Marked for Willian Bigode
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
At 40 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.32, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play América Mineiro right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at América Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
100 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
He is 23 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Paysandu made América Mineiro work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fernando Elizari, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Rodrigo Pereira kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at América Mineiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filipe Dahora 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market16 Nov 2026
Only the photograph left for Jhonatan Lima
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jhonatan Lima will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around América Mineiro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Gonzalo Mastriani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Ricardo Silva
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Alê 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Gabriel Barros has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at América Mineiro 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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Paysandu in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market16 Nov 2026
The Gustavo story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gustavo signs something — a contract at América Mineiro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at América Mineiro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Age has not caught Willian Bigode yet — 7.93
At 40 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market9 Nov 2026
Heitor has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around América Mineiro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Gonzalo Mastriani 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Eduardo Person’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to América Mineiro.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Bruno Brígido
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. América Mineiro will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Rodrigo Pereira kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alê was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Criciúma spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market2 Nov 2026
Yago Santos has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around América Mineiro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
At 23 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Criciúma made América Mineiro work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Felipe Amaral at his very best
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at América Mineiro.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
112% of the income goes out in wages at América Mineiro
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Val Soares
“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 dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Rodrigo Pereira kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Eduardo Person has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at América Mineiro 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Cristiano Neves damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
He is 23 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Gustavo
“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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Matías Segovia at his very best
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at América Mineiro.
Squad26 Oct 2026
América Mineiro are still strangers to each other
18 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Volta Redonda leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Alê 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Yago Santos
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yago Santos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around América Mineiro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Gonzalo Mastriani 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
144% of the income goes out in wages at América Mineiro
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Chapecoense, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Alê is slowing down
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Willian Bigode has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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 dugout5 Oct 2026
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 Eduardo Person is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Willian Bigode yet — 8.11
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match26 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now América Mineiro have 3 straight wins of it.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at América Mineiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 3‑1 win over Operário Ferroviário, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Gustavo
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gustavo, and the manager let it.
Market28 Sep 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Artur wants continental football; whether América Mineiro can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at América Mineiro
18 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout28 Sep 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.” Rodrigo Pereira, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Willian Bigode yet — 8.36
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.36 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Alê: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” América Mineiro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Maguinho goes up and wins it — 7.63
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.63 for the rest of it.
Market21 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Jhonatan Lima
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jhonatan Lima will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around América Mineiro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Gonzalo Mastriani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Maguinho’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to América Mineiro.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Ricardo Silva
“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 dugout21 Sep 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.” Rodrigo Pereira, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Fernando Elizari 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.