Wonderkid Factory | The Ultimate Wonderkid Factory Challenge: Bem-vindo ao Brasil

The fifth iteration of our Wonderkid Factory series see us finally head to the spiritual home of football: Brazil. In this new adventure, we’re basing ourselves in the northeast of South America’s largest country for a monumental youth-focused challenge.

After several years reporting on local news and sports events in his homeland of Recife, Robinho Lazaró had grown tired of the journalism game. A recent exposé of nefarious activity by organised crime gangs in the city had seen Lazaró become a target, receiving several death threats warning him to never put pen to paper on stories about the groups’ actions.

Upon stepping away from journalism, Lazaró turned to giving back to the community, helping a local charity that supported young people by encouraging them to get involved in sports. The football-mad Lazaró volunteered to coach the youth football teams, and swiftly bagged a couple of coaching badges en route to leading the charity’s under 14 and under 16 sides to regional titles. He was encouraged to take those coaching talents to the next level and was soon recruited to help coach the youth teams at Pernambuco-based Retrô Futebol Clube Brasil, on the north east coast of Brazil. He continued to take to coaching like a duck to water, leading Retrô Under 20s to the Pernambuco State title. And that achievement urged the Retrô board to fast-track Lazaró as the man to lead the senior football club forward.

Who Are Retrô FC?

Retrô Futebol Clube Brasil, from the city of Camaragibe in Greater Recife in northeast Brazil, was only founded in 2016, gaining promotion from the fourth-tier Série D as champions in 2024 – which remains its sole piece of silverware. The club was formed, in its own words: “Through the dream of a businessman from Pernambuco to invest in a social project that would reach low-income children and teenagers through sports, more specifically football, aiming at their development in the social, physical and psychological spheres.”

Not only does the club have a cool name, it also has disgustingly stylish kits that play on its name, with a retro design topped off by drawstring collars. The club, in Brazil’s third tier Série C, plays at the unnecessarily large Arena Pernambuco, which holds an impressive 44,300 people. That’s supported by excellent training facilities, good youth facilities, adequate academy coaching and above average youth recruitment, which all seem pretty decent for the third tier of Brazilian football.

Retrô start out with £250k in the bank, which Lazaró presumed would disappear fairly quickly at this level, along with a £3k transfer budget and £1,500 spare in a wage budget of £26k per week. And, intriguingly, it has affiliate links with Portugal’s Sporting CP and Rio giants Palmeiras.

Our mission will be to build on Retrô FC’s bright start to life as a football club, using the Wonderkid Factory approach of only signing players aged 19 or younger to become the best team in Brasil. Additionally, like in our Salvando Santos adventure on FM24, we will be aiming to produce the next Neymar of Pelé through the Retrô FC youth system by tracking their “Ginga” rating – based on the attributes Acceleration, Agility, Dribbling, Flair and Technique.

Critical to that mission in the future may well be 19-year-old Colombian wing back Pedro Rodríguez, 18-year-old midfielder Diego Guerra and left back Erik, winger Ericson, 19-year-old striker Jhonnatam and goalkeeper David Lucas.

However, the one player that stands out in the present is former FM wonderkid and Brazil international striker Vágner Love, who has somehow found himself in Retrô via Palmeiras, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas and Midtjylland. And, now at the ripe old age of 40, he’s the star striker at the club.

However, the club also had plenty of aging dross, which Lazaró was largely unable to get rid of. But he opted to go with a take on a 4-4-2 that allowed Vágner Love to play as a poacher with creative midfielder Radsley in behind the legend and loanee striker Douglas Santos.

Getting Started at Retrô

Lazaró’s Retrô reign began with the Pernambuco State championship, in which they were expected to finish 4th and the sole Série A representatives Sport Recife were the huge favourites. They began well as centre back Dankler and Radsley put them 2-0 up before halftime before the strikeforce of Vágner Love and Santos earned a 4-2 win at Decisao. 39-year-old winger Fernandinho scored twice in a 3-0 win over CSA before drawing at home to Maguary and Vágner Love scored the opener in 3-1 win over Jaguar. The big test saw them come unstuck in a 3-0 defeat at Sport Recife, but they recovered well as Radsley scored the only goal at rivals Náutico before a rotated side hit Vitória (PE) for six. They finished 5th to qualify for the playoffs, beating Jaguar 5-1 in the quarters led by a Fernandinho hat trick, only to lose at Sport Recife in the semis. But Ericson, who largely filled in as a sub across the midfield roles, won the Best Young Player award.

That was followed by a lengthy Copa do Nordeste campaign, in which they had to play 8 more matches and finished top of their group with 6 wins. That sent them into the quarter finals, where a 3-3 was followed by a penalty shootout success over América de Natal, before a 1-1 with Floresta (CE) was backed up with another penalties victory. Those successes sent Retrô into its first-ever cup final, which was a two-legged clash with Série A side Vitória that they unsurprisingly lost but only 5-3 on aggregate.

Série C finally began in early April, with Retrô predicted to finish firmly in mid-table in 10th place and with title odds of 33/1. However, Náutico were the pre-season favourites, which gave Lazaró some cause for optimism. The 20-club league begins with teams playing each other once, before the top eight break off into two promotion groups and a Champions Final match, which sounds extremely confusing.

Retrô began Série C well with Vágner Love, Santos and Fernandinho earning a 3-2 win at Itabaiana before hammering CSA 4-0. They suffered a 5-2 defeat to Guarani, who were in Série A 15 years ago, and performances began to tail off, dropping to a respectable 5th place after 10 games. However, a 4-0 hammering of bottom side Ituano, with goals by Vágner Love, Radsley, makeshift winger Luiz Henrique and Radsley, fired them back into form and, despite defeats at Naútico and league winners Floresta, they went on to finish 6th.

Indeed, that win was good enough to secure top spot in Group B, which ensured the club was promoted to the second tier of Brazilian football for the first time in its short history. The reward for that was taking on Group A winners Floresta in the two-legged Champions Final, for which both centre backs picked up injuries and they lost 4-2 on aggregate.

Unexpected Immediate Success

Within a decade of forming, little Retrô had catapulted themselves into the second tier of Brazilian football. This season’s star man was Radsley, who scored 15 with 12 assists, along with Fernandinho (also 15 goals and 12 assists), Santos (20 goals and 6 assists), Vágner Love (13 goals and 7 assists) and Henrique (12 goals and 17 assists).

The unexpected success prompted the Retrô board to hand Lazaró a new three-year deal on £600 per week, keeping him at the club until the summer of 2027. There were also promising signs for the future, with the first youth intake producing some exciting talents in midfielders André, Bruninho, Gustavo Tanajura, Leonardo Mantega, Gabriel, Eliaquim, Vinicius Votobel and Kaiser, who all have 5-star potential – with Votobel and Mantega especially exciting according to our first Ginga rating assessment below.

However, there would be plenty of change heading into Série B, with lots of players departing and Fernandinho and the legendary Vágner Love retiring. But could Retrô survive the step up to tier two for the first time? Join us next week to find out!