Matheus Lagoa 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Caio Oliveira is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Camilo Saíz 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.
Camilo Saíz 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at São Luiz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Dias 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Everything agreed with Chapecoense, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Camilo Saíz 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at São Luiz, another week without a signature from Camilo Saíz.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Daniel Cordero has come out of that comparison in the side, and São Luiz have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
“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 The request is on a desk at São Luiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at São Luiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at São Luiz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Claudivan 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.
He is 20 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Matheus Fonseca, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at São Luiz than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Pajé has, at São Luiz, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Matheus Lagoa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Claudivan 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Danilo Soares has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vitor Santos has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. São Luiz will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at São Luiz, another week without a signature from Pajé.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Daniel Cordero 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Caio Oliveira
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Caio Oliveira has come out of that comparison in the side, and São Luiz have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a São Luiz man
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Carlos Nogueira's mistake
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 42 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑6 to Uberlândia, 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Edílson has, at São Luiz, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The shirt still fits. Matheus Lagoa is back at São Luiz, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Matheus Lagoa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match15 Aug 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about São Luiz and Uberlândia in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 34 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.07 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 4 of the 12 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Every first appearance is one of two stories, and this was the harder one: 5.78, and a long walk to the tunnel. The second appearance is the one that decides what the first one meant.
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about São Luiz and São José in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
At 16 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sérgio Nardo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Guilherme Braga has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.