Salvando Santos | Part 15 | Lazaró Leaves Santos On A High

An epic bottle job saw Santos Futebol Clube hand the Série A title to Flamengo, only to impressively recover their nerve and win their second Copa Libertadores of the Robinho Lazaró reign. Heading into 2036, Lazaró was fully focused on regaining the Brazilian league crown in what he planned to be his final season at Santos.

Long-serving Fernando Santos, who refused to sign a new contract despite playing 392 games for the club, was allowed to join Man City for £23m and goalshy striker José Mário went to Corinthians for £4.5m. Lazaró brought in a new goalkeeper to provide competition for Dirceu, bringing in wonderkid Franco Gauna for £7.75m from Rosario Central and midfielder David González for £7m from Boca. He also promoted promising midfielders Acássio de Almeida and Carlos Augusto and brought a famous face back to the club as the iconic Neymar arrived as his second assistant manager.

Lazaró stuck with his 4-3-3 narrow approach, just making a few tactical tweaks to increase the tempo and encourage shorter passing. And there was a very settled look to the first 11.

Looking To Exorcise League Demons

Lazaró was wary of burnout early in the season, so he used the first team sparingly in the state championship. A brace by captain Charles led a 4-1 hammering of Corinthians, they reaped revenge on last season’s 7-0 humiliation with Glaudestony Penchel’s header earning a 1-0 win at 10-man Palmeiras, and striker Jairo Penafiel became the youngest ever Santos scorer aged 16 years 137 days as he earned a 1-0 win over Gremio Novorizontino. They eased into the semis and past Ituano 6-2 to face Sao Paulo, earning a 0-0 away then taking an early lead through a brilliant Vinicius Maia strike. They bossed the game and eventually wrapped up the second Paulista title of Lazaró’s reign with Maia’s late tap in.

Santos also began Série A well as Maia braces led 3-2 wins at Fluminense and Vasco followed by 2-1 wins over Sao Paulo and Bahia and a 4-0 hammering of Avaí. A big week in early June saw Deivivk Trivino and Dimitri nick a 2-1 win at holders Flamengo before international call-ups affected a 1-1 at home to Palmeiras. They lost 6 players to Copa América and 4 more to the Olympics, but luckily the new Brazil boss didn’t call up attacking midfielder Bibi, who inspired wins over Internacional and Ceará, and right back Rafinha, who nicked a late winner over Vasco.

Santos eventually slipped up with a 2-1 defeat at Athlético Paranaense but bounced back with three consecutive 1-0 wins over Fluminense, Vasco and Sao Paulo, a 3-0 win at home to bottom side Mirassol then 1-0 wins over Bahia and Mirassol. That tied the Série A record for most games without conceding, set by Vasco in June 2024, and Santos broke it with a 5-0 thrashing of Avaí. That streak ended as a rotated side won 4-1 at Cruzeiro led by a Trivino brace, and Santos’ relentless form earned them an 18-point lead heading into the final 10 games.

Copa Libertadores Defence

Santos got a potentially tricky Copa Libertadores group alongside River Plate, Independiente Medellín and Bolívar. They started well as Bibi, Dimitri and Maia earned a 3-0 win in Colombia, de Almeida’s first two senior goals led a 5-0 thrashing of Bolívar and Dimitri earned a 1-1 at home to River, which saw a 49,127 sellout set a new gate receipts record of £1.7m. They lost 1-0 at River, but a rotated team thrashed Independiente 5-0, inspired by exciting midfielder Carlos Augusto’s brace, and and won 2-0 in Bolivia to secure top spot.

Rosario Central followed in the second round and Maia’s quickfire first-half brace inspired a 3-2 away win before an easy 3-1 home victory. An all-Brazillian clash followed against Internacional and Charles earned Santos’ favourite scoreline in a 1-0 home win before left back Rodrigo Passos earned a 1-1 away to reach the semis for the 5th time in 6 seasons. A big rival clash was up next as Santos took on Corinthians for a place in the final. Santos made a great start to the home leg as Dimitri sent Maia in for the opener after 9 minutes, but that was their last moment of threat as Corinthians grew into the game and deservedly equalised. They were equally inept away as they just couldn’t get going and Corinthians’ fluke goal sent them into a probably deserved final.

Strengthening Santos’ Title Grip

A Bibi brace and Augusto’s strike earned a 3-1 win at Fortaleza before big games against their nearest rivals. Maia and Bibi’s late goal nicked a 2-2 against Flamengo before losing 2-0 at Palmeiras. But a rotated side beat strugglers Remo 2-0 led by another Augusto goal, which took Santos 14 points clear with 6 games remaining. A few days after the Corinthians second leg a rotated team played out a dire 0-0 at Corinthians, and they had a first chance to clinch the title a week later at home to Botafogo in, potentially fittingly, Lazaró’s 900th match in charge of Santos.

Lazaró got his boys fired up pre-game and it showed as they raced into a 3-0 lead through defender Lincoln Vergueiro’s header, Gabriel’s 20-yarder and a brilliant Bibi solo strike, all assisted by Maia. Nothing happened after the break and Santos strolled to a dominant win to regain their title.

Santos won Série A for the 6th time in 8 years and 14th time in total!

Upon lifting the league title, Lazaró was handed a microphone to address his adoring fans and, in an emotional speech, announced his intention to retire from football management at the end of the season. He was given a warm round of applause as he paraded Santos Stadium with the Série A trophy and the fans sang “Lazaró, Lazaró” as their tearful manager departed the pitch. He then led the players on a Champions tour, including another emotional day as Passos and Maia earned a 2-0 win over Internacional in Lazaró’s final match at Santos Stadium.

Santos won Série A by 14 points, finishing with 96, which is the highest points tally of this save, after a new club record 30 wins, 6 draws and 2 defeats, scoring 71 and conceding just 21.

Lazaró Departs Santos On A High

Lazaró was delighted to have exorcised the demons of the end of last season by storming to his second league double with Santos and easily their most dominant Série A campaign. The star of his final season at the club was very much Maia, who scored 26 with 14 assists in 53 games. The likes of Bibi (18 goals and 8 assists), Charles (15 goals and 7 assists), Trivino (13 goals and 4 assists) and Dimitri (12 goals and 17 assists) also all impressed as usual.

Dimitri finishes this save with Santos’ leading Ginga rating of 81, pushed close by Maia’s 80. Rosado leads the way with 580 games in all competitions, which is 53 per season!, since coming through the academy in 2025, ahead of Dimitri (560), Charles (535), Penchel (488) and Rafinha (482). Rosado also extended his club record league appearances to 446, ahead of Dimitri (432) and Charles (415). Whgile Charles is the top scorer at the club with 112 in the league and 153 in total. Check out all the players’ career stats and attributes by clicking the chart below.

And here’s a quick gallery of Santos’ most important players and some of the homegrown stars throughout this save, including a few key players who’ve since departed the club – just click each image to enlarge their profiles.

Lazaró departs Santos after 12 successful seasons, in which he led the club to an immediate promotion from Série B in his first season. He then led Santos to six Série A titles, two Paulista state championship titles, two Copa Libertadores, two Recopa Sudamericana, one Copa do Brasil and four Supercopa do Brasil, and saw the club establish the best youth system in the world. He also led his nation Brazil to win the World Cup in 2034.

Lazaró led Santos in a total of 904 matches (that’s 75 per season!), of which he won 571, drew 176 and lost 157, scoring 1,918 goals and conceding 867. He also sold 103 players for a profit of £480m and signed 49 for an outlay of £126m, with a record sale of £80m for goalkeeper Carlos García to Arsenal and a record signing of Vinicius Maia for £15.75m from Gremio.

Thanks for reading this Salvando Santos adventure on FM24. I only started this series when we discovered that FM25 was being delayed – and part of me wishes I’d held onto the idea with the recent rumours that Neymar could be returning to his boyhood club! But it’s been a really fun save in which we focused on youth development and brought through some great youngsters who led Santos to huge success.

This article was written long before the announcement that FM25 was being cancelled. So we’ll be wrapping up our our ongoing Wonderkid Factory series over the next couple of weeks, before beginning a brand new long-term challenge early next month.