“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 The request is on a desk at Vitória, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Sporting Cristal, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Defensa y Justicia have kept their man, and Vitória go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Miguel Angelo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fabri. 1‑0 against Grêmio, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Vitória training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Brítez 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 kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Vitória had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“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 The request is on a desk at Vitória, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marinho 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.
Santos pay $740.0K, 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.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Fabri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.75. 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Alisson Souza has, at Vitória, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The clubs have shaken hands with Felgueiras; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
$6.5M on the table at Famalicao. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Leandro Antonetti reports back to Estrela da Amadora with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Estrela da Amadora had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Corinthians, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Luan Patrick 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Como have kept their man, and Estrela da Amadora go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Estrela da Amadora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Joan Jordán 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Estrela da Amadora will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Estrela da Amadora, 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 Estrela da Amadora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Renan Ribeiro 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lovro Zvonarek trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Position 10 on 41 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jeferson and Estrela da Amadora agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Joan Jordán 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Clayton provided it, and the 9.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Jeremy Arévalo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.85
A mark of 7.85 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joan Jordán and Estrela da Amadora agree another 2 years.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jeremy Arévalo 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leandro Antonetti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Estrela da Amadora the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Estrela da Amadora, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Estrela da Amadora 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.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Estrela da Amadora has to find a result from somewhere.
The offer from Alverca for Luan Patrick 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Estrela da Amadora have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The phone has started ringing about Abraham Marcus again, and this time the name on the line is Benfica. Estrela da Amadora are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Estrela da Amadora, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Estrela da Amadora have done the hard part with Alverca, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Léo Linck 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Estrela da Amadora and Porto in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.