Salvando Santos | Part 7 | A Fitting Ending To The Vila Belmiro Era

Santos FC suffered a fairly unsurprising dropoff in 2029 as they backed up a first Brazilian title in 24 years by dropping to a 6th-place finish, 25 points behind champions Palmeiras. But manager Robinho Lazaró was choosing to remain optimistic given the talent they had coming through the ranks.

Moving into the 2030s saw significant change as record scorer and club icon Thierry Henry’s ability had dwindled and he moved to Cuiabá for £2.7m. They also lost full back Jefferson Jaramillo to Saudi for his minimum fee of £6.5m, right back Claudio Leuci to CRB for £2.4m and attacking midfielder Valentín Corti to Tigres for £1.4m.

In their place, Lazaró promoted striker Nílton, attacking midfielder Marcelo Pereira and centre backs/midfielders Matheus Forcato, Richard Farias and Pedro Henrique Peres. Then in July, he brought in a couple of targets from Argentina in July, beating Liverpool to wonderkid centre back Lucio Miño for £8.5m from Tigre and Man City to exciting attacker Lisandro Machado, who Lazaró saw largely as a way to cash-in a big future transfer, for £6.25m from Vélez.

Lazaró also had a tactical rethink, returning to the 4-3-3 shape they won the league with 2 seasons ago. However, he slightly tweaked some of the player roles and looked to introduce a more entertaining brand of football now that target man Henry had moved on. Marcos Aurélio moves up top with homegrown starlets Luiz Fernando and Dimitri in behind, and 8 of the first-choice 11 came through the Santos academy.

Hoping For League Improvement

The state championship saw Santos play well despite numerous attacking injuries and massive fixture congestion, with the high point being an 8-0 win over Mirassol with 7 different scorers. Indeed, Santos’ play had fans like Remo de Guia Júnior raving about the entertainment on offer.

For a change, Lazaró didn’t rotate for the semis and they won 3-2 at Palmeiras, only to get obliterated by youth international call-ups for the 2nd leg. But the replacements stepped up to win 3-1 led by Forcato’s brace. That meant 2 more matches as they faced Corinthians in the Final, but they got the rarity of a week off before the home leg and won 2-0 through Aurélio and Charles. But they were terrible away from home and lost 2-0 to both Corinthinans’ shots on target, then predictably lost 4-3 on penalties.

Before Série A had even kicked off, Santos had already played 26 matches! But the bookies fancied their chances, predicting a 3rd-place finish with title odds of 17/2 behind rivals Palmeiras and Corinthians (9/5 and 3/1). While left back Rodrigo Passos and midfielder Gabriel made the media dream 11.

Santos began well as Aurélio’s early goal earned a 1-0 at Fortaleza and midfielder Charles’ pair of penalties led a 4-1 win at home to Coitiba. But a 5th meeting with Corinthians in just over a month ended with another 2-0 away defeat. A fully rotated side drew 0-0 with Goianiense before Charles and Aurélio earned a 3-2 victory at early leaders Botafogo, right back Rafinha scored twice in a 4-1 win at Goiás and Dimitri’s wonderful curled goal nicked a 1-0 over Avaí to send Santos top of the league in early June.

Santos lost Passos and goalkeeper Carlos García to the World Cup, in which Passos played 4 games as Brazil exited 3-0 to Germany in the round of 16. And Brazil made the wise choice to offer Lazaró their vacant role – which, of course, he had to accept and we’ll deal with that in future posts. But back at club level, Santos good form continued, including 6ft 6in centre back Jair scoring a pair of headers from corners in a 3-0 win at Internacional, and they only lost once through the first half of the season.

Back Into Copa Libertadores Qualifying

Santos dropped back into the qualifying rounds for Copa Libertadores but cruised past Uruguayans Cerro Largo 7-2 led by Aurélio’s first-leg hat trick and Peru’s Alianza Lima 4-1 to qualify for the group stages. But they got a really tough group alongside 2026 winners Corinthians, holders River Plate and Peru’s Sporting Cristal.

That made the opener at Cristal vital and Charles edged a 1-0 win. But Santos stepped up a level to dominate River by 20 shots to 8 and won 3-0 through Lucas Rosado’s early opener and Charles and Dimitri strikes before River’s injury-time consolation. They had to rotate at Corinthians and a very young side did really well to only lose 1-0 then, 3 days after the league Final loss, Fernando and Dimitri earned a 2-2 at home. The group concluded with a trip to Buenos Aires and a 2-1 defeat, while Cristal pulled off a famous 1-0 win over Corinthians, which sent Santos through in 2nd place.

Santos got the most favourable 2nd round draw against América de Cali. They took full control as Charles bagged 4 in a 5-0 home leg win before a rotated team lost 2-0 in Colombia. A much tougher test followed as they were again paired with holders River and lost 2-0 at home and a rotated side did well to draw 2-2 in Argentina. River went on to defend their crown by beating Palmeiras 3-0.

Sticking with cup competitions, Santos also reached their first Copa do Brasil Final with heavily rotated sides. They faced Flamengo in the Final and got the rarity of a week off before both games. The away leg was absolute carnage as the sides drew 4-4 thanks to Machado equalising late on. Santos started their home leg brighter and took advantage through Rafinha corners as centre backs Glaudestony Penchel and Jair powered home near-post headers. And that was enough for a 6-4 aggregate success.

Santos FC won their 2nd Copa do Brasil and first for 20 years!

Potential Title Charge

Santos began the second half of the campaign with 3 trickly games. First up was back-to-back games against Palmeiras, and they drew 0-0 at home before necessary rotation led to a 2-0 away defeat. Another defeat followed, 1-0 at Coritiba, which saw the top 3 of Santos, Coritiba and Palmeiras separated by 2 points. They got back on track with Rosado and Rafinha strikes downing CRB 2-0 before the midfield trio of Fernando Santos, Gabriel and Charles earned a 3-1 win at Goianiense.

Charles’ great form continued as he scored twice late on in a 4-0 thumping of 10-man Corinthians. But injuries to García and Aurélio saw defeats at Gremio and Sao Paulo in September, which tightened up an exciting title race with the top 5 separated by just 8 points with 10 games remaining.

Santos got back to form as Aurélio bagged consecutive hat tricks in a 5-0 thrashing of Goiás and a 3-2 win at Avaí, then scored again after Gabriel’s goal of the month in a 2-0 win over Paranaense. They drew 0-0 at Vasco but were 3-0 up inside 18 minutes at home to Bahia, through Aurélio and a Nílton brace, and went on to win 4-1. That saw Santos take a 5-point lead over rivals Palmeiras and Corinthians, who’d played a game more, into the final 5 games and they probably had the easiest run-in.

Game 1 – Cruzeiro (10th, home): Palmeiras lost 4-2 at Sao Paulo the day before Santos entertained Cruzeiro. And they took full advantage as a Charles brace, Fernando and Machado’s 1st league goal secured a dominant 4-1 victory to move 8 points clear.

Game 2 – RB Bragantino (11th, away): Palmeiras played first again and beat Goiás 4-2. But Santos just about edged a pretty poor game and took all 3 points with Nílton’s excellent finish just before the break and Rosado slamming home after a superb counter attack.

Game 3 – Internacional (6th, home): Palmeiras again played first, which was starting to feel unfair, and won 4-1 at Vasco, 2 days before Santos dropped points in a wasteful 1-1. That took them to the brink of the title, 6 points clear with 3 better goal difference.

Game 4 – Flamengo (12th, away): Palmeiras played their final 2 games before Santos’ next game, due to being in the Libertadores Final, and thrashed relegated Avaí 5-0 then beat Paranaense 1-0 to go top on goal difference. That meant Santos would win the title with a point in a potentially tricky game at struggling Flamengo. They dominated the game and went close as Charles crashed a free kick off the bar, Jair headed against the post just after halftime, and Aurélio’s header hit the bar and bounced onto the line. They somehow drew 0-0, but that was all they needed as, despite the lack of a trophy lift, they secured the title.

Santos CF won Série A for the 2nd time in 3 seasons!

Game 5 – Cuiabá (19th, home): The final game of the season was a special one as Santos bid farewell to Vila Belmiro, their home for the last 114 years, against record scorer Thierry Henry and fans’ favourite Alfredo Morelos. And they did so in style as Dimitri, Aurélio, Passos and Jair secured a 4-1 victory.

That saw Santos claim the title by 4 points ahead of Palmeiras, finishing on 83 points after 25 wins, 8 draws and 5 defeats, scoring just 73 to Palmeiras’ 90 but conceded only 29. Aurélio was the league’s 3rd-best player (7.27) and 3rd-top scorer (16 in 29).

Santos Back On Top In Brazil

This was a fitting end to Santos’ time at Vila Belmiro, claiming the club’s first-ever league and cup double in their final season at the stadium they’d called home since 1916. Santos’ cup success saw Lazaró honoured with icon status by the club’s fans, second only to Neymar, and chasing down Pelé as the club’s only legendary figure. So things are definitely heading in the right direction, despite the most disappointing youth intake during his time at the club, which only produced one 4-star potential talent.

The decision to sell Henry was justified by Aurélio breaking his club record of 32 goals in a season, scoring 33 plus 11 assists in 51 games. Santos’ numbers hit new levels as the star of the campaign Charles bagged 28 goals and 14 assists in 69 games, Nílton scored 18 in 48, Fernando set a new club record 22 assists with 12 goals, Dimitri scored 11 with 10 assists, Jair scored 10 from centre back, Rafinha got 13 assists, and Gabriel and Passos got 10 assists each.

Dimitri continues to lead the Ginga rating on 79, but Fernando and Charles have improved to 77 and 75 respectively. New boy Machado comes in at 78, but is technically exempt due to the age he arrived at the club. While the likes of Aurélio, Fernando and Dimitri all passed 200 games for the club this season. Check out all the players’ stats and ratings by clicking the table below: