19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Figueirense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
71 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lucas Stefanello has, at Figueirense, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Figueirense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kauan Richard 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.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Wesley Costa 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Larry Hinestroza has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Figueirense have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Nobody at Figueirense will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutReidiner asks for a word with the manager
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Figueirense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Figueirense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kauan Richard 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.
Squad25 Feb 2036
Alex Aguado 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.
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 Matheus Ribeiro is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Figueirense will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Figueirense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Figueirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Words at Figueirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wesley Costa 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.
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 Lars Sorloth is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bautista Mazieres signs something — a contract at Figueirense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Figueirense. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutJúnior Lima knocks on the manager's door
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Figueirense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Figueirense will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Henrique Maranhão has, at Figueirense, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Figueirense can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Figueirense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kauan Richard 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 Figueirense, another week without a signature from Henrique Maranhão.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Figueirense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Reidiner provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wesley Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Figueirense asked and Caxias said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Figueirense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Figueirense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Renyer 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.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Words at Figueirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Breno 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.
“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 Figueirense know it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Figueirense know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Figueirense will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for Figueirense
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Figueirense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Iverton has just signed for Figueirense, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Figueirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Words at Figueirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Breno 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 gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Agustín Reule 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.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Words at Figueirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Breno 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Nobody at Figueirense will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout20 Nov 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Juan Da Rosa's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Figueirense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Figueirense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Breno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Words at Figueirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carioca 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matheus Ribeiro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
The dugout16 Oct 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Juan Da Rosa's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Breno signs something — a contract at Figueirense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Figueirense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Agustín Reule 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.
“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 Figueirense know it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Júnior Lima has, at Figueirense, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.