Wonderkid Factory | Part 6 | Série B Promotion Push

After the disappointment of relegation, Retrô Futebol Clube Brasil steadied themselves and secured a Série B playoff spot in 2029. And that was a positive step for a club predicted to suffer back-to-back relegations.

Manager Robinho Lazaró remained excited about the future, with a mass of homegrown youngsters continuing to make positive development. The club was also stabilising financially, heading into the new decade with £6m in the bank, as well as a £3m transfer budget and a £60k weekly wage budget, of which they were spending just £19k .

Lazaró kept faith with the 4-2-3-1 approach he used last season, with star men André and Advaldo patrolling the midfield, Juliano de Melo now established as the starting number 10, Juninho and Vinicius Votobel the first choice wingers and Carrizo challenging to start in either full back berth.

Série B

Retrô had a fairly shaky Pernambuco State campaign as Lazaró blooded more of his young players, but managed to finish 3rd. They saw off Adogados 4-1 on aggregate in the quarter finals, then a record crowd of 26,634 people saw de Melo score the only goal at home to Náuticio before he scored again alongside Rodrigo Godinho’s brace in a superb 4-2 away win. That teed up a final with Sport Recife, and another Godinho double earned a 3-2 home win before his late goal nicked a 1-1 away. And that secured Retrô’s second Pernambuco State title!

For possibly the first time in this save, the bookies were backing Retrô to avoid relegation, predicting them to finish 13th in Série B with title odds of 50/1. Bragantino are 4/6 favourites, followed by Juventude (13/8), Mirassol (13/5), América Mineiro (10/3), Vitória (7/2), CRB (8/1) and Goiás (17/2).

The Série B campaign began well with de Melo, Godinho and Votobel earning a dominant 3-1 win over Ferroviária. Godinho’s brace inspired a 3-2 win at ABC before losing 3-1 at Bragantino, and the good start continued despite defeats at Juventude, Goianiense and América Mineiro and at home to Mirassol – equally their tally of 5 defeats all of last season after 17 games, but crucially only drawing once. Despite that, their Série B rivals were also slipping up, and a 2-0 win over Goiás, with goals by de Melo and the improving Joílson, took Retrô top of the league for the first time.

Retrô received more big transfer fees in July as Flamengo unfortunately triggered de Melo’s £3.4m release fee, with a free loanback, and goalshy Damián Garcés (1 goal in 21) joined Bahia for £1m. While captain Diego Guerra couldn’t get in the team and moved to Operário Ferroviário for £40k after a club record 266 league games.

That gave Joílson a chance to step up ahead of de Melo, and he played well as he created Godinho’s winner at home to Goianiense. And a first senior goal for winger Ricardo Cavalcante earned a 1-1 at home to Juventude to keep Retrô top of the league by 2 points with 8 games remaining. A late goal denied them at Botafogo-SP, before Juninho scored the only goal at home to Remo and holding 3rd place CRB to a 0-0. That saw Retrô sitting 2nd, 5 points clear of CRB and 2 behind Vitória, going into the final 5 games.

Godinho’s brace rescued a 2-2 at home to Chapecoense, which confirmed at least a playoff place, before an uncharacteristically inept 3-0 defeat at Mirassol. They bounced back in style as Votobel, Joílson and Ricardo Cavalcante earned a dominant 3-0 win over América Mineiro. The next day, Bragantino drew at Chapecoense, leaving Retrô 6 points clear of them with 2 games remaining and on the verge of a Série A return. And a week later, promotion was confirmed in style as Godinho ran riot at Goiás, scoring a new club record four goals to inspire a 5-1 hammering – a haul that saw him become the first player in Retrô history to reach 100 league goals for the club.

Retrô finished in 2nd place on 75 points after 22 wins, 9 draws and 7 defeats, scoring 61 goals (well behind Vitória’s 95) and conceding just 39. Godinho was the 3rd top scorer with 23 goals in 34 games, 3 behind Vitória’s Arthur Sales who scored an impressive 26 in 30. Votobel was the 6th top assister with 10 and Juninho was 8th with 9, Juninho had the 6th most key passes (80), and Votobel and Juninho created the 5th most chances (21).

Ready For Another Shot at Série A

Lazaró was delighted with his young side’s progress this season, especially considering the number of players they’d lost over the last two years. Godinho again led the way this season with 35 goals in 50 games, and he’s now scored 102 goals in 171 league games. Votobel had a club-high 18 assists with 10 goals and set a new average rating club record of 7.29, Joílson scored 8 with 7 goals, Juninho scored 7 with 12 assists and Ricardo Cavalcante stepped up with 6 goals.

Those players slot into the latest Retrô Ginga tracker, which continues to be led by Votobel (74), along with Carlos (71), Godinho (69), Juninho (68), Gustavo Tanajura and Fransuar Santos Filho (67), and Bruno (66).

Lazaró was really excited to lead Retrô back into Série A, and felt they were far better equipped to compete in the top tier than they were last time around. But could his young players mount a survival bid in their second season in the big time? Join us next Monday to find out!