The offer from Mirassol for Kauan 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.
Braian Aguirre 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.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Matheus Reis is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Internacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Rodríguez 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.
A 1‑0 win over Vasco da Gama, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Tchê Tchê will want back
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Vasco da Gama moved on, Thiago Galhardo reports back to Internacional, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Leandro Ciccolini is living that version at Internacional, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Willian Arão 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 easiest signature of my career.” Sergio Rochet and Internacional agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Internacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Internacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Corinthians will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ryan has pre-agreed a move to Internacional, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Internacional will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Internacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 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.
David Terans 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
6 new faces, and Internacional are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
SquadSergio Rochet has become a man the manager trusts
MarketThe window shut and Ronaldo is still in the building
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 Internacional have had the benefit of it.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Internacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Juninho wants continental football; whether Internacional can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Internacional, another week without a signature from Yago Noal.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Internacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alerrandro 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 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.
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 Internacional game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sport Recife runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
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 Internacional have had the benefit of it.
The offer from Boa for Victor Gabriel 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.
Fluminense pay $2.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Internacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Rodríguez 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.
Braian Aguirre 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matheus Bahia and Internacional agree another 4 years.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Sampaio Correa will make the call about Kauan this week. Internacional have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The offer from Hapoel Raanana for Victor Gabriel 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Internacional 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Internacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Rodríguez 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. 20 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.
Player ratings10 May 2027
A brace, and Alerrandro takes the afternoon — 8.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alerrandro provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Alerrandro 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 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Alerrandro had Internacional level again within 4 minutes, and Santa Cruz never got to play with a lead at all.
“I watch every Internacional 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.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Internacional lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jonathan Calleri 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.