Marked for Níkolas Francisco
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Feb 2027
Alverca come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ponte Preta did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market1 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ponte Preta is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Danilo Barcelos 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Palacios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jaime Vásquez and Ponte Preta agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Capital to sit and watch. I want to come back to Ponte Preta and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ponte Preta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match31 Oct 2026
1‑4 to Caxias, 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
An own goal to forget for Bryan Borges
The one goal a footballer does not get to celebrate and does not get to forget either. His name is in the wrong column and nothing about it was meant.
Match27 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Figueirense, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Palacios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Ponte Preta is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Nov 2026
David Braz 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Ponte Preta 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near João Adriano
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The dugout
The form table has caught Danilo Barcelos
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
David Braz 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thiago Coelho commits to Ponte Preta for another 3 years.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Rodrigo Saravia is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Ponte Preta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Palacios 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Tárik has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Tárik has written the date down.
Market7 Sep 2026
Ponte Preta have let the market know Guilherme Martins can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market7 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Diego Tavares signs something — a contract at Ponte Preta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Murilo asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match15 Aug 2026
4‑0, and Danilo Barcelos took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Ponte Preta tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match12 Aug 2026
Tuna Luso ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Académico de Viseu had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.35, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Bryan Borges 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Matheus Henrique has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of William Pottker at his very best
Marked 8.30. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Ponte Preta.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
The game went through Diogo Ribeiro — 6.55
Marked 6.55 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.