Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Guilherme Estrella 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamengo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
13 combined actions and 7.46. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“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.” Samuel Porto kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flamengo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamengo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Athletico Paranaense in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Matías Viña has written the date down.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Flamengo would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Jorge Carrascal obliged against Vila Nova. 4‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Flamengo.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamengo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
A brace, and Luis Suárez takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luis Suárez provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jorge Carrascal provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.44 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luis Suárez. 2‑1 against Bahia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 17 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon ran through Matías Viña
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Flamengo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 7.78 for the rest of it.
Marked 9.82 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Lorran at his very best
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Carlos Vinícius’s exile
2‑1 against Fluminense, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Flamengo support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Eduardo Biazus has his answer from Flamengo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
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.” Samuel Porto kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Flamengo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Saúl, marked 7.79, 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Saúl 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamengo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Flamengo asked and Palmeiras said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
418 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Flamengo heard it as anything else.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Flamengo will try again when the window opens; Corinthians may not be selling by then.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamengo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.12 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Flamengo will try again when the window opens; Goiás may not be selling by then.
Lorran 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamengo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Sampaio Corrêa will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Flamengo were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Flamengo will try again when the window opens; Borussia Dortmund may not be selling by then.
Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $378.7K of what Flamengo paid for Hugo Leonardo is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The offer from Amazonas for Eduardo Biazus 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 130 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
$41.3M on the table at Borussia Dortmund. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Palmeiras have accepted the money. What Flamengo do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.39 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer went to Cruzeiro 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 140 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Flamengo asked and Palmeiras said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$620.0K was the most the club would pay and Santos 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamengo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamengo can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Santos 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $687.4K — a club that wants Santiago Paiva enough to be asked twice.
Lorran 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Flamengo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 155 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from CRB for Erick Pulga 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Kauê Furquim enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cesena have kept their man, and Flamengo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Tombense for Saúl 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.
The deal that would have taken Ayrton Lucas to CRB has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Flamengo with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamengo can pretend not to have heard.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
$940.0K on the table at Palmeiras. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Thaciano has just signed for Flamengo, and for once the answer mattered.
$380.0K was the most the club would pay and Santos 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.
“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 Flamengo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Atletico Nacional paid $5.9M and Flamengo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Santos have accepted the money. What Flamengo do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Palmeiras have kept their man, and Flamengo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Renan Peixoto has, at Flamengo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
$20.9M on the table at Atlético Mineiro. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Flamengo have gone to Athletico Paranaense 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.
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Flamengo are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
$1.4M settles it between the clubs for Renan Peixoto
Bragantino have accepted the money. What Flamengo do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The phone has started ringing about Gabriel Brazão again, and this time the name on the line is Atletico Nacional. Flamengo are listening politely and promising nothing.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.09 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
$790.0K on the table at São Paulo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Saúl 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.
It needed Luis Suárez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Bahia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout28 May 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Samuel Porto was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Flamengo dressing room was either.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Flamengo will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamengo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alex Sandro’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Flamengo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Flamengo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Capital runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Samuel Porto after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitão trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Flamengo heard it as anything else.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Lorran 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.
500 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Cruzeiro scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Flamengo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jorge Carrascal has his answer from Flamengo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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 Flamengo, and 3 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Danilo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Andrew 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.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Samuel Porto chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamengo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I watch every Flamengo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Capital runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamengo can pretend not to have heard.
Lorran 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rodrygo Monteiro 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. Daniel Monteiro 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. Rodrão 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.
It has nothing to do with his form and everything to do with how the squad was assembled. He will train all week with a group he is not permitted to play for, which is a strange way to spend a season.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of João Victor
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabriel Brazão signs something — a contract at Flamengo 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 Mateo Sanabria has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and João Victor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Saúl 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamengo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flamengo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Flamengo would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
In brief
BoardroomThe Flamengo production line keeps running
Position 2, 80 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitão trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Flamengo that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Flamengo that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
1‑0 against Cruzeiro, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
4 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.
“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 Flamengo, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Carrascal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabriel Brazão signs something — a contract at Flamengo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Flamengo that is a harder question to answer.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Flamengo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Andrew 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.
8 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamengo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Flamengo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Position 2, 80 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Saúl scored, was marked 7.69, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
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 Jorge Carrascal.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Flamengo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I watch every Flamengo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at São José runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Léo Ortiz signs something — a contract at Flamengo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ayrton Lucas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Flamengo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitão trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabriel Brazão signs something — a contract at Flamengo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Flamengo have no good answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Flamengo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Flamengo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Flamengo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
8 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamengo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flamengo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Commercial news is the news nobody sings about and everything else is paid for with. The board will call it a partnership; the accountants will call it the difference between this squad and a smaller one.
Bayer Leverkusen pay $30.5M, 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Flamengo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Flamengo, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Carrascal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bayer Leverkusen waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Flamengo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Flamengo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Flamengo will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Léo Ortiz signs something — a contract at Flamengo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Flamengo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Aston Villa for Matheus Cunha 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamengo can pretend not to have heard.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The name of João Victor has come up in conversations Flamengo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Henri 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Flamengo has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Matheus Cunha
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Flamengo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Flamengo asked and Santos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Flamengo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Flamengo has been clear about where Carlinhos stands, which is more than many ever get.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flamengo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 2, 80 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Flamengo asked and São Paulo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Flamengo have paid $6.6M for Lucas Perri, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lucas Perri has just signed for Flamengo, and for once the answer mattered.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Flamengo had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Flamengo heard it as anything else.
The offer from Brusque for Dyogo Alves 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.
Flamengo and Penarol have settled on $6.6M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and Flamengo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Flamengo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal with Bahia is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Matheus Cunha 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.
4‑0 against Alianza Atletico, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
The chase for Matheus Donelli ended with $3.3M changing hands and Corinthians out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Flamengo offered $4.1M; Atlético Mineiro said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Saúl scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Flamengo asked and Cruzeiro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $10.4M has been paid because Agustín Giay is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
A brace, and Matheus Cunha takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matheus Cunha provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Flamengo will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Agustín Giay is living that version at Flamengo, and it tends to show in the first month.
In brief
Transfer targetsToo dear: Flamengo walk away from Pedro
2‑1 against Colo-Colo, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Matheus Cunha was at the centre of the description.
Flamengo have gone to Corinthians 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.
CRB have accepted the money. What Flamengo do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Flamengo asked and Vasco da Gama said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 80 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
$10.4M on the table at Palmeiras. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
A brace, and Matheus Cunha takes the afternoon — 8.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matheus Cunha provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamengo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lorran 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.
10 clean sheets from 29 appearances at Capital. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Filip Krovinović 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matheus Cunha signs something — a contract at Flamengo 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 Flamengo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
22 graduates from an academy now rated 11 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Flamengo the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
1‑2 against Deportes Tolima, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
1 for Allan, marked 7.49, 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Flamengo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The goal that put Novorizontino ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Flamengo equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 6 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Flamengo pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Position 2, 76 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
A brace, and Matheus Cunha takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matheus Cunha provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.25 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Matheus Cunha 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.
0‑2 against Deportes Tolima. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luiz Gustavo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flamengo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Lorran 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Flamengo pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Flamengo can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.58 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Vitão 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.
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.
31 appearances at Cuiabá and the goals have stopped going in. Flamengo lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
7 clean sheets from 24 appearances at Capital. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Atlético Mineiro next, and one man in the Flamengo dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
22 graduates, from a department now rated 11 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
3‑0 against Alianza Atletico, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Flamengo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Flamengo pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
Player ratingsJorginho did the work nobody counts — 7.23
7.73, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Flamengo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamengo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
2‑0 against Colo-Colo, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
6 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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 7.77 for the rest of it.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luis Suárez. 2‑1 against Vitória, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 22 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.36 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Flamengo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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 7.62 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Matheus Cunha 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flamengo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
6 shut-outs in 20 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Gabriel Werneck has been having a lot of them.
11 appearances at Palmeiras and the goals have stopped going in. Flamengo lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Flamengo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamengo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luis Suárez. 2‑0 against Cuiabá, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Hugo Leonardo obliged against Londrina. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Flamengo.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.34 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
At 22 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.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Carlos Vinícius had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Flamengo is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“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 dugout21 Aug 2028
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 0‑2 Samuel Porto left the room before anybody could ask which.
Igor Lima 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 else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Derby days make names, and Luis Suárez made his against Fluminense. 4‑2, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Flamengo heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Flamengo and Fluminense in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Flamengo heard it as anything else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luiz Gustavo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flamengo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Matheus Cunha 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.
“I watch every Flamengo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rapid Bucharest runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match5 Aug 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Flamengo. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.27 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamengo can pretend not to have heard.
7.74, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Up for the corner, and Matheus Índio delivers — 7.78
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Matheus Índio scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Flamengo will try again when the window opens; Santos may not be selling by then.
He is 22 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Académica waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Flamengo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 12 gone
That is the business done at Flamengo until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Flamengo have done the hard part with Santos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Flamengo will try again when the window opens; Sport Recife may not be selling by then.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $587.5K — a club that wants Thaciano enough to be asked twice.
Flamengo asked and Santos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matheus Índio has just signed for Flamengo, and for once the answer mattered.
Position 2, 41 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“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 Flamengo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Flamengo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fortaleza have kept their man, and Flamengo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$3.5M was the most the club would pay and Internacional 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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7.67, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Flamengo have paid $88.3M for Luis Suárez, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Luis Eduardo had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Palmeiras for Lorran 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Coritiba have kept their man, and Flamengo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Flamengo have gone to Internacional 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.8M — a club that wants Jairo Ditta enough to be asked twice.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Luis Suárez from Porto for $88.3M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Flamengo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The fee is $7.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Portuguesa drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The offer went to Bragantino 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.
The fee is $3.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Bahia drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The deal with Portuguesa is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamengo can pretend not to have heard.
Flamengo asked and Bahia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brentford have kept their man, and Flamengo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Position 2, 29 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“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 Flamengo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Flamengo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.08 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Flamengo have gone to Bahia 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.
Match17 Jun 2028
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Flamengo. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Flamengo asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Flamengo have paid $14.2M for Erick Pulga, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and São Paulo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Flamengo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Erick Pulga has just signed for Flamengo, and for once the answer mattered.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer from Ponte Preta for Wallace Yan 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Santos; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Flamengo asked and Bahia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Flamengo, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 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.
$2.5M on the table at Vasco da Gama. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.0M — a club that wants Guilherme Estrella enough to be asked twice.
4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
100 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Saúl. 2‑1 against Cuiabá, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A brace, and Matheus Cunha takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matheus Cunha provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorran did not need any: 8.33, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Matheus Cunha 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Matheus Cunha. 3‑1 against Bahia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Viña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorran did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Matheus Cunha 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Flamengo heard it as anything else.
At 21 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Samuel Porto on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorran did not need any: 8.20, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Flamengo heard it as anything else.
Roger Ibañez 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 Matías Viña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Flamengo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings1 May 2028
A brace, and Matheus Cunha takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matheus Cunha provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.09 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Flamengo heard it as anything else.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Roger Ibañez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Viña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Flamengo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jorginho 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Everton Cebolinha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saúl signs something — a contract at Flamengo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Lorran, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Jorginho 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.
7 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
At 21 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.
40 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Guilherme Barbosa has agreed terms with São Luiz for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evertton Araújo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Carrascal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Flamengo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Everton Cebolinha 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Carrascal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The captaincy has been taken off Giorgian De Arrascaeta. Flamengo will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabriel Brazão signs something — a contract at Flamengo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Matheus Cunha 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Matías Viña 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saúl signs something — a contract at Flamengo 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 Matías Viña has written the date down.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Flamengo will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Matheus Cunha 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Flamengo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Viña 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.
Roger Ibañez 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.
The approach has been made to Brondby and the answer is somebody else's to give. These things are settled in private and reported in public, usually in that order.
12 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
10 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.
“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 Flamengo, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamengo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Flamengo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Flamengo that is a harder question to answer.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giorgian De Arrascaeta and Flamengo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Flamengo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Viña 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 bill for the sacking has arrived. Gabriel Mendes leaves with $72.3K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Matheus Cunha has taken the hint, and Flamengo are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
Jorginho 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.
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 Gabriel Brazão is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flamengo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saúl signs something — a contract at Flamengo 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 Flamengo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Flamengo the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
15 graduates from an academy now rated 11 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Flamengo and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Alex Sandro
SquadJorginho is training like a man with a point to make
Jorginho 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.
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.
Nobody at Flamengo 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flamengo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Everton Cebolinha 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 Matías Viña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Feb 2028
11 new faces, and Flamengo 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.
“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 Flamengo, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Giorgian De Arrascaeta is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamengo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Flamengo have no good answer.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Viña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Matheus Cunha 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.
Nobody at Flamengo 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saúl signs something — a contract at Flamengo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hugo Leonardo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jorginho’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Flamengo has been clear about where Everton Cebolinha stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Viña 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 Jorginho is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flamengo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Jorginho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Flamengo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Viña 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 Giorgian De Arrascaeta is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Everton Cebolinha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Flamengo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Progreso had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cuiabá waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Flamengo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Flamengo, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Flamengo can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Flamengo, and it is not being withdrawn.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Flamengo will try again when the window opens; Botafogo may not be selling by then.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Flamengo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Flamengo have gone to Botafogo 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.
Flamengo asked and Atlético Mineiro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Flamengo offered $2.3M; Grêmio said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $9.4M — a club that wants Arthur Cabral enough to be asked twice.
The fee is $5.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Grêmio drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamengo can pretend not to have heard.
$3.1M was the most the club would pay and Vitória 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Carlos Vinícius has, at Flamengo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ceará have kept their man, and Flamengo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Matheus Cunha 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 phone has started ringing about Joaquín Freitas again, and this time the name on the line is Retrô. Flamengo are listening politely and promising nothing.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $64.2M has been paid because Matheus Cunha is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Flamengo offered $11.3M; Corinthians said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matheus Cunha is living that version at Flamengo, and it tends to show in the first month.
Flamengo asked and Grêmio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.8M — a club that wants Robinho Junior enough to be asked twice.
Matheus Cunha 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.
11 goals in 37 games at Remo — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Flamengo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Flamengo have gone to Manchester United 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.
Mirassol have accepted the money. What Flamengo do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 44 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The offer went to Corinthians 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.4M — a club that wants Fabri enough to be asked twice.
Roger Ibañez 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorran did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
At 21 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.57, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“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 Flamengo, and 13 appearances in 43 say he has earned the hearing.
Guillermo Varela 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 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.
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 Jorge Carrascal is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Gabriel Mendes after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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 Jorginho is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Flamengo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Flamengo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Reyes 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Giorgian De Arrascaeta signs something — a contract at Flamengo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
7 clean sheets from 14 appearances at CFR Cluj. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Flamengo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 combined actions and 7.56. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
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 Giorgian De Arrascaeta is on it.
Something was said to Vitão and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
7.74, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
12 combined actions and 6.67. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“I did not go to Samgurali Tskaltubo to sit and watch. I want to come back to Flamengo and fight for my place.” 13 appearances in 39 matches say the rest.