105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maringá 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 Maringá can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matheus Moraes provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Joinville waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maringá is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Nomme Kalju for Martín Espinoza Pino 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.
Maringá asked and Goiás 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dell did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $76.5K — a club that wants Victtor Chaves enough to be asked twice.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Floresta will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ronald scored, was marked 7.44, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $994.5K — a club that wants Gustavo Nescau enough to be asked twice.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Maringá can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The offer went to Porto Vitória this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Matheus Moraes 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.
CSA and Atlético Mineiro have settled on $4.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lagarto waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSA is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
CSA had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mirassol, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
He is going to Maringá, the club has $570.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
$310.0K on the table at Brasil de Pelotas. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to Mirassol this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Add another name to the list: Bragantino have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dell. The answer from CSA has not changed — yet.
The offer went to Sport Recife this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Conrado 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.
“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 CSA, and 7 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have shaken hands with Aparecidense; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maringá they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Maringá have gone to CSA 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.
Matheus Moraes 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robertinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Guilherme Pira. 1‑0 against Botafogo-SP, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 39 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Sampaio Corrêa had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“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 CSA, and 3 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Bruno Menezes 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Everton Morelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Everton Morelli and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at CSA 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSA know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 6, 57 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Erick Marcus 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.
“I watch every CSA game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Guarani runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matheus Aurélio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSA know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Everton Morelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at CSA pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CSA will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CSA 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.
Nova Iguaçu will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Matheus Matias has pre-agreed a move to CSA, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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 Matheus Aurélio is on it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation CSA are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CSA will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSA can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Daniel Montiel has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means CSA have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Leandro: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“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 CSA, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raúl Silva 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.
12 combined actions and 6.95. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Conrado and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Raúl Silva 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 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 Dalbert is on it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Enzo'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.
Raúl Silva 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.
Nobody at CSA 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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
In brief
The dugoutAdilson Bahia knocks on the manager’s door
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raúl Silva 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.
“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 CSA, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Matheus Aurélio is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcelinho signs something — a contract at CSA or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Raúl Silva 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Nobody at CSA 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CSA, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Raúl Silva 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 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 Dalbert is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Conrado signs something — a contract at CSA or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wanderson Papaterra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CSA the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with Vélez is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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. Lautaro Torres has moved up it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nobody at CSA 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at CSA has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raúl Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
CSA asked and Anorthosis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Matheus Aurélio is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSA can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSA can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
CSA had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at River Plate, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Conrado 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raúl Silva 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 phone has started ringing about Wanderson Papaterra again, and this time the name on the line is Humaitá. CSA are listening politely and promising nothing.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Dell is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
CSA had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Maricá, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $600.0K has been paid because Rúben Ismael is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Midtjylland have kept their man, and CSA go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Retrô will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. CSA were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Vitor Bueno takes the afternoon — 8.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vitor Bueno provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSA can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CSA will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 7.58 for the rest of it.
Raúl Silva 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: Vitor Bueno. 2‑0 against Figueirense, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Silva 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Diego Araujo could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Enzo's mistake
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 143 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑3 to Ypiranga, 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CSA can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Diego Araujo left the room before anybody could ask which.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.