Marked for Arthur Novaes
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Jul 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” CRB had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match21 Jul 2027
Botafogo through in the cup
A 2‑0 win over CRB, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
No sign of nerves from Alisson at 21 — 8.21
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson did not need any: 8.21, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Window shuts: 0 in, 11 out at Botafogo
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market26 Jul 2027
So close: Edenílson’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Juazeirense moved on, Edenílson reports back to Botafogo, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Arthur Novaes has left for Sampaio Corrêa in a $720.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Cristian Medina 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Botafogo know it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Jul 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by CSA, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market19 Jul 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Sampaio Corrêa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match17 Jul 2027
No end in sight to Sampaio Corrêa's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sampaio Corrêa has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The deal with Botafogo 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sporting CP keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Vitinho in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sampaio Corrêa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market19 Jul 2027
Dimas has left for Volta Redonda in a $340.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad19 Jul 2027
César Martins 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.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jul 2027
“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 Sampaio Corrêa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
No thanks: Allan rejects the move
Sampaio Corrêa 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Maringá wanted more than $1.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Sampaio Corrêa have gone to Botafogo 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.
Match10 Jul 2027
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Marcos Gómez 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Caxias paid $560.0K and Sampaio Corrêa took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and César Martins was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad10 May 2027
Álvaro Montoro 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Gabriel Batista 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Allan
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Arthur Novaes commits to Botafogo for another 4 years.
Loan watch10 May 2027
“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 Botafogo, and 3 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad10 May 2027
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
The dugout10 May 2027
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Alisson stands above it all
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.41 on the card, and the Botafogo support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
30 goals on loan for Rwan Cruz
28 appearances at Ludogorets and the goals keep coming. Botafogo are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Market29 Mar 2027
Juninho has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Botafogo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“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; Botafogo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad29 Mar 2027
At 18 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Botafogo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Batista 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Botafogo told Álvaro Montoro something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Edenílson
“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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Mateo Ponte has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Botafogo 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.
Market29 Mar 2027
The name of Álvaro Montoro keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Botafogo say nothing, which says plenty.