Words at Maricá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Carvalho 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maricá this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“I watch every Maricá game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at São Luiz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rafael Carioca signs something — a contract at Maricá or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Victor Pereira trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Maricá would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fáider Burbano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fáider Burbano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maricá lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Porto Velho waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Maricá is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Maricá have done the hard part with Santos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Maricá had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Santos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Pablo Thomaz 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 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Maricá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denilson 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.
6 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fáider Burbano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
São Luiz asked and Nova Iguaçu 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Lucas Costa has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mateus Xavier has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kaynan signs something — a contract at São Luiz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maricá lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maricá have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Maricá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Carvalho 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. 70 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexis Quiñónes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maricá the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Maricá this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maricá this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 36, 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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Porto Vitória were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Maricá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Café 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Arthur Braga on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maricá lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maricá will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Pablo Thomaz 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Arthur Braga after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
0‑5 to Portuguesa, 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.
Pablo Thomaz 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Maricá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Carvalho 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Arthur Braga after 0‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
In brief
The dugoutWendel has become a man the manager trusts
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Wendel did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7.76, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maricá this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.