From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Aug 2026
Sporting CP did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $12.1M for Fotis Ioannidis, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Dany Mota scores twice — 8.51
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Dany Mota would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dany Mota is living that version at Tondela, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Tondela have done the hard part with Rio Ave, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Corinthians keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Tondela
Dodô 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
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: Fotis Ioannidis from Sporting CP for $12.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Market17 Aug 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Dany Mota is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Darlan Mendes arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Darlan Mendes has, at Tondela, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The paperwork begins on André
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Tondela have done the hard part with Corinthians, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Makan Aïko and Tondela agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dodô in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tondela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Tondela
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Makan Aïko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Manuel Pinto 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David Simoes 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Samuel Ferreira 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rui Conceicao 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Monza 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tomané signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tomané commits to Tondela for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Brayan Medina was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Tondela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Marques 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lecce have kept their man, and Tondela go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Universitario: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
KAA Gent have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tondela are still strangers to each other
6 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.