The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fluminense have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” O'Higgins had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Fluminense have gone to São Paulo 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 $1.2M — a club that wants Sidney enough to be asked twice.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fluminense have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: São Paulo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hércules. The answer from Fluminense has not changed — yet.
Fluminense 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.
Everything agreed with Sport Recife, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Fluminense 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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Fluminense may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Moreno 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fluminense has been clear about where Santiago Moreno stands, which is more than many ever get.
Crystopher 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 Fluminense 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fluminense know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Avaí? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Marked 8.71 — 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.
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.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hércules provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Botafogo were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Botafogo tried to reorganise, Fluminense did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense 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 Fluminense, and 4 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Fluminense can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Vinícius Paiva 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fluminense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Gabriel Fuentes 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 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fluminense know it.
“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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jemmes 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.
Crystopher and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 Apr 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 1‑2 Júnior Freitas left the room before anybody could ask which.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jefferson Savarino is on it.
Fluminense moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Júnior Freitas, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alex Machado 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. Sérgio Xavier 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mateus Lopes 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. Branquinho 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.
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.
Position 3, 69 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.
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.
Crystopher 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 Fluminense game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Operário-MS runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Fluminense 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.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fluminense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Guilherme Arana plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
In brief
SquadGabriel Fuentes is training like a man with a point to make
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jemmes 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.
Something was said to Fer Niño and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Matheus Reis 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 Fluminense 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fluminense has been clear about where Marcelo Pitaluga stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fluminense know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch3 Apr 2028
Vitor Eudes’s loan is measured in nothing happening
5 clean sheets from 9 appearances at Metropolitanos. 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Fluminense. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fluminense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Adriano Firmino has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Fluminense have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
Nobody at Fluminense 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 Guilherme Arana signs something — a contract at Fluminense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fluminense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Fluminense will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jemmes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense 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 Fluminense, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jefferson Savarino signs something — a contract at Fluminense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Fluminense 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.
1‑0 against Alianza Lima, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Agustín Canobbio was at the centre of the description.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 97th minute. Alianza Lima will replay every second of the added time for a week.
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.
“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.
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.
Gabriel Fuentes 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 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.
“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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Crystopher 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fluminense know it.
In brief
The dugoutGuilherme Arana has become a man the manager trusts
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fluminense know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jemmes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Keno 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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Guilherme Arana signs something — a contract at Fluminense 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 Fluminense. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Crystopher trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Fluminense the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
3‑0 against Alianza Lima, 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.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Alianza Lima tried to reorganise, Fluminense did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 3, 69 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Oliveirense had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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.
“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 Fluminense, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Fluminense 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.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jemmes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vinícius Paiva 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
25 new faces, and Fluminense 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“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 Fluminense will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The offer from Bologna for Juan Pablo Freytes 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jemmes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Fluminense would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nonato was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nonato trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Fluminense would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Position 3, 69 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.
The offer from Cagliari for Anthoni 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 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.
Crystopher 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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The offer from Ludogorets for Hércules 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.
“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 Fluminense, and it is not being withdrawn.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Rodrigo Castillo was one of the reasons people came, and $18.1M does not replace that by itself.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme Arana 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Santiago Moreno and Fluminense agree another 4 years.
Crystopher 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fluminense told Agustín Canobbio something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
25 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Fluminense had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The fee is $3.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Confiança drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The name of Rodrigo Castillo has come up in conversations Fluminense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vinícius Paiva has just signed for Fluminense, and for once the answer mattered.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Fluminense will try again when the window opens; CSA may not be selling by then.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Matheus Pereira commits to Fluminense for another 4 years.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guilherme Arana 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.
30 games, 4 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Fluminense now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Fluminense have paid $29.5M for Fer Niño, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Fer Niño has, at Fluminense, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The deal with Confiança 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.
Fluminense have gone to CSA 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 chase for Anthoni ended with $1.3M changing hands and Internacional out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Fluminense offered $1.0M; América 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.9M — a club that wants Vinícius Paiva enough to be asked twice.
Fluminense asked and Tigres 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 offer from Racing Club for Agustín Canobbio 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fluminense have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have shaken hands with Internacional; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
$7.2M was the most the club would pay and Cuiabá 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Andrey is living that version at Fluminense, and it tends to show in the first month.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
Fluminense 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.
Santa Cruz have accepted the money. What Fluminense do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Fluminense 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Fluminense have had the benefit 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 Fluminense hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Position 3 on 69 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
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 offer went to Cuiabá 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fluminense heard it as anything else.
The phone has started ringing about Julián Millán again, and this time the name on the line is CSA. Fluminense are listening politely and promising nothing.
$790.0K on the table at América 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.
2‑0 against Penarol, 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.
37 appearances at Volta Redonda and the goals have stopped going in. Fluminense lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Crystopher 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 goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Gabriel Batista now has 22 of them across 192 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Something was said to Julián Millán and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Júnior Freitas after the 1‑1 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 Guilherme Arana is on it.
7 goals in 15 games at Treze — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fluminense updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Fluminense would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fluminense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Next up on the road: Goiás, position 10. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
1‑1 against Melgar, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Rodrigo Castillo was at the centre of the description.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Agustín Canobbio 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 Fluminense pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
7.93, 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.
Agustín Canobbio 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: Rodrigo Castillo. 2‑1 against Botafogo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.44 — 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.
34 appearances at Volta Redonda and the goals have stopped going in. Fluminense lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alisson, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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.” Júnior Freitas kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
1‑1 against Melgar, 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.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Corinthians next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Melgar scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Júnior Freitas to a room that had heard them before.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Fluminense pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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 Jefferson Savarino is on it.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Juan Pablo Freytes scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Hulk 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.
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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 Guilherme Arana is on it.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Júnior Freitas on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Crystopher 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.
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 Hulk is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fluminense know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Atlético Mineiro next, and one man in the Fluminense dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
6 goals in 12 games at Floresta — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fluminense updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Matheus Reis’s exile
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Sportivo Luqueno had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Fluminense did not stop to explain themselves.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“I watch every Fluminense game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rio Branco runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
10 clean sheets from 29 appearances at Volta Redonda. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Júnior Freitas on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at Fluminense 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Position 3, 53 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Fluminense 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 Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Agustín Canobbio 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.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
9 clean sheets from 27 appearances at Volta Redonda. 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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fluminense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fluminense have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fluminense 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jemmes is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutHulk has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fluminense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arthur Ryan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fluminense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Something was said to Hulk and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fluminense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Crystopher and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
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.” Júnior Freitas kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Vitor Eudes 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Júnior Freitas could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutGuilherme Arana has become a man the manager trusts
92 minutes played. Rodrigo Castillo found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Grêmio went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fluminense people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Fluminense and a story that will outlast his contract.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fluminense, another week without a signature from Agustín Canobbio.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fluminense people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The name of Vitor Eudes has come up in conversations Fluminense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Three loans in three years. At some point a club has to decide if I am their player or their asset.” The spell at ABC continues; the message travels home.
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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.83, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Fluminense 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 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. 17 actions, 7.26, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Antônio Carlos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fluminense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
23 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fluminense have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The fee is $6.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Fortaleza drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Crystopher had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
Santos have accepted the money. What Fluminense do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 41, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $333.8K — a club that wants Cédric Soares enough to be asked twice.
$180.0K on the table at Bahia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fluminense and Fortaleza have settled on $6.8M. 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Brasil de Pelotas had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rodrigo Castillo provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
$5.0M was the most the club would pay and Mirassol 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.
The offer from Sarmiento for Matheus Pereira 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.
Position 3, 28 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.
$7.1M was the most the club would pay and Fortaleza 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Gustavo Scarpa is a Fluminense player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 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 Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriel Batista and Fluminense agree another 4 years.
20 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The chase for Matheus Pereira ended with $12.0M changing hands and Fortaleza out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Atlético Mineiro have accepted the money. What Fluminense 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. Mirassol have kept their man, and Fluminense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Hulk 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.
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: Matheus Pereira from Fortaleza for $12.0M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rubén Lezcano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Fluminense, and 7 appearances in 24 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 Hulk is on it.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Köln paid $19.7M and Fluminense took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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.
“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 Fluminense, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Boavista waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Martinelli has gone, the accounts have $19.7M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Sport Recife will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Fluminense were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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 Fluminense, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.67 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fluminense have lost him in all but the paperwork.
At 40 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.37 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fluminense have gone to Paysandu 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.
Fluminense 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.
$1.1M on the table at Athletico Paranaense. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
24 games and 9 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad31 May 2027
John Kennedy 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.
Marked 8.05 — 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Fluminense, and 7 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Richard Wendel obliged against GAS. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Fluminense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fluminense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Martinelli 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Savarino 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.
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.
15 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.
Martinelli 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Savarino 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.
“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 Fluminense, and 3 appearances in 19 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 Hulk is on 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 Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Kennedy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Fluminense game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ceilândia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Derby days make names, and Hulk made his against Flamengo. 1‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Fluminense supporters have already started telling it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. João Loiola will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fluminense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match1 May 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Fluminense. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
The first defeat in 7 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Criciúma; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Savarino 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.
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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Savarino 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 finished 2‑0, and it was John Kennedy’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Fluminense.
Match24 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Fluminense. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Guilherme Arana was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Fluminense will be judged on one thing only.
Rubén Lezcano 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.
“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 Fluminense, and 2 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
13 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.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
At 40 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Fluminense
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Leonardo Nardo 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Savarino 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.
“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 Fluminense, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Fluminense 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matheus Reis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefferson Savarino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Fluminense, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Martinelli signs something — a contract at Fluminense 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 Ganso trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Martinelli 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.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Kennedy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Agustín Canobbio, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
7 new faces, and Fluminense 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Fluminense. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Martinelli 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.
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.
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.
“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 Fluminense, 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 Agustín Canobbio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rodrigo Castillo signs something — a contract at Fluminense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 3, 35 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefferson Savarino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Fluminense game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ceilândia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
9 goals in 24 games at Pafos — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fluminense updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad8 Mar 2027
John Kennedy 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.
Janderson 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 Martinelli signs something — a contract at Fluminense 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.
Hulk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Savarino 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fluminense told Jefferson Savarino something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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 Fluminense, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Fluminense would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
Martinelli 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 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.
“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 Fluminense, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rodrigo Castillo signs something — a contract at Fluminense 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 Fluminense. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Kennedy 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.
“I did not go to Ceilândia to sit and watch. I want to come back to Fluminense and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Squad15 Feb 2027
6 new faces, and Fluminense 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Fluminense would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Fluminense hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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 Martinelli signs something — a contract at Fluminense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Fluminense would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fluminense heard it as anything else.
Martinelli 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Savarino 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.
“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 Fluminense, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Lima has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fluminense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Juan Pablo Freytes and Fluminense agree another 5 years.
Vitor Eudes 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
John Kennedy 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.
“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 Fluminense, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rodrigo Castillo signs something — a contract at Fluminense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Fluminense 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Atlético Mineiro moved on, Ganso reports back to Fluminense, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefferson Savarino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Rubén Lezcano again, and this time the name on the line is Police Union. Fluminense are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I watch every Fluminense game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ceilândia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The offer from Leiria for Lima 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.
Fluminense offered $6.8M; Flamengo 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 name of Martinelli has come up in conversations Fluminense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matheus Reis is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Savarino 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.
In brief
The dugoutHércules asks for a word with the manager
$6.8M was the most the club would pay and Cruzeiro 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.
The deal that would have taken John Kennedy to Internacional has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Fluminense with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Fluminense asked and Ceará said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$2.0M on the table at Coritiba. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.2M — a club that wants Fabinho enough to be asked twice.
Martinelli 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.
Fluminense offered $25.3M; Shakhtar 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fluminense people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Fluminense have paid $5.6M for Gabriel Batista, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Martinelli 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.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fluminense people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal with Botafogo 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.
Position 3, 35 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.
The offer from Cerro Porteno for Juan Pablo Freytes 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.
Fluminense offered $7.8M; Internacional 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vitória have kept their man, and Fluminense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Palmeiras 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.
John Kennedy 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.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
Fluminense offered $28.8M; Zenit 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Huachipato waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletico Paranaense have kept their man, and Fluminense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The chase for Crystopher ended with $1.9M changing hands and Boavista out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $13.3M — a club that wants Anthoni enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Zenit 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 offer from Palmeiras for Luciano Acosta 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.
$7.8M was the most the club would pay and Cruzeiro 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.
The offer went to Internacional 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.
At 40 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fluminense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 40, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefferson Savarino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Martinelli. 3‑1 against Vitória, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.07 — 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.
The goal that put Vitória ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Fluminense equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
6.95, 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Fluminense and Fortaleza, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefferson Savarino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fluminense told Hulk something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kevin Serna has his answer from Fluminense; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Kevin Serna is on 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 Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
At 40 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.
“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 Fluminense hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Thiago Silva 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefferson Savarino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Fluminense, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fluminense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luciano Acosta provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 for Martinelli, marked 7.83, 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 Fluminense hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Fluminense and Cruzeiro in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“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 Fluminense, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hulk provided it, and the 8.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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 Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefferson Savarino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Júnior Freitas, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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 Fluminense, 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 Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Fluminense will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Luís Fernando has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Matheus Reis 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.
Nobody at Fluminense 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ignacio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Internacional go through and Fluminense go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Matheus Pedro has agreed terms with Manaus for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Thiago Silva 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 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefferson Savarino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Fluminense had all but put away. Sport Recife will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fluminense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 120th minute. Santos will replay every second of the added time for a week.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.40 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fluminense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Sunderland for Martinelli 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Wesley Natã is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Savarino 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.
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.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fluminense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The name of Martinelli has come up in conversations Fluminense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Martinelli 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Fluminense 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.
Nobody at Fluminense 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fluminense know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fluminense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and John Kennedy takes the afternoon — 9.44
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. John Kennedy provided it, and the 9.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.50, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Martinelli takes the afternoon — 8.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Martinelli provided it, and the 8.27 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. 8.00 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The offer from Lokomotivi for Matheus Reis 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.
6 goals in one match, Martinelli on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Fluminense and Mirassol.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fluminense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Savarino 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. David Terans had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.33 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Thiago Silva 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Fluminense and Humaitá in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
7.83, 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 Fluminense 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pedrao is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Willian Rodrigues 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.
1 for Martinelli, marked 7.91, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The offer from Maccabi Haifa for David Terans 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fluminense heard it as anything else.
Thiago Silva 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 Jefferson Savarino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Júnior Freitas kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.