Marked for Alejandro Gómez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Apr 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emanuele Zuelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market5 Apr 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Padova heard it as anything else.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Padova
Mattia Bortolussi 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Christian Gambino is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Faitout Maouassa 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.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Padova, and 7 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The team sheet said everything about Kevin Lasagna
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Kevin Lasagna.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Gómez, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Alejandro Gómez: 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.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Fiorentina, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Padova
Marco Pompetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market4 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Arzignano have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Filippo Sgarbi. The answer from Padova has not changed — yet.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Padova
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faitout Maouassa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“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.
Market4 Jan 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Novara will make the call about Francesco Belli this week. Padova have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Andrei Racu is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Padova
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match17 Oct 2026
Virtus Entella made Padova work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 38, 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Faitout Maouassa 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Padova
Luca Di Maggio 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.
The dugout19 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.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Udinese to sit and watch. I want to come back to Padova and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.86, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Padova
Marco Pompetti 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Andrei Racu is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Udinese to sit and watch. I want to come back to Padova and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Gómez, and the manager let it.
Match19 Sep 2026
Honours even between Padova and Empoli
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giovanni Giunti 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Gianmarco Salvatore was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Padova dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vis Pesaro waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Padova is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market14 Sep 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cristian Buonaiuto, and the manager let it.
Market14 Sep 2026
Padova may not be able to give Zé Hugo what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Zé Hugo wants continental football; whether Padova can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Modena leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Luca Di Maggio 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Gianmarco Salvatore after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.