Pedro Raul lags behind all Corinthians team-mates this season | OneFootball

After returning from a loan spell and standing out for Ceará throughout the 2025 season, striker Pedro Raul was reintegrated into the Corinthians squad by then-head coach Dorival Júnior at the start of this year, with the hope that he could finally show his value since arriving at Timão in January 2024.

However, the player still has not established himself and continues to post performances similar to those from his first spell at Parque São Jorge, even while enjoying his longest run as a starter for the team — six matches — amid Yuri Alberto’s injuries and striker Memphis Depay’s gradual return to full match fitness.

Photo: Rodrigo Coca/Agência Corinthians

According to a survey by the Fiel Imprensa profile on X, formerly Twitter, the No. 18 shirt, among the 33 players in Corinthians’ current squad, has the second-worst pass completion rate (61.15%), the highest rate of possession losses per action with the ball (37.12%), and is the second player who needs the fewest minutes to miss a clear-cut scoring chance (168).

In addition, he also has the second-highest number of big chances missed (6) and ranks as the third player in the squad with the worst expected goals-to-goals scored ratio (xG), at negative 1.80. It is worth noting that, at this moment, the Corinthians coaching staff has the following players available for the attacking sector: Memphis Depay, Kaio César, Gui Negão, Pedro Raul, and Dieguinho.

Yuri Alberto is recovering from a grade 2 injury to the back of his right thigh, while Kayke Ferrari will only return in 2027, as he is recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury in one of his knees. With Pedro Raul available to play, Timão is preparing for its next commitment of the season.

This Sunday (6), at 7:30 p.m. Brasília time, the club from Parque São Jorge will host Chapecoense at Neo Química Arena in a match valid for the 25th round of the 2026 Brazilian Championship. Corinthians currently sit in 10th place with 32 points — eight wins, eight draws, and nine losses — with 26 goals scored and 25 conceded.

Pedro Raul’s path at Corinthians

The striker was signed by Corinthians in January 2024, at the beginning of former president Augusto Melo’s administration, from Toluca of Mexico for five million dollars (R$ 25 million at the exchange rate at the time), split into four installments, two to be paid in 2024 and the rest in 2025. However, Timão renegotiated the start of the payments to only begin at the start of last year. As a result, due to interest, the player will cost Alvinegro eight million dollars (around R$ 42.8 million at the current exchange rate), to be paid in nine installments between 2025 and 2028.

Even with the high investment, Pedro Raul has not managed to establish himself at Corinthians under Mano Menezes, Antônio Oliveira, Ramón Díaz, Dorival Júnior and, so far, the situation remains the same under Fernando Diniz. After getting opportunities and delivering poor performances in 2024, the striker was loaned to Ceará in March 2025. There, he was the team’s top scorer for the season, with 17 goals and two assists in 45 matches. Despite that, Vozão were relegated to Série B and, for financial reasons, did not exercise their option to buy the player.

As a result, the No. 18 returned to Corinthians at the start of 2026 and was reintegrated into the squad, which was still being managed by Dorival Júnior at the time. This year, he has made 33 appearances, with two goals and two assists. Since arriving at Timão, he has recorded six goals and four assists in 72 matches (24 as a starter) — 29 wins, 19 draws, and 24 losses — a 49.1% success rate. His contract with Alvinegro runs until December 2028.

His best season of his career came in 2022, when he scored 26 goals and provided two assists in 50 matches for Goiás. The player began his career at Cruzeiro-RS and later played for Aimoré, Vitória de Guimarães B, Atlético-GO, Botafogo, Kashiwa Reysol-JPN, Juárez-MEX, Goiás, Vasco da Gama, Toluca-MEX, Ceará, and Corinthians.

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