How John Kennedy went from hero to Fluminense’s biggest problem

The day was November 4, 2023. In a packed Maracanã, the clock marked nine minutes of extra time in the Libertadores final when everything changed. John Kennedy received it from Keno, kicked hard and became title hero from Fluminense. A beautiful story of reinvention that seemed to end happily. But not only did it not end, but a few months later it once again became a problem for the club.

If he was called Menino Rei by the tricolors after scoring the most important goal in the club’s history, John Kennedy preferred to keep the king in his belly. At 21 years old and already a club idol, how he prophesiedthe player accumulates episodes of indiscipline in everyday life, and now, he has returned in the opposite direction of what was expected: he went from hero to problem.

— In relation to the players, it was something unacceptable, especially in today’s times. We hope that it will serve as a correction for these and others, for Brazilian football to take professional football more seriously — said Fernando Diniz about the party at the concentration.

It wasn’t for lack of trying from Fluminense or Fernando Diniz. The coach has already given up on the young man once and the club even loaned him out in 2023. The year seemed like a comeback: John Kennedy took advantage of the chance he had, was embraced by the cast’s leaders and put his name in history. But in 2024, he sees his indiscipline getting in his way again, the atmosphere turning sour with his companions, his attitudes taking a turn for the worse internally and his family suffering from the exposure.

A Trivela found that much more than a concentration party, John Kennedy made several other mistakes, disappointed the club and became Fluminense’s biggest problem. Everyone wants to help him, but the 21-year-old, so far, is not doing his part in 2024.

Sour climate between John Kennedy and companions

Although he denies his presence at the party, the indiscipline committed by John Kennedy in concentration was not the first — nor the last of the number 9 at Fluminense. A fact that soured the atmosphere between the player and his teammates. A repeat offender, he was already accumulating absences and being late to training, but as he put a lot of effort into his activities, the club turned a blind eye until the episodes of indiscipline increased.

Cast leaders such as Felipe Melo, Marcelo and Paulo Henrique Ganso had embraced John Kennedy in 2023 after his return from Ferroviária, where he competed in the Campeonato Paulista. They helped so much that, after the attacker made a lot of mistakes, they saw him as a big disappointment, according to Trivela already published last week.

Today, the relationship between the Libertadores hero and other athletes in the squad is cold, to say the least. And the last straw was participation in the party. What would get worse with the repetition of John Kennedy’s indiscipline even after his removal.

Even away, John Kennedy committed other indisciplines

After being removed by the party at the concentration, John Kennedy, anyone who thinks that the player changed his behavior is mistaken. The club was aware of at least two more episodes of the player’s indiscipline that involved excessive nighttime, delays and absences from training.

In the early hours of Thursday to Friday, he was at a nightclub in Barra da Tijuca and the video ended up leaking. To the technical committee, shirt 9 stated that the images were from another day. It doesn’t matter: the next day, John Kennedy arrived late for training, according to the Trivela.

What was already bad got worse on Sunday, when the player didn’t show up for training, according to information published by the channel Journey 1902 which was confirmed by Trivela. And, until the closing of this report, he did not justify his absence from the club.

John Kennedy denies club about attending party

On his social networks, on Monday night (29), John Kennedy denied having participated in the party at the concentration. At the football summit, he had confirmed that he would be there at first. Days later, he stated that he only took a woman to the room, but did not participate in the party.

The message published on social media went down badly internally. Fluminense did not make an official statement, but sources interviewed by the report did not like the tone used nor the fact that the player denied the club.

Diniz could be John Kennedy’s last bridge in Fluminense

If he disappointed everyone at Fluminense, John Kennedy has one of his last bridges in Fernando Diniz. But it is not as steady as it was in the past. The coach, obviously, was not happy with the player’s actions either, but tried to make him come to reality.

Diniz’s main difficulty, however, is not in convincing John Kennedy to return to his best days. It’s making the cast believe in the 21-year-old again. The coach is convinced of trying and has the support of president Mário Bittencourt and directors Paulo Angioni and Fred. In 2024, the coach even made the number 9 as team captain as a show of affection, but nothing seems to work.

— I’ve already spoken to him twice. And for my part I will do as much as I can for him. He is a great talent and another one of those players, who, behind him, has a life story that, in football, instead of us welcoming the person as a whole, we only welcome the player. This is a gigantic flaw in Brazilian football — said Diniz, in 2022.

At CT Carlos Castilho, the technical committee and heads of the football department do not consider the player a lost cause. Everyone wants to recover John Kennedy, but they see the mission becoming increasingly difficult.