Santos Futebol Clube departed their 114-year home Vila Belmiro on a high, winning the club’s first-ever league and cup double before an exciting move to a brand-new stadium for the 2031 campaign. But that success saw the pressure ramp up on manager Robinho Lazaró, who hadn’t allowed the excitement of becoming the new Brazil manager to distract him from domestic matters.
Indeed, the Santos board “required” the newly-appointed Brazil manager Lazaró and his squad, with an average age of 21, to win Série A again – having only wanted Copa Libertadores qualification last season. That seemed a little ambitious, especially when his best youngsters received a mass of interest from Saudi. However, he moved quickly to lock them down, including the excellent Charles, who had 42 goal contributions from central midfield last season, signed a new 5-year contract on £45k, which is probably the highest wage in club history.
Santos completed the move to the imaginatively named Santos Stadium on 30 December 2030. The club’s new home holds 33,127 people with an expansion capacity of 49,298 and looks pretty awesome (thanks to Canva’s AI Image Generator).
Santos lost one key player during the off-season as 6ft 6in centre back Jair, who’d played 271 league games for the club, moved to Saudi for £27.5m. But Lazaró wasn’t too bothered as it gave him a chance to blood Lucio Miño as a libero. He also promoted attacking midfielder Alison, following an impressive loan spell at Ponte Preta, and exciting striker José Mário, who was wanted by Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, Milan and Inter until Lazaró tied him down to a new 8-year deal.
Série A Title Defence
The Santos Stadium era – not very catchy – began with Alison making his league debut at home to his former loan side Ponte Preta. Another youngster, left back Joao Gabriel, scored the first goal at the stadium, but Alison stole the headlines with a wonderful curled effort. That was part of a strong state championship showing, including striker Marcos Aurélio scoring braces in a 3-1 win at Sao Paulo, a 6-0 hammering of Gremio Novorizontino and a 4-0 demolition of Corinthians. Mário came in and scored 4 in 2 to send them into the final, where Aurélio nicked a 1-0 home win over Palmeiras, despite a self-inflicted international exodus, before losing 2-0 to miss out on the title again.
Santos also began the season with another trophy as they beat Palmeiras on penalties to win Supercopa do Brasil. But there wouldn’t be a repeat of last season’s double as a rotated side exited the cup 6-5 on aggregate in the 4th round against Palmeiras. However, the bookies increased their expectations, predicting Santos to finish 2nd with 5/1 title odds behind Palmeiras (evens).
The title defence began with midfielders in top form. Captain Charles and Lisandro Machado led a solid 2-0 win at home to Corinthians before a rare Lucas Rosado brace earned a 2-1 at Cruzeiro and Charles, Marcelo Pereira and Fernando Santos secured a dominant 3-1 at Botafogo. Charles was seemingly picking up where he left off last season as he scored 2 more and made the other for Glaudestony Penchel in a 3-1 win at Bragantino. The flying start continued as they won the first 8 games before drawing 4 out of 5, including at Flamengo and at home to Palmeiras, but eventually lost 2-1 at Gremio.
It looked like Santos would suffer a huge blow in July as Dortmund came in for Charles and Lazaró negotiated a club record £60m. But the captain proved his loyalty by rejecting the move! Santos headed into the second half of the season trailing Palmeiras, who had 2 games in hand, on goal difference. But they began it with rotated sides defeating struggling Fluminense, Mirassol, Sao Paulo and Bahia.
Seeking Copa Libertadores Improvement
Santos got a decent continental group alongside Argentina’s San Lorenzo, Colombia’s Millonarios and Venezuela’s Caracas. They got off to a flying start as the excellent Charles scored twice early on to lead a 5-1 thumping of Millonarios then bagged a hat trick to inspire a 3-1 victory at San Lorenzo. Fernando bagged a brace in a 5-0 home win over Caracas before a 0-0 in Colombia and Lazaró celebrated 500 games in charge of Santos (in just over 7 years at the club) with Machado scoring both in a 2-0 win over San Lorenzo. That won the group so Lazaró fully rotated for the trip to Venezuela and they won 2-0.
Santos took on Racing Club in the 2nd round. Aurélio’s early goal was enough for a 1-1 in Argentina before dominating the return leg with 12 shots in the first half hour. Aurélio eventually headed the opener and tapped in a 2nd after left back Rodrigo Passos’ shot hit the post. Holding midfielder Gabriel drilled home a 3rd, which was his 1st of the season in his 31st appearance, and Charles scored a wonderful 4th, but they kept pushing after five subs, and Pereira crowned a 5-star performance. An all-Brazilian quarter final followed against Coritiba and Machado and Rosado earned a comfortable 2-0 away win before Charles’ brace led a dominant 3-1 home win.
A much bigger all-Brazil clash followed as an injury-hit Santos faced off against rivals Palmeiras, who began their home leg well and scored from a free kick only for Aurélio to respond from a corner. The referee awarded a penalty that looked well outside the box, but Carlos García saved and was the hero as they held on for a 1-1.
Palmeiras also started the 2nd leg well, scoring a superb opener after 8 minutes. Santos dominated, wasted a mass of chances, including Aurélio crashing a header against the post, and eventually got level as Dimitri swept home from close range. But they immediately fell behind again as Domina scored a wonderful chip. Lazaró threw everything at it but his players couldn’t find a way through, so they yet again lost at the semi-final stages. And losing after 23 shots to 9 and 2.94 xG to 1.11 is an absolute travesty. Palmeiras went on to win the Final, beating River, who were in their 6th successive final, on penalties.
Form Fades As Title Race Closes In
The good performances against strugglers left Santos 6 points clear of Palmeiras and 9 clear of Corinthians with 10 games remaining. A self-inflicted international exodus saw young teams earn 1-1s with Criciúma and at Internacional. Lazaró had to rotate further as injuries caught up with the side and they lost 1-0 at home to Flamengo, which saw Corinthians cut the gap to 3 points. But his side responded by thrashing CRB 6-0, led by Machado’s goal and 2 assists, while Corinthians lost 3-1 at Coritiba. That left them leading the way in what was technically a 6-way title fight.
Game 1 – Vitória (12th, home): Santos began the run-in with another big win led by the inspired Machado, who scored a new club record 4 in a 6-1 hammering of Vitória. Corinthians beat Paranense 3-0 and Palmeiras drew 1-1 at Fluiminense to take Santos 6 points clear.
Game 2 – Palmeiras (3rd, away): A potentially pivotal game took them into yet another clash with Palmeiras. They got a flyer as Mino’s free kick found Passos to head home at the back post, only to immediately concede. Palmeiras were much the better side, but a solid defensive effort kept them out for another 1-1. Corinthians lost 1-0 at Vasco to keep Santos 6 points clear with 3 to play.
Game 3 – Coritiba (5th, away): Palmeiras played twice before Santos’ next game and beat Bragantino 4-1 then Botafogo 3-2. While Lazaró again had 7 players on international duty, 3 more injured and Mino suspended and they lost 2-1 at home to Coritiba, leaving them level on points with Palmeiras with a game in hand.
Game 4 – Athlético Paranaense (8th, away): Palmeiras played their final game the day before Santos’ penultimate match and beat relegated Mirassol 3-1 to go 3 points clear. Santos faced another tricky game at Paranaense but started well as Passos’ deep cross was headed home by Aurélio for his 100th league goal for the club. He then doubled the lead from Rosado’s low cross was turned in by Aurélio and added 2 more for a club-record 4-goal haul after Machado’s 3rd.
Game 5 – Vasco da Gama (10th, home):That huge win took Santos top on goal difference and meant they would defend the title as long as they didn’t lose 17-0. And they didn’t but Lazaró wasn’t overly enthused by a wasteful 0-0. But Santos secured consecutive Brazilian titles!
Santos won the Brazilian title with 81 points after 23 wins, 12 draws and 3 defeats, scoring a league-high 91 and conceding just 26. Aurélio was the 2nd-top scorer with 20 in 32, 3 behind Vitória’s Kevin Kelsy. Rafinha got the 2nd-most assists with 11, Machado and Rafinha were the 2nd and 3rd best players with 7.42 and 7.41 average ratings, behind Angelo’s 7.43, and García topped the clean sheets with 18. As a result, Machado won Best Foreign Player, Luiz Fernando won Goal of the Year and Lazaró won his 3rd Treinador de Brasileirao.
Greatness Beckons For Santos Players
This group of players were bordering on greatness as Santos wrapped up a 3rd Série A title in 4 years, moving just 5 behind Palmeiras’ all-time record. Aurélio led the way again, breaking his own club record with 37 goals plus 7 assists in 56 games. But Machado was undoubtedly their star man as he stepped up massively this season with 27 goals and 14 assists in 61 games. Charles again impressed with 21 goals and 17 assists, José Mário scored 13, Fernando scored 13 with 15 assists, Rosado scored 10 with 9 assists and Rafinha got 17 assists from right back.
Machado also leads the way on the Santos Ginga rating, although he’s not technically eligible, given he joined the club too late, alongside Dimitri with a 79 rating. Rosado went past 300 games for the club and Aurélio passed 100 goals, but Lazaró was concerned by the drop off in the likes of Fernando and Dimitri’s ability. Check out all the stats and ratings by clicking the chart here:
Santos may have their work cut out in the summer as some of Europe’s biggest clubs have started taking an interest in their best players. And, while they’ve won 3 of the last 4 titles, they still haven’t won the state championship or Copa Libertadores. So there was still plenty to achieve for Lazaró, who had Palmeiras’ 16 titles as a long-term target.
Could Santos make it 3 Brazilian titles in a row? Join us next Monday to find out!
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