Marked for André Maldonado
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.61 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market26 Nov 2029
“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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Di Mariano 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 terraces26 Nov 2029
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match24 Nov 2029
Juve Stabia made Padova work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market26 Nov 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Antonio Barreca has his answer from Padova; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
“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; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Sep 2029
Antonio Barreca damages knee ligaments — 32 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Sep 2029
Cup progress for Padova
A 3‑2 win over Bra, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market24 Sep 2029
“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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Tempers go at Padova
Mattia Bortolussi 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.
Match22 Sep 2029
Whatever happens, Padova do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The terraces24 Sep 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alex Castiello 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 ratings24 Sep 2029
Mauro Isopi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.63. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 May 2029
Words exchanged at Padova
Mattia Bortolussi 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.
Squad21 May 2029
A row about effort at Padova
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Pompetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom21 May 2029
Wages eat 107% of everything Padova earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad21 May 2029
“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 Padova know it.
The dugout21 May 2029
Kevin Varas gets it from the manager
“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.
Market21 May 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Matteo Gorelli has his answer from Padova; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout21 May 2029
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.
The dugout21 May 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filippo Manfrin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout21 May 2029
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 Alex Castiello is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Mar 2029
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.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.07, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words exchanged at Padova
Mattia Bortolussi 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.
Match24 Mar 2029
The drought breaks for Padova
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Avellino were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad26 Mar 2029
A row about effort at Padova
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Pompetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Mar 2029
Three points for Padova, 2‑0 the final word against Avellino in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Ninety minutes of Mattia Bortolussi at his very best
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Padova.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“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.
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
Wages eat 93% of everything Padova earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Jan 2029
A fracture rules Fernando Corica out for 117 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad15 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Padova
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Pompetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
Luca Moro gets it from the manager
“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.
Market15 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“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; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
Andrea Sala dropped after a run of poor form
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 ratings15 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.