The Fortaleza Sentinel
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tomás Cardona 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 Fortaleza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Lucas Gazal stays put
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lucas Gazal and Fortaleza agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Cristiano Bezerra joins the Fortaleza first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cristiano Bezerra is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Alex Bezerra joins the Fortaleza first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alex Bezerra is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Fortaleza promote Tanque from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tanque has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Antônio Moreira joins the Fortaleza first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Antônio Moreira is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Néris 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
No place for Manoel in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Fortaleza are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Pedro Henrique 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.
In brief
- The dugout The manager makes an example of Caio Wesley
- The dugout The manager’s verdict
- Player ratings Nathan Fogaça runs at them all day