Youthful Santos Futebol Clube claimed the club’s first Brazilian title in 24 years as they stormed to Série A success in November 2028. Manager Robinho Lazaró now had to ensure they kept hold of their best youngsters to try and defend that title and aim for their first Copa Libertadores Final since 2020.
The Santos board followed through on their promise to build a new stadium, announcing work would begin on a new 33,127-capacity home. The imaginatively named Santos Stadium will cost £12.5m and will completed at the end of December 2030.
Another big sale over the off-season saw left back Kevyson go to Saudi for £20m, which was a great deal. Lazaró replaced him with potentially a better left back in Nacional’s Gonzalo Santos for £2.4m and brought in a much-needed defensive midfielder in Richard Farias for £5m from Fluminense. Then in July, they added promising attacking midfielder Marcelo Pereira for £3.4m from Sao Paulo.
Lazaró stuck with his successful 4-3-3 narrow approach. However, he was looking to give more gametime to Luiz Fernando and Dimitri, who’ve been labelled the new Ronaldinho and Robinho respectively.
Henry Breaks Pelé’s League Goalscoring Record, Apparently
The state championship again started with defeat at Palmeiras, before finishing 4th and losing in the quarters with a rotated team. They also played their first Supercopa under Lazaró and, unsurprisingly, lost 1-0 to Palmeiras. But the highlight was Thierry Henry apparently becoming the club’s all-time record league goalscorer, surpassing the 101 scored by Pelé (who actually scored 569, most of which were in the state championship that oddly isn’t included in FM’s stats).
Santos’ Série A title odds were massively boosted to a 4th-place finish at 15/1. Palmeiras are now 15/8 favourites followed by Corinthians (5/2) and Flamengo (10/1). But Santos still don’t have any players in the media dream 11.
Santos had a tough start to the season, drawing 0-0 and losing 2-1 at home to Corinthians and Flamengo. Marcos Aurélio and Dimitri earned a 2-2 at Atlético Mineiro and centre back Glaudestony Penchel scored two headers in a ludicrous 4-4 at home to Internacional. But they finally kickstarted their season with late Valentín Corti and Henry goals nicking a 4-2 win at Palmeiras, only their 5th win in 24 meetings with their rivals. They then faced 2 games in 3 days, with exciting full back Rodrigo Passos nicking 2-1 at Vitória before a fully rotated squad lost 2-0 at Avaí.
Santos’ stuttering home form was ended with a dominant 4-1 win against CRB led by Dimitri’s brace on the occasion of his 100th league game for the club. That sparked them into a good run, including Henry’s brace and a smart Fernando finish downing Vasco 3-1 and Fernando’s early double inspiring a 6-2 thrashing of Cruzeiro. As a result, they sat 3rd halfway through the season, 7 points behind an inspired Palmeiras, who’d only dropped points twice and had 3 games in hand.
Copa Libertadores Drama
Santos got a trickier Libertadores group than last season alongside Cruzeiro, Argentina’s Racing Club and Colombia’s Millonarios. They began with Henry and Dimitri edging a 2-2 at Cruzeiro before Henry, Aurélio and Dimitri earned a 3-1 win at home to Racing, and Dimitri and Henry braces secured a 4-2 in Colombia. They hit top form as Henry’s hat trick and Aurélio’s brace led a 7-0 hammering of Millonarios, but rotated sides drew 1-1 at home to Cruzeiro and lost 2-1 at Racing, which set a new club record of 7 consecutive games without a win, to finish 2nd.
Dopping to 2nd actually worked in Santos’ favour as they took on Venezuelan side Deportivo La Guaira in the 2nd round, while Cruzeiro faced Paranaense. Henry and midfielder Gabriel earned a dominant 2-0 home win before an even more dominant 0-0, in which Santos had 21 shots to 1, in Venezuela. A much tougher test followed against Corinthians, who Santos had only beaten 4 times and scored 20 goals in 20 meetings, in the quarters. Santos started brightly and moved in front through Henry’s towering header, Corinthians undeservedly levelled on 65 minutes but gifted Henry a second with a weak backpass 9 minutes later to hand Santos a 2-1 win. A week later, having rested the first 11 for a league game, a superb defensive effort and Rafinha’s late goal nicked a 1-0.
That took Santos into their second semis in 3 seasons, this time against Vasco. Vasco obviously scored their first shot at home then did nothing as Santos dominated 19 shots to 5 but couldn’t find a way through. Vasco also scored their first shot in Santos’ home leg as their winger scored a wonderful solo goal. Aurélio somehow hit the bar with a header from 6 yards, but Lazaró changed to a more direct approach at half time and Fernando immediately got them back into it. And they soon levelled the tie as Aurélio was played in down the left and crossed for Dimitri to turn home from close range. But they were wasteful again and, after 24 shots to 5, couldn’t find a winner, and it went straight to penalties. Aurélio, as their best penalty taker, obviously missed the 1st one before Penchel missed the 4th.
Given how undeservedly Vascio reached the Final, Lazaró and the team cheered on River Plate, who were playing in a 3rd successive Final and won 2-0. Dimitri set an impressive new Libertadores record 8.06 average rating in 9 appearances and came 2nd in the Best Player award, while Henry won the Golden Boot with 10 goals in 9 games.
Blooding Wonderkids At Santos
Halfway through the campaign, Santos’ chances of retaining their Série A title looked extremely slim. And they reduced even further as they began the second half of the season with defeats at Corinthians and Flamengo, before a home defeat to Palmeiras left them 19 points off top spot. But Lazaró was more focused on developing his exciting youngsters, 6 of whom (goalkeeper Carlos García, defenders Penchel and Passos and midfielders Gabriel, Lucas Rosado and Charles) had become recognised as wonderkids.
As a result, Santos’ form became pretty shaky, which saw Lazaró trial 2 up front, using Dimitri in his preferred false nine role. An almost forgotten man, striker Nílton, stepped up with 5 goals in 3 games to earn a point at Gremio, edge a 4-3 thriller at Fortaleza and earn a 4-1 win at home to Goiás. And his goals were enough to seal Copa Libertadores qualification. Charles volleyed a wondergoal before Bahia nicked an undeserved 2-2 on the final day, which pretty much summed up their entire season.
But Santos secured 6th place with 64 points, after 17 wins, 13 draws and 8 defeats, scoring 76 and conceding 54, more than double the 26 they conceded last season! They finished a huge 25 points behind winners Palmeiras and 18 behind Flamengo. Santos didn’t have any players in the league’s top performers, but Aurélio’s 7.25 average rating was the 4th-best and scored 10 from the 6th-highest xG and the most shots per 90 minutes (10.62 and 3.57), while Penchel won the 3rd-most headers (83%).
Taking The Positives From A Dip Season
Passos became the first Santos youth product to be selected for and play for Brazil during Lazaró’s time at the club, which he felt justified his decision to sell Kevyson. The 20-year-old Santos-born Santos supporter made his debut in a surprise 2-1 World Cup qualifier defeat at home to Venezuela at the end of September. Passos is playing alongside his fellow Santos graduate Izaquiel Penchel, who’s got 2 goals in 10 caps and has become a bonafide superstar at PSG.
Henry was again Santos’ top scorer with 28 in 41, but his form at the end of the season was really poor. Aurélio scored 15 with 9 assists but the star of this season was probably Fernando with 15 goals and 10 assists. Other top performers were Dimitri (11 goals and 8 assists), Charles (10 goals and 9 assists), right back Jefferson Jaramillo (13 assists), Rosado (12 assists) and Rafinha (10 assists).
Dimitri continues to lead the way in the Ginga rating with 79, followed by Fernando (75), new boy Pereira (74) and Aurélio and Charles (72). Click the image below to see all the players’ stats and ratings:
Santos’ youth system became ranked as the 2nd best in the world, only behind Man City. However, they swiftly had the worst youth intake of Lazaró’s reign, only producing a couple of 4.5-star potential talents worth shouting about in attacker Vitinho and midfielder Pedro Henrique.
Could Santos bounce back from a little dip to challenge their Sao Paulo rivals next season? We’re taking a little break from this story over the festive period, so join us on the first Monday of 2025 (6 January) to find out!
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