The Leiria Courier
Match12 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Leiria
14 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad14 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Jair Silva out for 70 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leiria will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Nobody could get near Jaiminho
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Mauro Lenaerts is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Juan Muñoz 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 Leiria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Aug 2028
A late step up for Gael Alonso
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Leiria
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market14 Aug 2028
One of our own: Duarte Gomes joins the Leiria first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Duarte Gomes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Aug 2028
Daniel Teixeira steps up from the Leiria academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Teixeira 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.
In brief
- Market Nuno Fonseca steps up from the Leiria academy
- Market Leiria promote Pedro Teixeira from within
- Match A bad afternoon for Leiria against Académico de Viseu