Salvando Santos | Part 12 | The World’s Best Youth Academy Delivers

Santos FC shocked some of the world’s biggest teams before claiming their 4th Brazilian titles in 6 years in 2033. And they achieved that on the back of selling their best two centre backs for a profit of £81m.

Santos’ youth production had stalled a little in recent years, but they weren’t alone. Regular scouring of youth sides revealed a serious lack of young talent not only in Brazil but across South America generally. However, Lazaró did draft in promising goalkeeper Dirceu, who’d been his backup goalkeeper for Brazil for 2 years, for £2.5m from Ponte Preta.

Lazaró, of course, stuck with his preferred narrow 4-3-3 approach with his trusted Dimitri and the exciting Bibi supporting big man Marcos Aurélio.

State Champ Progression and Title Defence

Santos began 2034 with 5 different scorers in a 5-0 win at Oeste Barueri. And despite heavy rotation, they won their first 6 games without conceding, won 13 out of 12, only conceding 2 goals. They also added more silverware as Deivick Trivino and José Mário earned a 2-1 win over Flamengo to lift their 3rd Supercopa da Brasil in 4 years. Santos then went unbeaten through the state championship to face Palmeiras in the Final and Bibi, Rodrigo Passos and Charles goals gave them the upper hand with a 3-2 away victory. Dimitri’s top corner stunner put them ahead in the home leg before some shoddy defending gifted an equaliser. But Santos held on to win their first Paulistao Sicredi under Lazaró and since 2016.

Santos took that form into Série A, starting with a Charles brace leading a 4-2 away thumping of local rivals Sao Paulo and Aurélio following suit in a 3-1 win at CRB. They suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat at home to Cruzeiro, but that and a 2-0 defeat to Flamengo were the only blips in the first 14 games. But Santos lost 9 players, including Lazaró selecting 7 in his Brazil squad, to World Cup 2034, which we’ll cover in Part 13 on Wednesday. The remaining players struggled initially, losing to Fortaleza and Palmeiras, but claimed impressive wins over Botafogo, Corinthians, Paranaense and Sao Paulo. And the internationals returned with Santos 4 points clear having played a game more than Palmeiras.

Targeting Copa Libertadores Improvement

Santos got an interesting group alongside Argentina’s Vélez Sarsfield, Uruguay’s Liverpool FC and Colombia’s Atlético Nacional. They began by setting a new club gate receipts record of £1.6m, £500k more than the previous record, as Aurélio’s early brace led a 4-0 win over Liverpool at the new-look Santos Stadium. They got well and truly thumped 4-1 at Vélez, Richard Gomes Filho edged a 3-2 at Nacional and a rotated team thrashed the Colombians 8-0 led by a hat trick from striker José Mário and won 2-0 in Uruguay. That teed up a final-day decider with Vélez, which Mário’s goals edged 2-1.

An all-Brazilian clash followed in the 2nd round against Coritiba. The internationals were still missing for the away leg and they lost 2-1. But they returned for the 2nd leg and Bibi, Aurélio and Rafinha goals ensured an easy 3-0 win. That set up another clash with Vélez and they gained revenge on the previous defeat with Gabriel nicking a 3-2 victory in Argentina, before Charles, Aurélio, Nílton and left back Joaquín Benítez earned a dominant 4-1 home win.

The semi finals served up a repeat of the 2032 Final as Santos faced another Argentinian side, Independiente. Santos fell behind early in the home leg but quickly responded with Bibi’s clinical finish, and they took control after the break as Aurélio and sub Mário sealed a 3-1 victory. Santos completely dominated the return leg only to concede the hosts’ first attack. But they just about held on to a 2-1 aggregate win. Elsewhere, Palmeiras ludicrously overcame a 3-0 defeat at River to thrash them 5-1 and reach the final with a 5-4 aggregate victory, setting up an exciting rival final clash.

Another Close Title Fight

Santos suffered a 3-2 defeat at Coritiba in early October, which teed up a huge clash between the rivals in mid-October with Santos 1 point clear. Santos started slowly, repeatedly giving the ball away and gifting Palmeiras opportunities on the counter attack. Charles crashed a long-range effort off the bar but the sides cancelled each other out in a tense first period. Santos grew into it after the break, but it drifted to a stalemate that dragged Corinthians and potentially Flamengo into the title race.

A rotated side struggled to a 3-2 defeat at Vasco, and Palmeiras took advantage by winning 4-1 at Cuiabá. They got back on track with an unlikely Richard Farias brace that sent them into an exciting title race that was probably a three-horse race with Palmeiras, Santos and Corinthians split by 6 points. But Palmeiras definitely had the easier run-in.

Game 1 – Gremio (11th, away): Santos began the run-in with a solid but unspectacular performance as Bibi scored the only goal at Gremio – and they suffered a third goalkeeper injury in a month! Palmeiras won 3-0 at Mirassol and Corinthians beat Ceará 2-1.

Game 2 – Fortaleza (7th, home): Palmeiras drew 2-2 at Botafogo the day before Santos’ game. And Bibi and Charles took advantage to seal a 2-1 win that took Santos top on goals scored. Corinthians drew 1-1 at Flamengo to stay 6 points adrift.

Game 3 – Corinthians (3rd, away): A massive game in Santos’ title ambitions took them to city rivals Corinthians, who were hoping to gatecrash the title race. They lost both strikers Aurélio and Mário to injury and goalkeeper Michael Mthimkulo helpfully went on international duty. Dimitri then picked up a knock after 10 minutes, they struggled to get going and slipped to a 1-0 defeat. Luckily, Palmeiras also struggled, picking up an early red card and losing 1-0 at home to Gremio. That saw the top three suddenly separated by just 3 points.

Game 4 – Fluminense (6th, away): Corinthians played early and continued to pour the heat on with a 2-0 win over Avaí. The next day, Palmeiras’ bottle continued as they lost 3-2 at Fortaleza and Santos had another really tough game with their third-choice keeper in net. And that showed as, after Bibi thought he’d nicked a win, Vitor Hugo conceded a tame 92nd-minute equaliser.

That served up a thrilling season conclusion as not only had Corinthians crept into the race, but Sao Paulo were also right in the mix. Santos and Palmeiras were tied on points and goal difference, but Série A is decided by the number of wins, so Santos had the advantage by 2 wins. Corinthians were a point back and Sao Paulo were 5 points behind with a game in hand. But, because Santos and Palmeiras were in the Libertadores Final, they played their final games a week early – so Sao Paulo could upset them a week later if they continued to bottle it. But, a Santos win would guarantee their 5th title in 7 years.

Game 5 – Botafogo (14th, home): Bizarrely, Corinthians played first and beat CRB 1-0 to go top of the league by 2 points before Santos entertained Botafogo and Palmeiras hosted Fluminense. Santos came out flying, going on the attack straight from the kickoff and Bibi squared for Dimitri to score before Botafogo had even touched the ball. Trivino should have doubled the lead after a brilliant run but showed more composure to guide home from the edge of the box on 22 minutes. Botafogo didn’t even have a shot in the first half and Bibi made things comfortable by drilling home a 3rd just before halftime. They lost Mthimkilu to yet another GK injury after the break, and Hugo obviously conceded the first shot. But they held on to a 3-1 win that, despite the lack of a trophy ceremony, secured the title.

Santos won their 5th Brazilian title in 7 years and 13th in total, and wrapped up a league double!

Santos defended their title by 1 point from Palmeiras and Corinthians, while Sao Paulo lost their final 2 games. They finished on 81 points after 26 wins, 3 draws and 9 defeats, scoring a league-high 84 and conceding 38. Bibi had the 3rd-best average rating of 7.25 and won Revelacao de Campeonato, which was won by a Santos player for the 7th time in 9 seasons.

Rival Copa Libertadores Final

Seemingly the entirety of Sao Paulo descended on Asunción as arch rivals Santos and Palmeiras went head-to-head at General Pablo Rojas. Current holders Palmeiras had won 3 of the last 8 Libertadores titles and 2 of the last 3, with Santos winning the other in 2032. Lazaró, unsurprisingly, lost goalkeeper Mthimkulu due to yet another broken arm, from which Dirceu hadn’t quite recovered. He also had question marks over Aurélio’s awful recent form, but decided to stick with him and lined up:

Hugo; Rafinha, Penchel, Rosado, Passos; Gabriel, Trivino; Charles; Bibi, Dimitri; Aurélio
Subs: Vitinho, Dirceu, U Santos, Fernando, Farias, Pereira, Benítez, Nílton, Vergueiro, Gomes Filho, F Santos

The game started slowly, but Hugo predictably conceded Palmeiras’ first shot, which was directly at him. They then lost Dimitri to an injury and Bibi picked up a knock, but Lazaró kept him on and was rewarded as the youngster finished off a nice passing move – only for the ref to immediately award a dubious penalty that Hugo didn’t even dive for. So Lazaró hooked him for the half-fit Dirceu. Lazaró went attacking and, of course, nothing happened, so Santos slipped to a narrow 2-1 defeat that was pretty hard to take.

The World’s Best Youth Academy

Santos’ continued focus on youth saw their academy recognised as the best in the world for the first time. They climbed ahead of Man City and Barcelona with Palmeiras impressively up to 4th and Flamengo and Corinthians in 6th and 9th.

Aurélio again topped Santos’ scoring chart with 27 in 49, but his form at the end of the season had been absolutely unacceptable. Mário did well with 20 in 54, but was injured too often, followed by Charles, who also finished the season terribly with 19. But Bibi was the real star of this team with 14 goals and 7 assists, and was pretty much the only player to finish the campaign in good form.

Dimitri continues to lead the Santos Ginga rating with 80, which remains 10 short of our target of 90, ahead of the improving Bibi and Pereira (78). Hit the chart below to check out all the players’ stats.

The latest youth intake from the best youth academy in the world delivered two exciting prospects in 6ft 6in centre back Marcos Antonio and, amusingly, 5ft 5in midfielder Carlos Augusto.

Lazaró was still loving life at Santos but he got the feeling they needed a little freshening up in the summer, considering the number of players who finished the season poorly. And if they could stop getting goalkeeper injuries, he’d be absolutely delighted.

We’ll take you to World Cup 2034 on Wednesday, as Lazaró leads a heavily Santos-based Brazil in search of glory. And we’ll back for season 13 at Santos next Monday!