Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Confiança they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pouso Alegre have kept their man, and Confiança go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Confiança training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wanderson Barros 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Confiança they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Confiança can tell you which week it ends in.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Júnior Moura after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Douglas Nathan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
The words a physio says slowly. 109 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Confiança, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Náutico for Ramon Riquelme 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Confiança have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rafael Martins 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Confiança training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Nardo 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.
Confiança asked and Amazonas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Rafael Martins and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Confiança training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Nardo 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Cuiabá.
1 for Ramon Riquelme, marked 7.15, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Rafael Martins 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.
At 34, 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
João Nardo 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Ponte Preta had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Confiança will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Confiança this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Douglas Nathan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 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.
Rafael Martins 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.
Confiança asked and Juventude 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.
Juan David Obando is 20, and Confiança have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
7 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.
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 Vinícius Matheus is on it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Júnior Moura chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Confiança have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Kaká's mistake
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Criciúma are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Willean Lepo delivers — 7.95
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Willean Lepo scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Thiaguinho has agreed terms with Confiança for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Criciúma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Criciúma can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Marked 7.12 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.