Sonar pings #39

We picked up quite a number of things on our sonar last week… Check out the latest pings below!

Medal to the Saint
It was on Friday announced that President Dilma Rousseff will grant a medal to Marcos Robert Silveira Reis, our own São Marcos, for Merit in Sports. The decree was signed by President Rousseff and the Minister of Sports (and acknowledged palmeirense) Aldo Rebelo. Date for the event yet to be announced.

Evair’s new challenge
Speaking of idols: former Palmeiras centre-forward Evair will keep himself busy as the new coach of Crac from the municipality of Catalão, state of Goiás. Evair started his coaching career in 2004, at Vila Nova. He’s also trained Anápolis, Itumbiara and even Crac, all these teams belonging in the state of Goiás. Evair is replacing Lucho Nizzo, who was fired after a series of disagreements with the directors of the club.

Good luck at your new club, Evair.

Tinga, Vinícius, Patrik… And Henrique
There were rumours that Palmeiras midfielder Tinga – little used by Scolari and easily the player currently annoying Palmeiras supporters the most – was leaving for Botafogo. Seems he’s staying, at least for the time being.

Young Vinícius on the other hand is close to signing a new five-year contract with Palmeiras. The promising striker has been receiving offers, even from abroad, but wishes to stay and develop further at Palmeras. Apparently, salaries have already been agreed upon and mere details are to be solved before he puts pen to paper.

Midfielder Patrik has already signed a new contract, extending his stay with one more year until march 2014. The renewal included a salary boost and surprised quite a few: after all, why the hurry in renewing with not-so-impressive Patrik who anyway was on a contract until 2013, while at the same time being very relaxed about the future of centre-back reference Henrique, on loan from Barcelona and with only a few month’s worth of time in the Palmeiras jersey unless something happens soon. Let’s hope the director’s have some card up their sleeves. I’m getting a (not very good) déjà vù feeling while writing these lines…  

Barcos the human abacus
Adidas last week announced a fun campaign: personalised boots for Barcos, keeping count of how close he is from the mark he himself established before arriving at Palmeiras: to score 27 goals this season. As the Pirate has tucked home eight times so far, the boot he’ll be using against Coruripe on Wednesday carries a “-19”, in addition to the names of his two children Abril and Emílio. The boots will be given away to a supporter – through some sort of raffle or competition on the Adidas facebook page – after each game where Barcos has scored.

Sonnen
It takes a Sonnen to complete the sonar pings… The always polemic MMA fighter received a visit from palmeirense Paulo Zago who was passing by on a business trip and grasped the opportunity to ask Sonnen to pose with the campaign t-shirt from the “Direct Elections Now” campaign. “I have the right to choose Palmeiras’ President” the t-shirt reads, as Sonnen joins the ranks of Minister of Sports Aldo Rebelo and world famous neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis asking for a bit of democracy at Palmeiras.

Of course Sonnen’s plea is completely out of context, but the press coverage alone makes the photo one heck of a publicity stunt. Well done, Paulo!