Wonderkid Factory | Part 2 | Putting Faith in Youth in Série B

Retrô Futebol Clube Brasil gained promotion to the second tier of Brazilian football for the first time in their short history in their first season under the tutelage of Robinho Lazaró. And the retirement of veteran stars Vágner Love and Fernandinho, several old players being released and a lack of finances saw the manager put his faith in youth.

Indeed, no fewer than 16 players departed at the end of December 2025, slashing £16k off their £24k wage spending – leaving them with £39k per week spare in the budget. However, the club had plummeted to being £93k in the red, having spent absolutely nothing.

The departure of Vágner Love, who actually stayed at the club as a coach, saw 19-year-old midfielder Diego Guerra step up prematurely as club captain. Lazaró couldn’t justify any signings due to the lack of finances, so he promoted exciting youth talents like midfielder André and Gabriel, wingers Gustavo Tanajura, Leonardo Mantega, Eliaquim and Vinicius Votobel, centre back Meykson and goalkeeper Deivid (some of which eventually went out on loan). However, only four players are aged over 21 and eight of the 19-man squad are teenagers.

The summer changes saw Lazaró’s attacking options depleted, so he switched up his tactic to more of a 3-4-3 with Guerra and Radsley playing in behind the striker, 16-year-old André coming into the midfield, youngsters Erik and Pedro Rodríguez stepping up as advanced wingbacks, and defensive midfielder Danillo moving into the back three. While several youngsters were learning new positions to provide greater squad depth.

Putting Faith in Youth in Season 2 in Brazil

Lazaró’s second season at Retrô began with the Pernambuco State championship. The new formation looked pretty solid as they began with 5 victories, including a 5-0 thumping of Jaguar, winning 4-2 at recently relegated Série A side Sport Recife and the improving Guerra scoring twice as they thrashed Santa Cruz 5-0. A couple of defeats saw them finish 3rd, before crushing Maguary 10-2 on aggregate in the quarters and Rodríguez’s second-leg brace earned a 3-2 aggregate win over Sport Recife in the semis. That teed up a final against Santa Cruz, and Retrô edged past Santa Cruz on penalties after a 3-3 aggregate draw. As a result, Lazaró led Retrô to the club’s first piece of “major” silverware.

The Brazilian bookies tipped Retrô as massive relegation favourites, giving them 300/1 title odds with their nearest challengers being Floresta (50/1) and Guarani and Paysandu (33/1). Bahia are the 8/13 title favourites, alongside giants Vasco da Gama (Evens), Goiás (6/1) and Criciúma and Sport Recife (9/1), who Retrô had already beaten twice in the state championship.

Retrô’s first taste of Série B football began with another first. Their season opener at home to former Série A side Ceará saw one of their matches broadcast live on TV for the first time in the 9.30pm Friday night slot. However, tiredness overload forced Lazaró to send a few key players on holiday, and they slipped to a 4-1 defeat. Players returned for a trip to Sport Recife, but they slipped to a disappointing 2-1 loss before picking up their first point at this level by holding Atlético Goianiense to a 0-0.

The tricky start continued with a 4-0 hammering at Chapecoense, which forced Lazaró to tweak his tactical approach to become a little more defensive. That earned them a point at home to CRB before, at the 7th time of asking, finally picking up a first win as Rodríguez inspired a 4-1 win over América (MG). The wingback also scored the only goal at Guarani and Radsley repeated the feat at home to Paysandu, before taking a 5-0 thumping at Vasco, who had Matheus Franca on loan from Crystal Palace! A tricky run followed, including getting hammered 6-0 at Bahia, and Retrô dropped back into the relegation zone after 13 games.

Another tough spell followed, but Guerra’s penalty nicked an excellent 3-2 win at Goianiense, before Ewerton and Rodríguez secured an impressive 2-0 at home to Chapecoense. That surprisingly good form continued as goalkeeper Deivid earned a superb 0-0 at 2nd place CRB and Ericson scored the only goal at home to 4th place Goiás. The good form didn’t last, but it helped Retrô take a 7-point gap over the dropzone into the final eight games.

That was whittled down to 5 points with 5 games remaining and a fairly disappointing 0-0 at Floresta reduced it to 4 points with 3 games to go. Ewerton’s late goal nicked a 1-1 at home to Operário Ferroviário, which took them to 8 games without a win ahead of a huge trip to 16th placed Ponte Preta. But the hosts had a man sent off after 16 minutes for an awful challenge on Guerra, and André’s delicious 25-yard strike pinged in off the post to earn a massive 1-0 win. And that was enough to secure survival in Série B with a game remaining.

Retrô ended the season 5 points clear of relegation, finishing in 15th place with 42 points, after 11 wins, 8 draws and 18 defeats, scoring 39 and conceding 67. They also racked up the league’s most bookings (63) and the most red cards (5), and made the most fouls (533, 151 more than any other team!) but won the 2nd most tackles (538) and made the most clearances (724). While Deivid was the only player to start every game in Série B and, intriguingly, kept the 2nd most clean sheets (13) and made the 2nd most saves.

Celebrating Hard Fought Survival

Lazaró was delighted to have edged clear of the bookies’ expected relegation, especially as they’d done it with a mass of inexperienced youngsters. Old man Radsley was their star performer, scoring 16 goals with 7 assists, but his midfield partner Guerra also impressed with 13 goals and 12 assists. Other key players were Ewerton (14 goals), Rodríguez, who looks set to leave at the end of his contract, (11 goals and 16 assists) and Erik (3 goals and 12 assists). While Deivid set a new club record of 20 clean sheets across the campaign.

The potential at the club was boosted by Retrô very much delivering on Lazaró’s hopes of good early youth intakes. In fact, it went beyond his wildest dreams with a youth intake of epic proportions, which contained no fewer than 12 (twelve!) elite prospects. The pick of them looked like being attacker Rodrigo Godinho (what a name), who comes in as the best striker at the club, along with goalkeeper Bonieque, attackers Neto, Flávio José and Danilo Pereira, midfielders Cesinha, Arthur and Advaldo, and centre back Zé.

Plenty of those youngsters feature at the top of the latest Ginga ratings, which is led by attackers Vinicius Votobel (68), Leonardo Mantega (67) and Gustavo Tanajura (63).

Avoiding relegation had been a successful campaign, following on from claiming the Pernambuco State championship title. And Lazaró was excited about the huge potential of the young players coming through the club’s ranks. The finances had improved this season, but Lazaró would likely need to retain faith in youth going into their second campaign in Série B.

Could Retrô’s exciting youngsters continue to excel in Lazaró’s third season in northeast Brazil? Join us next week to find out!