Football Season Guide

Fortaleza is back to prime Brazilian football 14 years after their latest appearance. All thanks to an amazing 2018 display that saw Tricolores fly over every opponent in Série B. And it doesn’t look like their losing any gas in 2019, having had quite some impact in all competitions involved so far. State Championship final to be played and currently on semi-finals of Nordestão (big regional cup) are an exciting start of the year. ‘Tricolor de Aço’ lost some vital assets, like ‘Gustagol’, who was arguably the best player of the entire second division, scoring 30 goals in 2018, 14 of them in Série B. Jussani and Ligger may be missed in defence. However, not only the core of the squad was kept (most notably goalkeeper Marcelo Grohe), some interesting new signings were also made. Junior Santos has already made an impact with 10 goals scored on his first three months. Edinho, Paulo Roberto, Araruna and Gabriel Dias are all set up to impress their parent clubs. The club is capable of getting frequent crowds of over 50k at the majestic ‘Castelão’ which often creates an environment hard to deal for the opponents. The severe injury on the important all rounded attacker Ederson is a major blow. There is a clear lack of a trustworthy playmaker in the squad. Nenê from São Paulo may join in.