Retrô Football Clube Brasil were the talk of Brazil as the club only founded in 2016 gained promotion to the country’s top tier for the first time in 2027. Most Brazilian football fans had never even heard of this little club in the northeast of the country, but it quickly gained appeal as they discovered its commitment to youth and deliciously stylish football kits.
The step up to Série A saw Lazaró handed an expanded staff team of 6 coaches plus a set piece coach, 5 scouts and 3 physios. He bolstered the staff quality with additions like defence coach Claudio Cacapa and scout Juan Pablo Ángel. However, they headed into 2028 with only £1.1m in the bank, but they were soon plunged into the red as the board decided to improve the club’s training facilities at the cost of £4m. The board also announced bizarre ticket price changes that saw the average ticket available for £4, with season ticket prices available for £0. No wonder the club wasn’t making much money!
At the end of the season, Retrô bid farewell to midfielders Radsley and Ericson and centre back Rayan Ribeiro, which reduced the squad’s average age to just 20. Lazaró promoted midfielder Cesinha, who impressed out on loan last season, promising holding midfielder Arthur, and left sided defender Zé. He also made his first cash signings, bringing in young defensive options Anderson and Hérick Bianchi Sousa, who’d retrain at centre back, for £20k apiece from Guarani and Figueirense. He also leaned on affiliate club Palmeiras to draft in midfielder Juan Gabriel and defender Isaac Leocadio to boost the first 11. However, he wasn’t holding out any hope of achieving survival in Série A.
Lazaró stuck with the fairly flexible 3-4-3 approach that worked so well last season, with the more defensive formation in reserve. The club’s two four-star ability players, centre back Laécio Connely and midfielder André, are considered to be decent Série B players and the rest of the squad are considered to be at-best Série C talents. Gabriel comes into the attacking midfield roles alongside captain Diego Guerra, 18-year-old Advaldo will play with Andre in defensive midfield, Vinicius Votobel becomes the starting right wingback, Leocadio takes his place at the heart of the defence and “O Deus” Rodrigo Godinho continues to lead the line aged 17.
Retrô’s Steep Série A Challenge
The usual short off-season ended with a return to the Pernambuco State championship, which Lazaró aimed to use as an opportunity to rotate and blood more youngsters. Despite that, their form was strong, including a Godinho hat trick inspiring a 3-1 win over Central and his replacement Leonardo Mantega scoring twice in a 4-1 succcess at . They went on to finish 2nd, 2 points behind Santa Cruz, then lost 3-2 to Sport Recife in the semis.
Unsurprisingly, Retrô are massive favourites to be relegated from Série A with title odds of 1000/1, compared to CRB at 200/1, Cuiabá at 100/1 and Vitória, Mirassol and Coritiba at 50/1. The little northeastern side were now up against the Brazilian giants of Flamengo, who are 11/4 favourites along with Palmeiras (9/2), Sao Paulo and Corinthians (11/1), Cruzeiro (13/1), Gremio (16/1) and Fluminense, Botafogo and Santos (20/1).
To put the size of the challenge facing them into context, Retrô have an annual salary of just £564k, nearly 10 times less than the next-lowest of CRB (£5.18m). The likes of Flamengo, who spent £25m on transfers in the off-season, spend 64 times more per year with a wage bill of £36.6m, along with Palmeiras (£30.1m), Sao Paulo (£21.1m) and Gremio (£19.9m). Furthermore, Retrô were only spending £9k per week on wages, while holders Flamengo have 25 players earning more than that per week and midfielder Wendel earning £88k per week.
Retrô’s first taste of top tier football saw them host 2021 Série A champions Atlético Mineiro on 8 April. And it went better than expected, with Godinho opening the scoring with a volley after 11 minutes. Atlético immediately responded but Connely restored the lead from a corner, and they held on until the 70th minute but took a point after a late barrage. Their first away day took them to 2024 champions of Brazil and South America, Botafogo, where Godinho once again gave them an unlikely lead, before being dominated and losing 4-1. Retrô again took the lead at home to Vitória, this time through Mantega, but conceded twice after halftime to lose 2-1 and, for the fourth successive game, led at Sao Paulo through Advaldo only to get battered 5-2.
Inevitably, that prompted a player meeting to discuss the club situation, in which Lazaró was tempted to tell them it was their fault they kept losing. They threw away leads to draw back-to-back home games against Coritiba and Vasco, while being hammered 3-0 at Corinthians and 2-0 at Fluminense and being downed 1-0 at home to Gremio by Marcos Leonardo.
They managed to hold leaders Santos to a 0-0 at home but couldn’t buy a victory at this level, remaining winless through 17 matches. However, the miracle finally occurred at Mirassol, as a goal in each half by Godinho earned a 2-0 victory to end a long wait for win.
Retrô fans were soon brought back down to earth by entertaining Flamengo, and did incredibly well to only lose 2-1, but somehow made it consecutive away wins as Juan Gabriel’s header earned a 1-0 at Internacional. Retrô were suddenly flying as they edged a basement battle with Sao Paulo with Juan Gabriel, Godinho and wingback Erik earning a 3-2 victory. Indeed, that was enough to lift them off the bottom of the table for the first time in month, above the underperforming Sao Paulo, and only 3 points from safety after 22 games.
However, that only proved to be a brief respite from getting battered by the league’s better teams, including a 4-0 defeat at home to Fluminense. Six successive defeats saw them drop 9 points from safety, and likely doomed to relegation with 10 games remaining. That prompted Lazaró to change up his approach and test out a new-look 4-2-3-1 for the remainder of the season, with Guerra playing in behind Godinho.
The tactical switch worked wonders as Retrô defended like heroes at Vitória, while Godinho scored the only goal of the game. And it impressed again next time out as Votobel put them in front before Santos quickly equalised, only for Votobel, clearly preferring his more advanced position, to pick out Guerra to score a dramatic 92nd-minute winner. However, the highlight of the season, and arguably the best win in club history, had to be another resolute defensive effort backing up another Guerra strike to secure an extremely fortuituous 1-0 at senior affiliate Palmeiras.
Those results lifted Retrô to the heady heights of 18th and 4 points from safety with 6 games remaining, and earned Lazaró his first Série A Manager of the Month award in September. Any faint survival hopes were likely killed off by throwing away another lead to lose 3-1 at home to Cuiabá. However, next up was a huge trip to 16th-place CRB, where they at least retained some hope with a hard-fought 0-0. But the toughest game in Brazil, away to Flamengo and Lazaró and his young players’ first taste of the famous Maracana followed, and another narrow 2-1 defeat saw them drop back to the bottom of the table.
Two weeks later, a 3-0 defeat to surprise title contenders Bahia and, more disappointingly, a 2-1 defeat at home to Mirassol sealed their fate, as Retrô were finally relegated to Série B.
Retrô finished a pretty abject season in 20th place with 26 points, after 6 wins (5 of which were away!), 8 draws and 24 defeats, scoring a league low 31 and conceding 74. Shockingly, they were joined in relegation by third favourites for the title Sao Paulo, along with, while Bahia claimed only their 3rd Série A title and first in 40 years.
Reflecting On A Really Tough Campaign
Safe to say this season had not gone well, but Lazaró actually felt his team had done well to avoid defeat 14 times. So he was hopeful the board would see sense and realise Retrô were always destined to be relegated. However, a few days after relegation, he was called into the boardroom to discuss his future and the poor atmosphere in the dressing room. He promised to cultivate a stronger atmosphere in the future, and was allowed to stay on.
The standout player this season was probably Godinho, who led the club with 14 goals in 48 games, 9 of which were in Série A. However, the striker’s progression was attracting interest from the likes of Arsenal, Man City, PSG and Inter. Guerra also stood out with a club-high 10 assists and Erik got 6 assists from left back, but there wasn’t too much else to get excited about.
The overall positive about the season was the number of young players getting first team football. That potential was boosted by yet another stellar youth intake that promised no fewer than 9 elite prospects – that’s 27 in the last 3 seasons! The pick of this year’s intake is midfielder Ricardo, along with a left winger also called Ricardo, midfielders Carlos and Sérgio, centre back Marcos Rabelo, winger Guilherme Paixao, midfielder/striker Eduardo and right back Messias Palomares.
And here’s how some of those youngsters fit into our latest Ginga tracker, which continues to be led by Votobel (72), Mantega (69), Tanajura and new boy Carlos (66) and Godinho (65).
Retrô will drop back into Série B for the 2029 campaign, which could well be a blessing in disguise to try and get some better performances out of players and boost the development of their young talents. But could Lazaró help the club be competitive back in the second tier? Join us next Monday to find out!
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