The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Goianésia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Goianésia had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Flamengo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Marcos Cunha 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.
Goianésia asked and Itabaiana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Goianésia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Felipe Neves will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Goianésia 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 The request is on a desk at Goianésia, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.06, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Marcos Cunha 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.
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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Goianésia can pretend not to have heard.
Marcos Cunha 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Felipe Neves, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Goianésia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Ferrer 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 easiest signature of my career.” Daniel Borges and Goianésia agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Henrique Viana's mistake
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.
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 Samuel is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Júnior Silva signs something — a contract at Goianésia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Goianésia, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goianésia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Goianésia and Nova Iguaçu in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Goianésia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Ferrer 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.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Nobody left the Goianésia dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Éder Pereira after 1‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Goianésia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Goianésia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Éder Pereira to a room that had heard them before.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Goianésia has been clear about where Antônio Assis stands, which is more than many ever get.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Goianésia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Goianésia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marcos Cunha 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Goianésia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Ferrer 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
5 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Goianésia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Marcos Cunha 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.
Marked 9.41 — 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.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Éder Pereira, on a 4‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
1‑5 to Luverdense, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goianésia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Goianésia and Luverdense in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maximiliano Cabrera and Goianésia agree another 5 years.
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Goianésia.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Goianésia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Ferrer 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 point taken on 90 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Diego Viana has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Nobody at Goianésia 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.
Goianésia had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at São Bernardo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Neyzinho 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luigi Gaspar has just signed for Goianésia, and for once the answer mattered.
Goianésia asked and São Bernardo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Caio Amaral was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Neyzinho 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Caio Amaral. 2‑0 against Ceilândia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 35, 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.
Something was said to Marcos Cunha and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guillermo Ferrer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Goianésia can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Goianésia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Neyzinho 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Goianésia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Éder Pereira after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fellipe Resende, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Goianésia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Ferrer 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
Player ratingsThe one thing Caio Amaral could not do
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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 offer from América Mineiro for Marcos Cunha 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.
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 Goianésia have had the benefit of it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. António Lara has, at Goianésia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Caio Amaral 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Goianésia will try again when the window opens; Independência may not be selling by then.
17 games, 5 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Goianésia now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
In brief
MarketMatheus Alves returns from a loan that taught him nothing
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Goianésia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 3, 64 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Goianésia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Antônio Assis has, at Goianésia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Everything agreed with Uberlândia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goianésia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Guarani have kept their man, and Goianésia go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Goianésia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Neyzinho 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tomás Martínez is living that version at Goianésia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Goianésia asked and Coritiba said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Goianésia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateus Lustosa 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. 35 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Goianésia will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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 Goianésia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Goianésia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goianésia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$8.0K on the table at Penedense. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Pouso Alegre pay $140.0K, 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.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Goianésia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Goianésia can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Itabaiana have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Romário. The answer from Goianésia has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ABC have kept their man, and Goianésia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everybody at Goianésia saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 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.
“I watch every Goianésia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Azuriz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Goianésia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 64 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Position 3 and 64 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Júnior Moreira, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.41
A mark of 8.41 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.76 for the rest of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dilan Flores will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Goianésia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Goianésia and Porto Vitória in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The words a physio says slowly. 56 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.
4 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matheus Freitas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Goianésia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Neyzinho 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateus Lustosa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Goianésia, and 0 appearances in 42 say he has earned the hearing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goianésia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Guillermo Ferrer and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Neyzinho signs something — a contract at Goianésia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.