Aventuras Américas | Part 96 | An Ode To The Greatest Of All Time

José Mourinho may consider himself “the special one” but there was no doubting that Roberto Nascimento da Silva Lazaró was “the great one.”

Lazaró wrapped up his epic managerial career in 2075 by winning a treble at River Plate and finally becoming recognised as the greatest to have ever managed in the beautiful game.

After committing 34 days, 22 hours and 10 minutes of game time being committed to this save, it feels right to let the staggering numbers from Lazaró’s long career do the talking for themselves…

54 years of management
19,720 days of management
23 club teams managed
2 international teams managed

41 league titles (including Aperturas, but 36 official titles)
43 cup tournaments
2 promotions
1 relegation

1 World Cup
4 European Champions Leagues
3 Copa Libertadores
3 Copa Sudamericanas
1 North American Champions League

2,566 matches played
1,692 matches won
443 games lost
431 games drawn
65% win percentage
5,418 goals scored
2,254 goals conceded
3,164 goal difference

423 players bought
£1.79 billion value of players signed
586 players sold
£2.63 billion value of players sold
£85 million record signing – Juarez to Liverpool from Wolfsburg, July 2049
£100 million record sale – Ange Tra Bi, Wolfsburg to Barcelona, July 2052
£31.5 million paid to agents

Lazaró’s long managerial history

Lazaró has had a pretty exceptional career, so plotting a recap of it may take some time and three screenshots!

Starting in the Américas

Robinho Lazaró’s managerial career began way back in 2021 when he left the streets of Medellín for the vacant role at Chilean second-tier side Deportes Puerto Montt. He rebuilt the side, achieved promotion in his second full season in charge and suffered the only relegation of his career in 2024. His success caught the eye of Chilean giants Universidad Católica, where he won his first national title in his first season in charge.

Lazaró left South America for the first time in his life to join MLS side New York Red Bulls in 2025. He strengthened the side in his first season and took NYRB to MLS glory in 2027. That success led him back to South America with Uruguayan side River Plate Montevideo, where be built an exciting young side that saw off the country’s big two to win the title in 2029.

Lazaró returned home to Colombia for the first time in nine years to take charge of América de Cali. He won his first cup competition in his first season before winning both the Apertura and Finalizácion stages in his second. Next was a move to Peru, where he walked to the title in his first season with Alianza Lima. While in Peru, he also led Alianza to his first Copa Sudamericana.

More of a challenge awaited in México with second-tier side Puebla FC. He achieved promotion in his first season then, led by two star strikers, won the Mexican title the following season. In México, he also won the Mexican Champions Trophy, Campeones Cup and defended Puebla’s Clausura crown.

Lazaró’s biggest move yet took him to his second nation Brazil with Palmeiras. He finished third in the first half campaign, fourth in the second before becoming champion of Brazil in 2036. Next was an unusual move as he left Brazil for Canada with FC Edmonton. Despite a slightly disappointing league campaign, Lazaró won the playoffs to win the Canadian Premier League in his first season.

He completed the South American charge by moving to Argentina with Newell’s Old Boys in the second-tier, in which he twice finished fifth. That attracted the attention of Godoy Cruz, where he overcame River and Boca to complete his domestic challenge.

Lazaró’s next focus was the biggest continental prize available. To do that, he moved back to Brazil with Flamengo. And he finished his domestic career in South America by winning the Rio State Championship, Série A and, crucially, Copa Libertadores.

While at Flamengo, Lazaró became manager of Brazil and, in 2042, led the country to its seventh World Cup. His time in South America concluded by taking Colombia to Copa América 2044, where they lost to México in the quarter-finals, cue Lazaró being sacked for the first and only time in his career.

Into Europe

Lazaró then decided to test his skills in the European market and, after a little hiatus, joined German side Wolfsburg in 2045. He strengthened a struggling side, finished third in his full season then won back-to-back titles and the Champions League led by his all-time favourite player Juarez.

That success caught the eye of Liverpool, where Lazaró won two Premier League titles, a Europa League and a Champions League. Next was a big challenge as he moved to cash-strapped Barcelona, which was where his ability to develop youth really shone. He totally rebuilt the squad and still managed to win back-to-back La Liga titles.

But the financial disaster was too much stress, so he took on a new opportunity with Sporting CP. He hoovered up the best young talent around the world to build another exciting squad and won three Portuguese titles.

That caught the eye of another European giant as AC Milan came calling. He stole some of his Sporting squad and the ever-excellent Juarez to build another amazing team to lead Milan to four Serie A titles and two Champions Leagues. But he fancied a bigger challenge, so swapped Milan for the north-east of England, where he and Juarez reunited to win Newcastle their maiden Premier League title in his second season.

Another big challenge followed in Lazaró’s final European role as he took the reins at Paris Saint-Germain, who’d fallen behind the likes of Lyon, Lille and Rennes. But Lazaró’s skills saw him overtake the pack and win Ligue 1 in his second season.

Back to the Américas

Lazaró returned to South America with fallen giants Vasco da Gama. He focused on youth yet again, building a superb squad that won two Rio State Championships, Série A, Copa Sudamericana and Copa Libertadores.

Next was a return to Peru with former club Alianza’s city rivals Universitario, where he immediately won the title in his first and only season. He wanted a bit more of a challenge so returned to Mexico with Pumas and build around special talents in Lucas and Nogueira and homegrown midfielder Albert Mejía. He won the Apertura title in his first season, a cup quadruple including the North American Champions League – completing the triple crown of becoming champion of South America, Europe and North America – in his second and the Clausura title in his third.

Lazaró’s final move took him back to Argentina with one of the big two as he took charge of River Plate. Superstars like Alejo Zalazar and Andrés Sierra sparked major success as Lazaró’s River surpassed Boca to win three successive titles, Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana.

Where are Lazaró’s great players now?

Well obviously, all of the original Américas players have long retired! Some of them went into coaching and were hired by Lazaró, including former Palmeiras winger Ali Mehri, Alianza midfielder Jack Aliaga and Liverpool midfielder Hugo Gauna, who joined his staff at River, while his Palmeiras left-back Beto became a manager and is now at Lazaró’s former side NYRB after spells with the likes of Lazio, Getafe and Monaco.

Lazaró had worked with some great players during the Américas years, including star striker Brenner at Palmeiras and amazing centre-back Batata at América and with Brazil. But things stepped up a notch in Europe and upon his return to the Américas, although there were certainly too many to mention all of those Lazaró had a great affinity with.

His all-time favourite was of course Juarez, who he signed for Wolfsburg, Liverpool, Milan and Newcastle. But that love was tested by the likes of Zalazar and ridiculously free-scoring Sierra at River, world-class attacking midfielder Iliya Kolev at Milan, midfielder Jan Mares who he signed for Sporting, Milan and PSG. Then there was Vasco pair Carlos Miguel and Denis, striker Anders Lassen and defender Vítor Veríssimo, who he signed for Sporting and Milan, and striker Juan Ruiz, who he signed for PSG then moved to Man UFC where he’s scored 218 goals in 286 league games and is probably the best player in the world.

The end of Aventuras Américas

That brings the Aventuras Américas journey to a close way into the future in July 2075. And, on 1 July 2075, Lazaró resigned from his role at River, leaving him as the most impressive looking unemployed Football Manager in the world.

Thank you to anyone that has read any of the 96 blog posts on this epic journey, and please do join us for our upcoming Football Manager 23 content!

However, there’s more to come because, as mentioned in yesterday’s post, we will be doing an experiment to sim nine years into the future and see if Lazaró can get a job as a 100-year-old manager. Join us tomorrow to see how he fares in that task!