1 for Gustavo Medina, marked 7.50, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Nicolas has agreed terms with Tombense for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Ricardinho 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcos Vinícius was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Ricardinho 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jhonatan Garcia is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Albano. 1‑0 against Remo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Ferroviária training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edson Lucas 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferroviária this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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 Fábio Soares is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Remo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dênis Júnior signs something — a contract at Ferroviária or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Danielzinho has written the date down.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ferroviária, another week without a signature from João Victor.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Ferroviária has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ferroviária they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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 Oct 2026
Words at Ferroviária training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Vinícius 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luiz Henrique. 1‑0 against Coritiba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
95% of the income goes out in wages at Ferroviária
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ferroviária have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ferroviária can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ricardinho 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.
0‑2 to Athletico Paranaense, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Ferroviária training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. JP Martins 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.
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Ferroviária are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutDênis Júnior asks for a word with the manager
Ricardinho 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Eduardo Silva left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ferroviária are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Botafogo go through and Ferroviária go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Danielzinho is living that version at Ferroviária, and it tends to show in the first month.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marcos Vinícius wants continental football; whether Ferroviária can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. João Gadu has agreed terms with Tombense for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferroviária this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Ferroviária training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Vinícius 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.
Minute 85, against Botafogo-SP, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ferroviária they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edson Lucas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Fábio Soares is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and João Paulo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Andrés Salazar is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Fábio Soares did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Ricardinho 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.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Eduardo Silva to a room that had heard them before.
The offer from Shukura for Denilson Goulart was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ferroviária this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Athletic Club will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Ferroviária were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Gustavo Medina 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateus Cantarelli has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Add another name to the list: Shukura have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Denilson Goulart. The answer from Ferroviária has not changed — yet.
In brief
The terracesA long trip to Athletic Club worth making
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
SquadWords at Ferroviária training over how hard people work
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Igor Mendes has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlos Rocha 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Formiga 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luiz Rodrigues is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ferroviária can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gustavo Medina and Ferroviária agree another 4 years.
Gustavo Medina 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Ferroviária training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardinho 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.
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Ferroviária are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.