From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
A 0‑3 beating by Porto was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Académico de Viseu; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market24 Aug 2026
Kashima Antlers did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $5.0M for Leo Ceara, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Market24 Aug 2026
Varzim pay $6.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Académica, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Lovro Zvonarek and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Estrela da Amadora have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Estrela da Amadora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leo Ceara 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
Ianis Stoica gets it from the manager
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The paperwork begins on Leo Ceara
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Estrela da Amadora have done the hard part with Kashima Antlers, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Marco 09 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Estrela da Amadora is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market17 Aug 2026
Mafra come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Estrela da Amadora did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$2.6M was the most the club would pay and Vitoria Guimaraes were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Estrela da Amadora have gone to Académico de Viseu with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Abraham Marcus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Estrela da Amadora did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Issiar Dramé had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
An offer of $4.7M for Leo Ceara
Estrela da Amadora have gone to Kashima Antlers with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Vitoria Guimaraes this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Estrela da Amadora can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.8M — a club that wants Oumar Camara enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at SuperSport United is saying, and nobody at Estrela da Amadora is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bernardo Schappo and Estrela da Amadora agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Rafa Soares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Estrela da Amadora, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Renan Ribeiro and Estrela da Amadora agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Estrela da Amadora can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 Aug 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 Estrela da Amadora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luan Patrick was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Estrela da Amadora have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Estrela da Amadora, another week without a signature from Renan Ribeiro.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Porto: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.