The attacker Alef Manga which will not have its contract renewed with the Coritiba for the next season, revealed in an interview with UmDois Esportes as he discovered that he would not remain at the club in the 2025 season.
After the end of the suspension in the case of match manipulation, in September this year, the 29-year-old player believed he would have a chance in the last rounds of Series B. Coxa was already out of the competition for access, but Manga planned to use the matches against Chapecoense and Botafogo-SP to demonstrate their value to the club.
“The news took everyone by surprise. We expected that there would be a conversation about renewal, after Series B ended, and they simply brought my vacation forward, with no opportunity to talk”, said Manga.
“I was at training, they called one by one [os dispensados]. I thought it would be a talk to go to the game [contra a Chapecoense]. I thought I would have the opportunity. But I found out it was in the plans [do Coxa] bring forward my vacation. It was said that the doors are open to returning to the club in the future”, he added.
Manga experienced troubled times at Coxa, between 2023 and 2024. Punished for accepting R$45,000 to receive a yellow card in a match for Alviverde in the Brasileirão in 2022, the player received a heavy hook of 360 days out of football and had not played since October last year. The expected return to Alto da Glória, however, ended in less than 60 days.
Manga criticizes Coritiba’s conduct in frustrated return
Before the suspension ended, Coritiba opened the Graciosa CT so Manga could train at separate times from the main squad. At the time, CEO Carlos Amodeo was still at the club.
Four months later, in July, the club removed Manga from training at CT and the player started using only Couto Pereira’s structure. At the time, Amodeo had just left the club, after an internal dispute that had the striker as the center.
The winger criticized the decision of the Alto da Glória club to relocate him. For him, the smaller structure of the stadium for training, when compared to the CT, hurt him.
“And in this preparation, Coritiba left a lot to be desired. If they had left me in CT, there would have been more structure. In Couto there is not much structure [para treinamento, como no CT]”, he pointed out.
Manga officially entered the field again for Coritiba, in the game against Amazonas, in the 32nd round, when he scored the goal that declared the victory by 3-1. Afterwards, the athlete entered only three other games, against Paysandu, CRB and Santos . In total, he has played 84 minutes since returning.
“I get upset because they know my potential, of being able to help Coritiba. Even though I was just fulfilling the schedule, I could show something since I returned. But they didn’t even give me the opportunity to do that. I returned, God blessed me with a goal, but then there was no follow-up. It was a bit of a boring atmosphere”, he reported.