Numbered days: São Paulo drop Maik after listing him for transfer | OneFootball

AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR reported on Thursday (7) that the São Paulo board did not take kindly at all to a photo posted by right-back Maik alongside center-back Arboleda. At the time, sources heard by the report said they saw no reason to punish the player. But the fact is that the Cotia academy product did himself no favors…

This Saturday (9), Rui Costa and Rafinha decided to remove Maik from training with the rest of the squad.

The information was first reported by the UOL portal and confirmed to AMT by sources from the top of São Paulo’s football department.

The board found two openings to justify the decision. The first, an obvious one, was Roger Machado’s approval of Igor Felisberto’s performances, considered the real gem from Cotia for the position and who made his professional debut in Thursday’s 0-0 away draw with O’Higgins in the Copa Sudamericana.

However, what really weighed against Maik was his lack of proper fitness and lack of commitment in training. Sources consulted avoided calling it indiscipline. Recently, a journalist from Nova Brasil radio even claimed that the 21-year-old full-back arrived drunk to a training session, but São Paulo denied the report.

Maik played in only one match under Roger Machado: the loss to Atlético-MG on March 18. The last time he was included in the squad was in the defeat to Palmeiras on March 21.

He was set to be included for the match against Millonarios on the 28th, in Bogotá, in the Sudamericana, but reported with muscle pain.

“They are my choices for the moment. I work from a few principles: respect for every athlete’s journey within the club, and also for those who came from elsewhere. But each athlete’s story with me starts being written from the moment I arrive,” he said.

The São Paulo board did not like at all the photo posted by right-back Maik alongside Arboleda at the Barra Funda training center on Wednesday (6).

AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR learned that the entire squad was well aware that the 34-year-old center-back’s decision to leave the club for nearly a month did not deserve even the slightest sign of leniency.

And Maik’s photo alongside his friend was understood in exactly that way. The report heard terms such as “affront” and “indiscipline.”

“The impression it gave was that Arboleda is still interacting normally with the rest of the squad. There was a bit of a lack of common sense,” said a person heard by AMT.

According to what was gathered, Maik took advantage of the fact that the entire football department board was traveling with the squad to Chile, where Tricolor face O’Higgins in the Copa Sudamericana tonight. The full-back was at Reffis undergoing treatment for muscle pain that kept him off the squad list for the match.

Internal information from the club indicates that the “crazy but cool” center-back’s attitude did not go down well with the squad, which repudiated it. However, it seems Arboleda’s affection for the youngsters from Cotia remains strong.

The defender, who returned to Tricolor, is seen as the main figure bringing together the boys from the academy, with his playful, easygoing manner, and he is very popular among the Made in Cotia group. Maik is one of them.

Be that as it may, the board believes there are no grounds for a more effective punishment for Maik. But the photo is expected to earn him the worst kind of punishment: loss of prestige. And the understanding is that no major effort will be made to keep him in the squad. His loss of standing with coach Roger Machado is evident.

AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR revealed last month that the full-back’s camp had received contact from Basel, in Switzerland, and things are moving toward a proposal for the 21-year-old player being made in the next transfer window, during the World Cup.

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