Defender starts a run in the Corinthians XI again after almost 10 months | OneFootball

Throughout the afternoon of last Sunday (13), Corinthians took the field at the Maracanã Stadium to face Flamengo in a match valid for the 27th round of the 2026 Brazilian Championship, and was beaten 2-1. Corinthians’ goal was scored by forward Gui Negão midway through the second half. The defeat caused Timão to drop to 13th place with 32 points — eight wins, eight draws, and 11 losses — with 28 goals scored and 29 conceded.

The match marked defender João Pedro Tchoca’s second straight game as a starter for Corinthians for the first time in nearly ten months. Against Chapecoense, on the 6th, in Itaquera, the No. 4 had returned to the starting lineup after six months. Facing the Rio de Janeiro side over the weekend, the defender developed in Timão’s youth academy was one of the team’s standout performers in the match, according to numbers from Sofascore, a sports statistics app.

Photo: Rodrigo Coca/Agência Corinthians

Previously, the last time the youngster had started consecutive matches was on November 20, 23, and 30, 2025, in the games against São Paulo (Neo Química Arena — 3-1 win), Cruzeiro (Mineirão — 3-0 loss), and Botafogo (Neo Química Arena — 2-2 draw) in rounds 34, 35, and 36 of the national competition.

In the current season, he has played nine matches, with one goal scored — in the 1-1 draw against Cruzeiro at Mineirão in the fourth round of the Brazilian Championship. In January, Corinthians had even agreed to his transfer to Torino, Italy, but the youngster failed the Italian club’s medical exams — despite coming off consecutive appearances for Timão — and ended up being reintegrated into the squad at CT Dr. Joaquim Grava.

João Pedro Tchoca was promoted to Corinthians’ professional squad after winning the 2024 Copa São Paulo de Futebol Jr against Cruzeiro in the final. That year, he formed a center-back partnership with Renato in the title-winning campaign. Initially, in the first team, he did not get many opportunities under Antônio Oliveira and Ramón Díaz. In August of that same year, he was loaned to Ceará for six months.

At the northeastern club, he played 10 matches and took over a starting role in the final stretch of Série B, becoming an important piece in Vozão’s promotion to the top flight of Brazilian football after two seasons. At the start of 2025, he returned to Corinthians and began to be used frequently by the Díaz family and later by Dorival Júnior, cementing his importance in the squad.

In total, wearing the Corinthians shirt, he has two goals and one assist in 41 matches (32 as a starter), with 20 wins, 12 draws, and only nine losses — a 58.5% success rate. In addition, he was part of the title-winning campaigns in the Campeonato Paulista and the Copa do Brasil, against Palmeiras and Vasco da Gama, respectively. During the Supercopa triumph over Flamengo in Brasília, he was undergoing exams in Italy.

With João Pedro Tchoca available to Corinthians’ coaching staff, Corinthians is preparing for its next commitment of the season. This is because on Wednesday (16), at 9:30 p.m. (Brasília time), Alvinegro will host Argentina’s Estudiantes in the second leg of the 2026 Conmebol Libertadores quarterfinals. In the first match, in La Plata, the teams drew 1-1. If there is another draw, the semifinalist will be decided on penalties.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.