It’s safe to say that the first three seasons of this save have been bonkers and typified why I love managing in Brazil. In season two (2025), the 2023 South American champions Fliminense and 2021 Brazilian champions Atlético Mineiro were relegated from Série A. A year later, promoted Coritiba became champions of Brazil with a 95th-minute final-day winner while Sao Paulo were relegated!
Those achievements make Santos’ efforts to gain promotion and twice qualify for Copa Libertadores look pretty amateur. But manager Robinho Lazaró was pretty happy with the progress that the club was making. They were also progressing off the field as infrastructure improvements saw Santos complete perfect 20 youth recruitment, junior coaching and training facilities with 18 youth facilities. Additionally, the Santos board decided to spend £6m on increasing the stadium capacity by 8,034, which will take Vila Belmiro to around 23,000. The work will take 10 months, so Santos will play 30 miles away at the 15,759-capacity Primeiro de Maio in Sao Bernardo do Campo.
Santos lost experience in the summer as vice-captain Iker Muniain retired. However, they still had plenty of older players like goalkeeper Joao Paulo (32), midfielder Juan Manuel Zapata (27), right back Nathan (26) and left back Kevyson (23) to guide their young talents. Two more exciting prospects arrived over the off-season in midfielder Denílson Pilato and 6ft 4in attacker Marcos Aurélio for £1.8m from relegated Sao Paulo. Lazaró also promoted defender Rodrigo Passos and goalkeeper Mazinho.
Copa Libertadores
Santos eased past Venezuela’s Monagas 4-1 and Paraguay’s Libertad 6-0, led by Aurélio scoring a debut hat trick in the first leg, to reach the Libertadores group stage. And they got a decent group alongside Peruvian team Alianza Lima, Chile’s Universidad Católica and Brazilian champions Coritiba.
Striker Thierry Henry ensured a good start with a brace in a 3-1 win at home to Alianza before his late goal nicked a 2-2 at home to Coritiba. Another home game followed and two more Henry goals downed Católica 2-1. That meant 3 consecutive away days to finish, which started with a 2-2 at Alianza before Henry’s goal nicked a 1-0 at Coritiba to seal qualification and Aurélio’s brace earned a point in an exciting 3-3 in Chile to win the group. And Alianza surprisingly beat Coritiba on the final day to knock them out.
Just like 12 months ago, Santos took on Argentina’s Talleres in the 2nd round. An own goal handed them an undeserved 1-1 in Argentina before Penchel’s strike secured another 1-1 to take it to penalties, despite Santos having 14 shots to 3. But Santos scored all 5 to earn a deserved victory. That teed up an all-Portuguese quarter final with Botafogo. Henry and Victor’s second-half strikes earned a 2-1 home win and centre back Jair’s header from a corner earned a 1-1 away to send Santos into the semis.
A tight second leg saw Flamengo waste chances in the first half before Aurélio missed a penalty. Santos grew into it after the break and claimed a huge victory as Henry nodded the ball down to Charles to smash a half volley into the top corner. However, they fell apart in the home leg, conceding to Flamengo’s first two shots and another just before halftime. Lazaró hooked goalkeeper Joao Paulo and switched to 2 up top, which saw Aurélio get one back but, despite pushing for another, they just fell short. And Lazaró immediately transfer-listed Paulo. Flamengo went on to lose 2-1 to River Plate in the Final.
Seeking Série A Improvement
The annual warmup championship came among mega fixture overload with several youngsters away at Olympic qualifiers. But heavily rotated sides managed to finish 6th with 8 wins from 13 before losing heavily to Corinthians in the semis.
The bookies still didn’t love Santos’ chances, predicting a 14th-place finish in Série A with title odds of 150/1. And Lazaró kind of got where they were coming from this season. Corinthians are now 2/1 favourites followed by Flamengo (3/1), Palmeiras (4/1), Botafogo (15/1) and Gremio (16/1). Holders Coritiba are predicted to get relegated in 17th with 250/1 odds to defend their title.
Santos began with a pretty dire 1-1 at home to Vasco, who equalised in injury time, but Henry and a naughty chip by Argentinian midfielder Valentín Corti ensured a first win in five attempts over Athlético Paranaense. They were a little unlucky to lose 1-0 at home to Atlético Mineiro before a 7th successive defeat to Palmeiras. But no team started the season in great form, and a 4-1 win at home to Botafogo temporarily took Santos top after 10 games. Henry’s brace earned an unexpected 3-0 win at Flamengo, who were on the back of 5 games in 12 days, only to lose 2-0 at home to Fortaleza.
Potential Title Battle?
A strange turn of events in mid-June saw the latest club elections won by Fábio Júnior Martins de Oliveira, who announced he’d made bids for striker Luis Fernando and midfielder Carlos Alcaraz “in line with his campaign promises.” Lazaró wasn’t overly impressed with either, especially considering the new president was trying to spend £30m of his hard-earned cash. But luckily, Fernando rejected the contract and Lazaró was able to cancel the Alcaraz transfer, so it was all a huge waste of time! They also lost Nathan for £17m to Saudi, so Lazaró promoted exciting young midfielder Rafinha with a view to retraining him as a full back.
Moving on from that chaos, Santos got battered again at Corinthians. But Corti nicked a 1-0 at CRB to leave them in 2nd place well behind runaway leaders Palmeiras. Santos struggled to maintain their form around the big continental games, drawing 5 out of 7 in August. But a week off worked wonders as Aurélio’s brace either side of halftime earned a famous 3-1 win at leaders Palmeiras. However, they remained 12 points behind their rivals and dropped to 6th with 10 games remaining.
Santos moved back into the expanded Vila Belmiro in late September and celebrated it with the exciting trio of Henry, Aurélio and Luiz Fernando earning a 3-1 win over Bahia. They gained revenge on Flamengo with Henry and midfielder Izaquiel Penchel earning a 2-1 home win to secure the first top-six finish of Lazaró’s reign. A 2-2 at Fortaleza followed before the midfield trio of Rafinha, Aurélio and Dimitri earned a 3-2 win over Cruzeiro, opening up a possible 3rd-place finish. But that disappeared with a 2-2 at Internacional before concluding season 4 with another 2-2 at home to Corinthians.
That wrapped up a 5th-place finish wth 69 points after 18 wins, a club record 15 draws and a league-low 5 defeats, scoring 71 and conceding 52. Rivals Palmeiras won their 5th title in 7 years, extending their record to 15 Brazilian titles. Santos didn’t have any league-leading performers but Aurélio won Revelecao de Campeonato (best rookie) and Jair was named in the team of the year.
Santos Homegrown Players Update
Henry top-scored with 29 in 47, taking him to a total of 89 in 156 for the club in all competitions. Aurélio impressed with 19 goals and 7 assists, Penchel and Fernando got 12 goals and 6 assists, Dimitri got 12 goals and 5 assists, Cortí got 5 goals and 11 assists and Zapata got 6 goals and 9 assists.
Henry very much isn’t the kind of player to meet the Ginga rating. But 17 players are now on the list, which is led by Dimitri’s 76 rating followed by Fernando and Aurélio (71). Click the image below to check out the players’ club stats and Ginga ratings.
The Santos youth potential continued to deliver, again claiming the top 3 places in NxGn 2027. Fernando, who’s been dubbed “the next Kaká,” led the way ahead of Dimitri and wonderkid Penchel with right back Jefferson Jaramillo in 46th. Not content with that, Henry defended the Kopa Trophy ahaed of Fernando and Aurélio.
Lazaró’s hopes of producing the next Neymar were boosted by another excellent youth intake containing four 5-star players. The pick of the bunch is probably left back João Gabriel along with attackers Dilmar Amaral and José Mario, midfielder Juan Lambert and centre back Matheus Forcato.
There continues to be a huge amount of potential at Santos, with the club now having 21 players with 5-star potential, 16 with up to 4.5-star potential and 14 with up to 4-star potential, which, for reference, is considered a leading Série A player. And they continue to make progress on the pitch, racking up their best league finish under Lazaró this season.
But could they challenge their local rivals at the top of the Brazilian leagues in 2028? Join us next Monday to find out!
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