AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR
·18 Juli 2026
Two Cotia lads out, one back: São Paulo loan midfielder, CB deal off

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Yahoo sportsAVANTE MEU TRICOLOR
·18 Juli 2026

São Paulo continues to trim its squad for the rest of the season, negotiating the departures of some players who are not part of Dorival Júnior’s plans for the end of 2016.
As AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR reported earlier this week, Tricolor was already in advanced talks to loan 22-year-old defensive midfielder Negrucci to Athletic, a club from Minas Gerais competing in Brazil’s Série B, which was confirmed this Saturday (18), according to UOL.
The deal was agreed as a six-month loan, until the end of the season, with no purchase option included for the Cotia academy product, who is under contract with São Paulo until the end of 2030.
The transfer was backed by the Minas Gerais side’s coach, Alex. The former midfielder worked directly with Negrucci during his time in charge of São Paulo’s under-20 team between 2021 and 2022, a period in which the midfielder consolidated his development before being promoted to the senior squad at Morumbi.
Another academy player without space at Tricolor is 21-year-old forward Paulinho, who had already been cleared by the club to look for a team to join on loan this season.
Also according to UOL, Avaí is interested in the youngster and has opened talks with São Paulo to take the striker to Santa Catarina. For now, there have only been initial talks between the clubs, with no official offer yet from the interested side.
Paulinho stood out in the under-20 team after Ryan Francisco’s promotion to the senior squad, but he suffered an injury just as he was about to be used by the first team and ended up losing space after the returns of Calleri, André Silva, and Ryan himself, who had all been injured.
Finally, center-back Matheus Belém, who has long been sidelined at São Paulo, already had everything agreed with FK Qabala of Azerbaijan, but the deal collapsed.
The Cotia graduate even traveled to the country for trials with the team and also played in a friendly for Qabala. However, the way the club wanted to draft the contract did not please the player, who backed out and chose not to sign the deal, under which he would earn around R$25,000 per month.
In the deal, São Paulo would release Belém on a free transfer, while retaining a percentage of any future sale of the defender.
Now, the player will return to São Paulo to resume training separately from the senior squad at Barra Funda and will look for new clubs to continue his career.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.







































