Victor

Goalkeeper - Ceará
11 May 2028
Thursday
Process

Marked for Victor

82 Edition

The Ceará Chronicle

21 Feb 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Éder

104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ceará lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Vinicius Zanocelo 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 Ceará this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Dieguinho 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 dugout

Matheus Araújo 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.

Market

Dieguinho has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ceará can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Thiago Milanese stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Thiago Milanese and Ceará agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

  • The dugout A door opens for Lucas Lima
  • The dugout Victor knocks on the manager's door
Back issues
74 Edition

The Bahia Courier

27 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Erick Pulga

42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

49 days out for Everton Ribeiro after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bahia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match

Bahia let it slip despite Rodrigo Nestor

Rodrigo Nestor had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Bragantino were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.

Market

Bahia turn down Cruzeiro for Alejo Veliz

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Match

The wait goes on for Bahia

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.

Transfer targets

Bahia rebuffed over Emerson Royal

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Bahia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Nicolás Linares asks to leave Bahia

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

6 saves: Ronaldo was the team

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.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Alejo Veliz

16 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

In brief

  • Market Victor moves on
  • Match No clean sheets in sight for Bahia
  • Player ratings A masterclass from Alejo Veliz
74 Edition

The Ceará Chronicle

27 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Alê Santos out for 66 days

66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ceará lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Souza asks to leave Ceará

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Transfer targets

Ceará make their move for Yago Noal

$1.0M on the table at Internacional. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Mateus Macedo

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ceará have done the hard part with Atletico Goianiense, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Jay Enem rejects the move

Ceará had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Udinese, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

Tempers go at Ceará

Vinicius Zanocelo 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.

Market

Victor is a Ceará player

The fee is $180.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Bahia drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.

Market

Bragantino are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Ceará will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

Squad

Words at Ceará training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dieguinho 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.

In brief

72 Edition

The Ceará Chronicle

13 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Boardroom

Up they go: Ceará promoted

Confirmed, mathematical, and a town awake all night. Whatever else the season contained, it finishes a division higher than it started.

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Alê Santos

83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ceará lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Fernando Braga is the young player of the season

Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 21-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.

Transfer targets

$180.0K settles it between the clubs for Victor

Bahia have accepted the money. What Ceará do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Squad

Rafael Ramos honoured for the season

The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Ceará had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.

Market

Alê Santos 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 Ceará can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on João Carvalho

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ceará have done the hard part with Braga, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

A falling-out at Ceará

Vinicius Zanocelo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Mattia Bani

Ceará asked and Palermo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

In brief