Right after Christmas and before New Year is recognized as the worldwide period for exchanging gifts you didn’t like, even those you smiled when you received them. There’s always a small issue that we can use as an excuse when changing: it’s just the color, the size, the fabric, the mix of balls and stripes that makes me dizzy, etc. and such.
There should be something similar in football for player signings. Many of them, in fact, are announced as gifts for the fans — which no one normally asked for, except the managers. Present player should be able to be exchanged.
This humble scribe read with an air of disbelief this week that Pedro Raul, the handsome striker, decided that he will stay at Corinthians despite the proposals. My initial shock was with the plural of information: proposals (?).
Which manager analyzed Pedro Raul’s season at Corinthians and thought: “my fans need this gift”?
For those who don’t remember, Pedro formed with Yuri Alberto the most elegant duo in Brazilian football during a short period in 2024. Together, they scored 15 goals in the Brazilian Championship, a sum that gave Yuri the tournament’s top scorer (with 15 goals).
Perhaps the suggestion to buy the beautiful striker came after analysis by a scout department — scout departments are the latest imported launch that was acquired with flying colors by Brazilian football. Any purchase that raises doubts among colleagues can be excused as saying that it was made “after detailed analysis by the scouting department”.
Corinthians president Augustus Melo, a man without a plural, is one who loves the crutch of the scouting department. If I’m not mistaken, he even used it with Pedro Raul, when the obvious reason for the purchase was pure seduction. I would buy Pedro Raul too. Anyway…
But I understand handsome Pedro’s decision to want to stay at the club and prove that he is more than just a pretty face (difficult). After all, not every place will pay you more than R$500,000 per month for a few hours of work.
In fact, I read somewhere that Augustus wanted to ask for another reinforcement in the sponsor’s account, à la Memphis. For someone who is full of debt, Augustus is very pious (my daughter is like that too… these children).
Vasco has demonstrated that it also has difficulties when choosing a gift — this scribe even expected a little more from president Pequeno Pedro, who is great at sports commentary. They tried to buy, get this, the bald-haired David Luiz, so-called defender.
Luckily for the Vasco fans, the player himself warned that he would not be able to play for Vasco after the glories witnessed as a Flamengo athlete, almost always from the bench.
Maybe all the clubs could get together around a big table and have a gift exchange. Certainly they would have something to put on the bench, from an Irish full-back to a happy striker from the 2014 World Cup — everyone with a passport, it’s important to have a passport.
Palmeiras has been really smart, who bought a Christmas present (Uruguayan striker Facundo Torres) and is already buying one for the June festival (Paulinho, from Atlético Mineiro, who had surgery and is unlikely to play before May) — until the conclusion From this humble column, the negotiation seemed well underway. It’s a gift for the whole year.
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