaspar. The answer from Avaí has not changed — yet.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Avaí
Gabriel Pires and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
No place for Gabriel Pires in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Avaí are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
A loan enquiry to Vitoria Guimaraes: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
A loan enquiry to Lazio: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Avaí
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Avaí can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avaí this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Oct 2026
Volta Redonda left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Avaí
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allyson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to João Maistro, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
When it matters, Gaspar 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.