Marked for Fábio Bezerra
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Aug 2029
Fábio Bezerra breaks a bone — 14 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market6 Aug 2029
Only the photograph left for Pedro Cobra
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Cobra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Mineiro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Coronel and Atlético Mineiro agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Lyanco 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 Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Atlético Mineiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Cassierra 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.
Player ratings6 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings6 Aug 2029
Marked 7.82 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Atlético Mineiro had the best player on the pitch.
Match4 Aug 2029
It needed Igor Gomes to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Corinthians, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The terraces6 Aug 2029
Everybody has an opinion about Mateo Cassierra
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Jul 2029
Beaten 0‑1 by Cruzeiro in the one fixture where losing is not allowed. The football was bad enough; the week ahead will be worse.
Squad30 Jul 2029
A fracture rules Fábio Bezerra out for 24 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Mineiro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market30 Jul 2029
Only the photograph left for Iván Román
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Iván Román will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Mineiro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Lyanco 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aleksandar Radovanović is living that version at Atlético Mineiro, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Atlético Mineiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francis Amuzu 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Jul 2029
A fracture rules Fábio Bezerra out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Mineiro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad23 Jul 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Atlético Mineiro may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Alex Santana has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Lyanco 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 Atlético Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market23 Jul 2029
Alex Santana has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético Mineiro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Atlético Mineiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Cassierra 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.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
One of those days for Lyanco
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.84, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Jul 2029
Samuel Rodrigues damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Fábio Bezerra breaks a bone — 41 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Jul 2029
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.
Market16 Jul 2029
The paperwork is done: Vanderlan joins from Bragantino in a deal worth $3.0M. Now comes the harder part.
Squad16 Jul 2029
A move Vanderlan would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vanderlan is living that version at Atlético Mineiro, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market16 Jul 2029
The offer from Atletico Goianiense for Cauã Soares was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market16 Jul 2029
The name of Pedro Cobra has come up in conversations Atlético Mineiro were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Jul 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Samuel Rodrigues
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Mineiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Fábio Bezerra breaks a bone — 52 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Jul 2029
Dudu hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atlético Mineiro can pretend not to have heard.
Market9 Jul 2029
The paperwork is done: Fabinho joins from Bragantino in a deal worth $4.0M. Now comes the harder part.
Squad9 Jul 2029
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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
A move Pavel Meleshin would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Pavel Meleshin is living that version at Atlético Mineiro, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings9 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market9 Jul 2029
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Pavel Meleshin has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Market9 Jul 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Atlético Mineiro have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.