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He doesn’t have great numbers in domestic cricket, but the selectors saw his bravery he repaid their faith

Umar Farooq29-Sep-2022Before his international debut on Wednesday, Aamer Jamal had played just 12 domestic T20s, taking 14 wickets with an economy rate of 9.17. With the bat, he had scored 237 runs (strike rate: 176.86) in two seasons. He had played no games in the PSL. This was essentially the weight of domestic performances that secured his national selection. On the surface, those numbers don’t scream out Pakistan selection but picking him is a reminder of how Pakistan often pick their players. This decision is driven by an instinctive understanding – often on intangible qualities like a player being (brave, big-hearted) rather than just taking player performance into account.So though his numbers may not have added up to a selection, the two overs he bowled against England on Wednesday night at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium hinted at his potential. Those moderate domestic stats took a back seat with him rising to the occasion on the international stage.The game was crucially poised until the 14th over. Moeen Ali was intent on taking England deep into their faltering chase of 146. Pakistan had used five bowlers. Mohammad Nawaz, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Wasim had six overs remaining between them, and Jamal was yet to bowl – which meant either he wouldn’t bowl, or was destined to bowl the difficult overs.This was the moment Pakistan captain Babar Azam pulled him in to bowl the 15th. He made an impression immediately, picking up his first international wicket (Sam Curran) off his second ball in international cricket. He ended up conceding only five runs in that over, and never let the momentum slip away. He wasn’t given another over until the final one, left to defend 14 against Moeen.Hands on their heads, standing on their toes, the home fans at the stadium weren’t sure if the new boy could pull this off. He would never have been in such a pressure situation on the field before. Nobody really knew what he was capable of.”Bobby bhai [Babar] asked me ‘what will you do’ and I said ‘I will bowl wide yorkers,'” he recalled in a video for the PCB website. “He asked ‘can you do it?’ I said ‘yes definitely I can.’ He then gave me the field and insisted to stick with the plan regardless of the wide ball.”Jamal managed to find the wide line as planned, and executed as he meant to, thus keep England just out of reach. He bowled four dots, conceding just eight runs. It wasn’t a typical Pakistan pace flurry. No staring, no trash talk, no bullying, just some smart and accurate medium-pace bowling, sticking to a plan. The nearly full Gaddafi stadium, with oscillating emotions, erupted eventually as Pakistan took a series lead of 3-2 with two matches remaining.

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Who is Aamer Jamal? Pakistan selected two uncapped players for this series – the other was Abrar Ahmed, the mystery spinner who has played in the PSL and who we might see later on. Neither are in the T20 World Cup squad, but Pakistan have taken the home series as an opportunity to unearth a fast-bowling allrounder with Faheem Ashraf, someone they seemed to have invested in, suddenly out of favor.The selection of Jamal in the playing XI however was never guaranteed as it was always subject to circumstances around how the ongoing series panned out. Naseem Shah got pneumonia and was hospitalised – and is now Covid-19 positive – making room for Jamal to make his debut. It wasn’t until the eve of the fifth T20I that he was told about his upcoming debut. “I have so many happy words inside me which I can’t articulate right now, this is the kind of excitement about my debut,” he said. “When I was told by Saqi [Saqlain Mushtaq, head coach] I was like almost crying. I was asked about my plans and I said that I will only do what I have in my command and I won’t go out and do what I can’t. I will stay within my strengths and whatever is natural to me I will stick to it.”

‘It wasn’t a typical Pakistan pace flurry. No staring, no trash talk, no bullying, just some smart and accurate medium-pace bowling, sticking to a plan.’

Born in Mianwali but raised in Rawalpindi, Jamal played most of his cricket in and around Islamabad. He broke into the domestic circuit in 2013 playing in the inter-region Under-19 and departmental Under-19 tournaments. He first shot to prominence with the Pakistan Under-19 team, taking 30 wickets at 16.96 in five matches in the 2014 inter-regional tournament. He also played a three-match series against the touring Afghanistan Under-19s – a side that included Rashid Khan – but Jamal didn’t make much impact and faded away.He remained in the lower reaches of domestic cricket before resurfacing to make his first-class debut in 2018 for Pakistan Television, picking up 17 wickets at 28.82 and in the last two seasons – 2020 and 2021 – he played 10 games to take 11 wickets at 47.18 and scored 341 runs, with one half-century. Most of his runs were scored at No. 8. The Pakistan call-up has been unexpected, but he’s begun as if he means to make the most of it.

One by Wasim Akram in his pomp? Mitchell Johnson in 2013-14? Holding to Boycott? Our panelists pick the spells that keep batsmen awake at night

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Nov-2020Rabbit HolesAndrew “Gnasher” McGlashan, deputy editor: Who takes the new ball?Karthik Krishnaswamy, senior sub-editor: Where’s Osman?McGlashan: Picking the new cherry from the box and making sure his hair looks like Wasim Akram’s.Osman Samiuddin, senior editor: Right, I’m going to start with two pics. Sorry, Brighton library but I “borrowed” this book back in the day, and it was actually the first book I read on fast bowling.Gollancz/WitherbyMcGlashan: What are the fines usually, 50p per day?Samiuddin: Give or take. Simon Wilde at his peak here, in actually broadening the definition of scary fast bowling. Until then, scary fast bowling was short, fast, bouncers. By the time he wrote this, reverse swing at high pace had come in.Krishnaswamy: I’ve got this quote, from Frank Tyson: “To bowl quick is to revel in the glad animal action; to thrill in physical prowess and to enjoy a certain sneaking feeling of superiority over the other mortals who play the game.” But I also wanted to ask: are we talking about batsmen being scared, or the viewer, cowering behind the sofa?Samiuddin: Probably both… I was going to say that on certain days, the prospect of Jimmy Anderson bowling to you is scarier than a faster bowler.McGlashan: Does a big ‘tache help?Samiuddin: Interesting point about the ‘tache. Merv Hughes had it, and played fully to the stereotype of scary fast bowler, but he wasn’t really, was he? Sarfraz Nawaz too had the hair and the moustache, but actually not the pace at all. Even though he fully tried to get into the bouncer wars in the ’70s. I mean him running in, he looked like a penguin on fire and then he bowls a bouncer at, I don’t know, 126kph probably.Krishnaswamy: Sarfraz Nawaz had the ‘tache, Imran Khan never did, and Waqar Younis ditched his very early.McGlashan: I think if you asked the average cricket follower what scary was, it would be the physical danger side of it.Samiuddin: Yeah, so I think the point Wilde makes in his book is that the batsmen were scared (at the time he wrote it) of their toes being crushed. Though I don’t think that would compare to a proper mortal threat of getting hit on the head.McGlashan: Mitchell Johnson. That [Ashes] series in 2013-14 was among the most consistently hostile performances I’ve seen.Krishnaswamy: Yeah, I was watching that video an hour or so back, and it’s amazing how many batsmen are so clearly worried about the threat of the bouncer – they’re so often getting out to other balls, but they’re all the way across their stumps sometimes, or not getting forward at all. And then he carried it forward into the South Africa tour that followed. In that 2013-14 season, he took 59 wickets at 15.23. Rest of his career, he averaged 31.46.McGlashan: As a small aside – think we might have a few! – Akram bowled one of the spells of short stuff that Alec Stewart said was the fastest he ever faced: Oval 1996.Samiuddin: Akram actually did this quite often. For all the skills that he had, when he wanted to crank it up, he could get properly nasty.Krishnaswamy: Isn’t there a photograph of the ball passing Stewart’s head when he’s utterly contorted by Akram? Or was that Michael Atherton?McGlashan: YepDo fear the ripper: just the anticipation of a bouncer from Mitchell Johnson saw batsmen fall to other balls in the 2013-14 Ashes•Getty ImagesSamiuddin: There’s a famous, famous spell that he bowled to Steve Waugh in Rawalpindi I think, in the 1994-95 series. Waugh says it was the nastiest spell he’d faced – everything up into his armpit. I think he said it was the fastest spell he’d faced.McGlashan: Plenty of Atherton doing the same, mind… usually to Curtly Ambrose or Courtney Walsh. Or famously to Allan Donald, Trent Bridge, 1998.Krishnaswamy: The most visibly terrified person on the field that day seemed to be Mark Boucher. Who was 20 or something but looked 15.Samiuddin: I’m going to drop this video in here just because the title of it is what should be the title of this rabbit hole: Akram just wants to kill: “He [Waugh] didn’t middle a ball in my spell – I was beating him and he was leaving a lot of balls. But he stood there and got 98 and that was very, very impressive. I just wanted to kill him, as a bowler. That was probably the quickest I’ve ever bowled.”McGlashan: While we are on Pakistan fast bowlers (and when aren’t we?) how soon does Shoaib Akhtar feature?I don’t think Brian Lara has ever said as much but could he have faced a scarier bouncer than the one Akhtar felled him with? Or the one Akhtar hit Gary Kirsten with?And if we are talking about the feet being in danger, Ashley Giles was never playing that one in 2005.Samiuddin: The thing about Akhtar was his action as much as the pace. He used to bring his arm through from weird angles and there was that whole whippage, not unlike Jasprit Bumrah actually, which made it difficult to pick up. Like Brett Lee’s classical, beautiful action made his bouncer at least easier to pick, if not play. But with Akhtar, it was on you before you knew it because you saw it so late.McGlashan: There was also this spell vs Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting at the WACA that they talk about being as quick as they faced.Krishnaswamy: That tour, he often threatened to concede four byes without the ball bouncing a second time.Samiuddin: I’ve just gone down a Akhtar rabbit hole here, but I remember hearing about this spell, to Matthew Hayden, in a tour game. Check the bouncer at 1:19. He doesn’t have time to move. But Hayden being Hayden, doesn’t even flinch after getting hit. But then Akhtar gets him out with a slower ball (lolz) later.McGlashan: I’ve always quite enjoyed the fact that when he broke 100mph at the 2003 World Cup, Nick Knight just tapped the ball to the leg side.Samiuddin: Haha, it was like the least scary ball Knight had ever played.On unusual actions, though, the daddy of all the scariest I guess was Jeff Thomson. One of the pics I love the most is of Thommo.The quick and the dread: Tony Greig at the receiving end of a Jeff Thomson missile in the 1974-75 Ashes•Patrick Eagar/Getty ImagesHere’s Mark Nicholas writing about that delivery to Tony Greig: “I watched in awe as Thomson made the ball fly from the hard pitch and Rodney Marsh took off to catch it. Marsh and the slip fielders appeared to be miles back, near 30 paces at a guess. There were no helmets or chest guards, just flimsy thigh pads, basic gloves and pink, plastic abdominal protectors. Men were battered, bruised, bloodied and broken.”Man, Greig must have been at the receiving end of some scary-ass spells.Krishnaswamy: Look at the slip cordon (plus short leg) at the start of this video.Samiuddin: Looks at the start like he’s just bowling some nice, gentle floaters. Mark Ealham-esque.McGlashan: I suspect David Lloyd found that spell from Thommo that still gets played nowadays quite scary.Krishnaswamy: There’s a real physical danger to fast bowling that we were reminded of when Phillip Hughes died, but the game seems to have gone back to a pre-2014 state in terms of bouncers being bowled frequently, even to lower-order batsmen. I thought that might change, but it really hasn’t. During the pink-ball Test in Kolkata last year, I thought India’s fast bowlers went overboard with the bouncer, and thanks to concussion subs, the game ended with Bangladesh’s second-innings scorecard featuring 12 batsmen and two DNBs: I think umpires do need to step in more when fast bowlers constantly bounce tailenders. One of the least edifying things in cricket is spectators cheering when fast bowlers go overboard against the tail. Video titles with the word “kill” in them are part of the same problem.Samiuddin: Does it happen to the degree it was happening in the ’70s, though? In fact, Wilde’s book is especially good at documenting the kind of moral crisis that gripped cricket around that time. Cricket just couldn’t figure out what to do with bouncers, and especially a sustained barrage vs tailenders. Bob Willis rearranged Iqbal Qasim’s jaw once, famously, and that was at the centre of the whole debate at the time.Krishnaswamy: I don’t think it happens as often as it used to, but I’m not sure that’s been figured out even after Phillip Hughes.Samiuddin: Part of the discussion around bouncers, though, filtered into this attitude of painting the great West Indies pace attack as thugs, which was completely unfair and a little racist.Krishnaswamy: Oh yeah. As if crowds never chanted “Lillee, Lillee, Lillee, kill, kill, kill.”Neil Wagner: you say bouncer, he asks how high•Getty ImagesMcGlashan: I do think some umpires these days have quite a liberal interpretation of the two bouncers per over. Neil Wagner, for example, is outstanding at what he does and gets so many just on the spot, but it’s a fine line to judge at pace.Samiuddin: I feel Wagner is actually just a freak, right, in his control over that length?Krishnaswamy: Yup. It’s amazing how much control he has over the height it gets up to.Samiuddin: I can’t remember a bowler like him, who so specialises in that particular length. And I think, though umpires know better, he doesn’t cross the line.McGlashan: Yes, you are probably right.Krishnaswamy: Even the rest of the New Zealand attack now bowls like him when the ball is old and nothing’s happening. Though they do it to control runs rather than scare batsmen, which is one of the weirdest tangents in the history of the bouncer.Samiuddin: So true. “Hi, I’m the slower-ball bouncer and I hate myself.” On bouncers at tailenders, though, Aaqib Javed did it to Devon Malcolm also in 1992 at Old Trafford. Gnasher do you have memories of that? When Roy Palmer intervened and there was the whole bust-up with the umpire as well?McGlashan: That might be the one I’m thinking of, actually.Samiuddin: But we’re speaking here of Malcolm as batsman, without recalling his great scary spell…McGlashan: Yes, I was going to bring him in. Obviously 9 for 57, but two others as well: 1993 at The Oval vs Australia, only a handful of overs but very rapid to Slater and Taylor, and then Perth 1995. England dropped ten catches, but Malcolm broke Slater’s thumb and it was flying everything.Samiuddin: I loved Malcolm’s action. In a very different way to Michael Holding and Jofra Archer, he also cranked up serious pace without looking like he was putting that much into it.McGlashan: The dismissal of Cronje at The Oval in 1994 remains one of my favourite – Cronje playing the perfect forward defence with the stumps splattered.Samiuddin: I wonder, with all the advances in the game and the training, if batsmen still get scared by a really quick bowler? I guess after Phil Hughes there’s been a little bit of a rejig in how they think.Krishnaswamy: The helmet’s changed techniques, though, so they get hit more often.McGlashan: The reverse is, we have no evidence of how scary some spells from earlier decades were. Graham Gooch said the only time he ever feared for his life was facing Patrick Patterson in the 1986 series. There’s no footage anywhere. But there is this amazing piece by Rob Smyth.How many lethal deliveries from the ’70s and ’80s remain unseen?•Getty ImagesSamiuddin: Apparently, from the mid-’70s until England’s tour in 1990 – broadcast on Sky – Tests in the Caribbean were never broadcast in full. Local broadcasters would only use clips for their news that evening. Even that famous Michael Holding over to Geoff Boycott is probably shot from the members’ area at the old Kensington Oval, and it doesn’t really tell us what it was like. The only way we know how special that over is is because the people who were there tell us.Krishnaswamy: Speaking of camera angles, the BBC’s behind-the-batsman angle made Malcolm Marshall appear even more skiddy than he was. The ball to Gooch genuinely seems to speed up off the pitch.Samiuddin: I love the line from Allan Donald further down the rail on the right there – from one of our interviews, actually: “Marshall was outthinking you all the time.” How do you beat that?McGlashan: Before they turned the square at Old Trafford, the dressing rooms were side-on. Imagine watching a quick spell like that.Samiuddin: The worst.McGlashan: Actually, who was the West Indian cricketer they said was faster than anyone but never/barely played? John “The Dentist” Maynard:

“Maynard, to this distant long-wave listener of , typified an era when a tour of the West Indies was the ultimate examination of body and soul. The arrival of a Test team in the Caribbean, particularly if it had come from England, was a call to arms for every aspiring cricketer in the region. Long before Duncan Fletcher turned tour games into a 12-man-a-side glorified net session, Maynard and his cronies were cranking up the pace and injecting the venom, eager to advance their claims to Test selection, but equally determined to crush the tourists’ morale before they embarked on the main event.”

Krishnaswamy: But our topic is scary fast bowling in Test cricket, no?Samiuddin: I think we can be loose and fluid. To the point where I’m going to foray briefly into “scariest batsman”. There’s a famous Akram story from his first tour of the West Indies in 1987-88, when he started roughing up Viv Richards with some short balls at one stage, on the insistence of Imran Khan, and then sledged him a bit too. And Richards walked up to him and just said, “I’ll see you outside at the end of play.” Back in the dressing room, post-play, Akram was, ahem, a little scared and had to enlist Imran’s help in dousing the situation when Richards came knocking.McGlashan: Bit like his line when he said to the England captain – can’t remember off the top of my head which one – that the team sheet didn’t matter.Krishnaswamy: I’m willing to bet 90% of the Viv stories are apocryphal.Samiuddin: Cautiously 90%. While we’re on West Indies batsmen, the quickest bowler Lara faced was one of the biggest what-ifs: Mohammad Zahid.McGlashan: Mohammad Zahid, there’s a good one to pluck out.Is Brett Schultz worth a mention?Wasim Akram learnt that you bounce Viv Richards at your own peril•Getty ImagesKrishnaswamy: Definitely.McGlashan: Him and Donald together, albeit very briefly, was quite a pairing.Samiuddin: Look at us, talking about Donald’s partners and opponents and not Donald himself.McGlashan: Indeed 1994-99 (ish) was there anyone quicker? Good era for quicks, mind you.Krishnaswamy: Younis wasn’t so quick anymore in that phase.Samiuddin: Donald’s length was a killerMcGlashan: But if we keep it on spells, there was one he bowled to the Waughs (Sydney, I think)Samiuddin: Uff, he’s so on it right from the start. Love the Benaud line in that link, after Lawry says: “Donald has given him the tickle up.” Benaud deadpans: “Wasn’t a tickle.”McGlashan: Great fast bowling needs great commentators.Krishnaswamy: Okay, so let’s each nominate the scariest spells we’ve seen, then wrap up.McGlashan: A single spell, or can we stretch it to a “performance”?Krishnaswamy: Either.Samiuddin: Shoaib Akhtar to MS Dhoni, Faisalabad 2006. Also because he threw in a beamer and was just losing it. Dead pitch on which both sides made 6000 or something in their first innings. Akhtar, probably in his fittest stretch (in terms of lack of injuries), playing his fifth Test in a row, just ruffled up Dhoni so bad, hitting 95mph.McGlashan: And ruffled Dhoni’s hair.Samiuddin: Dhoni won it, though, and ended one of the spells with a magnificent hooked six that sounded properly like a gunshot off his bat in the open-air press box.Krishnaswamy: It remains one of the most spoken-about sixes of his career!McGlashan: I’m going to stick with my earlier mention (and maybe still a hint of recency bias, which I know KK loves) but Johnson 2013-14 Ashes. Five Tests, never slowed down. Albeit England never batted that long.Krishnaswamy: Ha! I’m going even more recent. Jasprit Bumrah got 5 for 7 in the second innings in Antigua last year, bowling mostly outswing (inswing to the left-handers). Then he got 6 for 27 in the first innings in Jamaica, including a hat-trick, bowling mostly inswing. It was a very average West Indies line-up, but it was the kind of scary where you don’t expect any batsman to survive too long.McGlashan: Anyway, we’ve done well to end this talking about MS Dhoni [].Rabbit Holes

After three years away from managing, Dusty Baker is back—and his return will take on an international flavor.

Baker will manage Nicaragua in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, the country's baseball federation announced Monday afternoon. It will be the 76-year-old's first managerial gig since his retirement from the Houston Astros.

Nicaragua is currently ranked No. 16 in the World Baseball and Softball Confederation men's baseball rankings. The team finished 19th in its first ever appearance in the tournament in 2023.

Baker managed the San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals and Astros during his long Major League Baseball career. He won 2,183 games in 26 seasons, along with three pennants and a World Series title in 2022.

The 2026 edition of the WBC is scheduled to begin on March 5. The Nicaraguans will be grouped with the Dominican Republic, Israel, the Netherlands and Venezuela in pool play in Miami.

Batter Antum Naqvi is in line for a Zimbabwe debut in their upcoming one-off Test against Afghanistan after being named in their 16-man squad. Fast bowler Tinotenda Maposa, who has played 14 white-ball internationals for Zimbabwe, is another potential debutant.Left-arm seamer Richard Ngarava and allrounder Brad Evans, both of whom were not part of Zimbabwe’s most recent Test series against New Zealand in July-August earlier this year, returned to the squad. Evans, 28, has played a solitary Test so far, which came in February 2023.Of Indian and Pakistani descent, Naqvi was born in Brussels, Belgium and moved to Australia when he was four, where he earned a commercial airline pilot’s license. He put his aviation career on hold, as per BBC Sport, to pursue cricket. He has recently qualified to represent Zimbabwe, according to a statement from Zimbabwe Cricket.Related

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Naqvi is one of the brightest emerging talents in Zimbabwe, boasting an average of over 60 in both first-class and List A cricket. In January 2024, he became the the first player from a Zimbabwean team to hit a triple-century at any level of representative cricket. Overall, he has racked up 1626 runs in 26 first-class innings at an average of 67.75 and strike rate of 72.65.In his most recent first-class fixture, he scored 68 and 108, his sixth hundred in the format, for Zimbabwe A against MCC in Harare last week.Sean Williams, Trevor Gwandu, Newman Nyamhuri, Clive Madande and Vincent Masekesa all were left out from the previous Test squad. It is understood that Williams missed out due to personal reasons.Craig Ervine will captain the team, with Brendan Taylor, Sikandar Raza and Blessing Muzarabani lending more experience to the team.Harare will host the one-off Test against Afghanistan from October 20 to 24. This will be Zimbabwe’s first international assignment since they secured qualification for the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

Zimbabwe squad

Craig Ervine (capt), Brian Bennett, Tanaka Chivanga, Ben Curran, Brad Evans, Roy Kaia, Tanunurwa Makoni, Wellington Masakadza, Tinotenda Maposa, Blessing Muzarabani, Antum Naqvi, Richard Ngarava, Sikandar Raza, Tafadzwa Tsiga, Brendan Taylor, Nick Welch

Mitchell Swepson has claimed 10 wickets for the match to lead Queensland to a comfortable fourth-day Sheffield Shield victory over South Australia

AAP18-Oct-2025Mitchell Swepson has spun Queensland to a seven-wicket win over South Australia, producing the finest match of his Sheffield Shield career in Adelaide.Swepson ran through the hosts’ tail on Saturday to have them all out for 308 in their second innings, leaving Queensland a fourth-innings chase of 139.Usman Khawaja fell for a duck and Marnus Labuschagne was lbw for 18 following his first-innings century, but 72 not out from Angus Lovell ensured the Bulls won easily.From day one at Adelaide Oval, Swepson was at the centre of Queensland’s success, with 10 wickets for the match and second-innings figures of 6 for 109.The former Test spinner did the bulk of the damage on the opening day for the Bulls, taking four wickets in a collapse that left South Australia falling from 133 for 2 to 188 for 7.And after Labuschagne’s 159 gave Queensland a 170-run first-innings advantage, it was Swepson who again did the damage on days three and four.The legspinner took apart South Australia’s top three, trapping both Conor McInerney (46) and Henry Hunt (36) lbw, before Nathan McSweeney (26) edged him to slip.Then on Saturday Swepson beat Nathan McAndrew in flight to have him well caught by Hugh Weibgen running back at mid-off.He also removed a sweeping Wes Agar caught behind on 19, before Lloyd Pope hit him straight to Weibgen at cover to end South Australia’s second innings.Swepson’s haul was his second 10-wicket haul, after doing likewise against New South Wales in 2020.At that point Swepson was considered the country’s second-choice spinner, before falling back down the pecking order in recent years.The 32-year-old’s 6 for 109 in the second innings also marked his career-best figures, as Queensland made it one win and one draw to start the season.

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O Fluminense venceu a Portuguesa neste domingo (21), pelo Campeonato Carioca. A partida aconteceu às 16h (de Brasília) em Bangu, no Estádio Moça Bonita. As péssimas condições do campo e a alta temperatura por conta da escolha do horário da partida revoltaram Thiago Silva, que se pronunciou nas redes sociais.

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O zagueiro do Chelsea, que vive uma novela com o Fluminense sobre a volta após o término do seu contrato, postou um “story” no Instagram reclamando das condições da partida do Cariocão. A foto foi apagada posteriormente, confira:

O estádio fica em Bangu, na zona oeste do Rio de Janeiro, e é famoso pelo alto calor que faz na região. A escolha do horário da partida foi no mínimo inconsequente da parte da organização do campeonato. Além disso, a qualidade do campo prejudica muito a partida técnicamente. A grama em Moça Bonita estava muito alta.

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Pedro Geromel está prestes a completar 10 anos no Grêmio, uma década com história de títulos e idolatria. Por outro lado, o futuro do atleta segue indefinido, com o contrato se encerrando no dia 31 de dezembro.

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No dia 23 de dezembro de 2013, o Tricolor oficializou a contratação de um desconhecido: o zagueiro Pedro Geromel, do Mallorca, da Espanha. O atleta, na época com 28 anos, havia, até então, feito toda sua carreira profissional na Europa, e chegava para atuar pela primeira vez no Brasil.

+Fim da novela? Renato Gaúcho indica permanência no Grêmio para 2024

O zagueiro já identificado com o clube, não teve muitas oportunidades nesta temporada por conta das lesões, mas tem o desejo de permanecer no Imortal, assim como o clube tem o desejo da permanência do atleta. 

Em entrevista ao GE, Geromel disse querer terminar sua carreira no Grêmio, onde tem toda uma história.

– Conversamos, entendo a situação que estou, não vou ganhar o quanto eu ganho, vamos ter que ter uma readaptação salarial porque não estou jogando como jogava antes, é natural. Se for do interesse, gostaria de continuar. Sempre deixei claro que quero terminar a carreira no Grêmio. Primeiro só iam definir a parte do treinador, depois sentar e conversar. Quando os dois querem, não tem como não acontecer – disse o zagueiro.

INFLUÊNCIA DE RONALDINHO GAÚCHO

A chegada de Geromel à equipe tem um ponto curioso. O jogador estava no Mallorca e atuava com Giovanni dos Santos, mexicano revelado pelo Barcelona. Esse, por sua vez, havia jogado com Ronaldinho, que acabou como “intermediário” na negociação

Geromel contou à Rádio Gaúcha que estava jantando com o companheiro de time, que lhe disse que Ronaldinho queria o telefone do zagueiro. Ele ficou espantado: “Está de sacanagem?” Mas depois entendeu que o objetivo era que um dirigente do Imortal queria o contato para tentar uma negociação.

– Nunca falei com Ronaldinho sobre isso. Meu empresário Mayckel Portela jogou com Ronaldinho na base do Grêmio. Ele foi a Mallorca a pedido do Rui Costa, que era diretor esportivo do Grêmio. Tinha me visto jogar na Alemanha e na Espanha e tinha interesse em me repatriar para jogar em 2013, quando o Luxemburgo era o treinador – revelou o zagueiro.

Na ocasião, o clube espanhol não liberou o zagueiro, e o negócio não avançou. Quase um ano depois, porém, Geromel desembarcou em Porto Alegre para dar início a uma linda história.

Com 384 partidas com a camisa 3 do Grêmio, Geromel ocupa o 13º lugar dos jogadores com mais aparições pelo clube. Se somar mais 40, entra no top-10. Para isso, porém, precisa confirmar a renovação por mais um ano. A situação segue indefinida.

O SEU LADO TORCEDOR E A POSSÍVEL APOSENTADORIA

O 2023 de Geromel foi difícil. Logo na pré-temporada, ainda em janeiro, sofreu uma lesão no joelho esquerdo. A recuperação foi mais demorada que o esperado, e a estreia na temporada aconteceu somente em agosto. No total, foram sete jogos do zagueiro. 

Sematuar, coube a Geromel assumir outro lado, o de torcedor. Enquanto se recuperava, levava os filhos à Arena para acompanhar as partidas, uma experiência diferente e especial. 

– Esse ano tive a infelicidade, ou felicidade, de ir com meus filhos assistir muitos jogos. Vou com eles na Arena, torcem, cantam as músicas, alentam. Preferia estar em campo, a agonia de fora é surreal, mas foi muito legar ter vivido isso com meus filhos – exaltou.

Embora ainda não tenha definido sua situação no clube, Geromel se mostrou otimista com um desfecho positivo. Chegou a confirmar que “dinheiro não é problema”, visto que uma das questões envolvendo a renovação passa por reduzir seu salário.

– Esse ano tive uma lesão muito difícil no joelho e agora estou 100% recuperado, mas só agora estou recuperado. Também não queria parar de jogar na maca, não é legal de se fazer. Tenho essa vontade, essa ambição de me aposentar jogando – afirmou.

O atual vínculo do zagueiro se encerra no dia 31 de dezembro. O futuro de Geromel será definido nos próximos dias. A definição vai indicar se os 10 anos do atleta no clube terá mais um capítulo, embora a história de um dos maiores jogadores da história do Grêmio já esteja escrita há muito tempo. 

The Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS era at Manchester United has been a rollercoaster of emotions to date.

The old regime were hardly ideal but trophies were a regular occurrence and under the new ownership, it has not been smooth sailing whatsoever.

Erik ten Hag has gone but perhaps they might have been better off sticking by the Dutchman. After all, Ruben Amorim’s tenure at Old Trafford has been dire and that’s putting it politely in all honesty.

While United returned to winning ways on Saturday, defeating high-flying Sunderland 2-0, the Portuguese has not showcased the immense managerial potential that he did at Sporting CP in Lisbon.

Indeed, after 33 games, only five managers in Premier League history had achieved fewer points. This is Manchester United, not a relegation-threatened team; things need to improve.

Yet, there has been some good to come from the Amorim and Ratcliffe era. They’ve flushed out some bad eggs, put together a backroom team that looks far more organised and gone back to the days of Sir Alex Ferguson in recruiting Premier League-ready talents. Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo are a testament to that.

They’ve also done well to keep the current poster boy of the Carrington Academy at the club, JJ Gabriel.

How Manchester United convinced JJ Gabriel to stay

The Man United academy has been a sacred place for some time now. It might not be Barcelona’s La Masia but the Class of 92 is known the world over.

Remarkably, United have had someone from their academy in every first-team matchday squad since 1937, but that record is now in danger.

Amorim’s treatment of Kobbie Mainoo nearly saw him leave and he was the only outright Carrington graduate in the squad for the win over Sunderland. Ayden Heaven was on the bench but he is technically a graduate of Arsenal’s Hale End instead.

While it might be a few more years before we see 15-year-old JJ Gabriel making waves at first-team level, he certainly looks like the next big thing to come out of the club’s academy.

Hailed as “one of the most exciting talents in the world” by the Manchester Evening News’ Steven Railston, the teenager has been catching the eye for some time now and is already playing several years above his age group.

Perhaps the most sparkly jewel at Carrington right now, he has already found the net on seven occasions in six U18 Premier League matches this term. Yeah, he’s pretty special.

In The Pipeline

Football FanCast’s In the Pipeline series aims to uncover the very best youth players in world football.

As the MEN outline, some academy followers believe ‘he could be the best talent United’s academy has ever seen’ but there was a threat of him leaving.

Already sponsored by Nike and boasting over 200,000 followers on Instagram, Gabriel is all the hype at the moment and has subsequently attracted plenty of interest.

He was close to leaving in the summer, with talks reportedly at an advanced stage with one top European club. However, a meeting was held at Carrington in which Director of Football, Jason Wilcox, and CEO, Omar Barrada, were both present.

They told Gabriel that he could become the face of the club, a verdict that led to the youngster deciding to stay in the north west.

So, he’s got the backing of Wilcox and Barrada already but is there currently a bigger talent in the academy ranks? Quite possibly.

JJ Gabriel's biggest rival at Carrington

While Gabriel looks like one of the finest talents on the youth circuit at the moment, there is a lot of hard work to be undertaken before he gets his opportunity.

He will also need to find a way past not just Benjamin Sesko in the forthcoming years but another academy sensation by the name of Chido Obi Martin.

Obi Martin arrived from Arsenal this time last year and considering his record at youth level, it was a move that caused a bit of a stir.

After all, before Max Dowman came on the scene, he was arguably the finest talent at Hale End. He scored 32 goals in 21 official games for Arsenal’s U18s and once bagged ten goals in a 14-3 win over Liverpool U16s. It’s safe to say he knows where the net is.

Sadly for the Gunners, he didn’t see a pathway to the first-team and moved to United, where to his credit, he did receive game time last term, featuring eight times for thesenior side without scoring.

Yet, in 2025/26, Amorim hasn’t selected him in a senior matchday squad once. That’s despite scoring three goals in six Premier League 2 matches.

Chido Obi’s development may have slowed slightly throughout 2025 but this is still one of the finest strikers we’ve ever seen at youth level in this country.

In the words of scout Jacek Kulig, he’s a “goalscoring machine”. No player has scored at a quicker rate in U18 Premier League history (37 goals in 24 games) and only one player, Southampton’s Nicholas Oyekunle has scored more (38) at that level in the competition’s history.

There is a huge difference between youth and senior football. Many players have soared up through the academy and then failed to make the grade. For Obi, that will be the concern, but the fact he was playing games for United’s first team last season at the age of 17 speaks volumes.

Gabriel is attracting all of the attention right now but don’t forget about Obi Martin; he’s even more prolific than his teenage counterpart. Amorim must find space in his squad to unleash him this season.

Better than Sesko & Mount vs Sunderland: Man Utd star is becoming Nani 2.0

Manchester United have hit the jackpot on one star who’s starting to emulate fan-favourite Nani.

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By
Ethan Lamb

Oct 5, 2025