Little Retrô Futebol Clube Brasil were the talk of the nation as their young stars secured Copa Libertadores by finishing 6th in just their second season in Série A. Last year’s success saw Retrô’s share of TV revenue rocket to over £23m, which should transform the club’s finances over the next 12 months.
However, for now, they came into 2032 with £5.5m in the bank, a £6m transfer budget and £40k spare in a weekly wage budget of £110k. The club bid farewell to more long-term servants as left back Erik, now 25, departed after a club record 296 league games and centre back Rodrigo Gueti left after 217 league games. Winger Vinicius Votobel struggled in Série A and was sold to Pachuca for £70k after 213 league games, and Lazaró moved on youngsters that weren’t progressing, including winger Fernando Barelli to Mezatlán for £700k, midfielder Marcelo Bello to Cancún for £150k, winger Neto to Correcaminos for £98k and midfelder Aldiran to Chiapas for £90k.
Lazaró strengthened his squad with exciting midfielder Marcelo Martínez on a free transfer from Defensor Sporting. He also brought in striker Carlos Vera for £400k from Colo-Colo, centre back Nicolás Pino for £600k from Chacarita and midfielder Samuel Neira on a free from Millonarios. He also promoted two 17-year-olds in centre back Wesley Martins and defensive midfielder Brener Vargas and 18-year-old right back Roberto Feijao.
Lazaró initially decided it was time for a tactical evolution, ditching his wing play approach to switch to a narrow 4-3-3. However, a goalshy start to the season saw him change to a slightly more attacking version of his 4-2-3-1 approach, with Rodrigo Godinho joining Diego Ruiz up front as a deep lying forward and Martínez, Joílson and the two Ricardos (Ricardo and Ricardo Cavalcante) patrolling the wings. Sergio Carrizo moves across to left back with Mateus and Feijao fighting it out on the right.
Second Season in Série A
The 2032 season started well as Ruiz scored twice in a 3-0 win over Porto de Caruaru. They went on to top the group again, with Ruiz scoring 7 in 5 starts, before edging past Náutico 1-0 on aggregate and then earning the same scoreline against Sport Recife to win a 3rd successive Pernambuco State championship. And that saw Lazaró earn iconic status among the club’s supporters.
The bookies weren’t quite so appreciative, although they no longer fancied Retrô to be relegated, predicting them to finish 17th with title odds of 200/1. Palmeiras are Evens favourites, followed by Flamengo (7/2), Gremio (20/1), Corinthians and Santos (20/1) and Botafogo and Vasco da Gama (25/1).
The Série A season began well as Ruiz and Advaldo goals earned a 2-0 win at home to Gremio before Godinho’s brace downed Coritiba 2-1. They got dominated 3-1 at Santos before Cavalcante’s late goal nicked a 2-2 at Vitória and throwing away a lead to lose 2-1 at Corinthians. But arguably their best Série A performance so far saw Ruiz deliver a superb hat trick in a 4-1 thumping of Botafogo, which was backed up by a solid 0-0 at home to affiliate club and reigning champions Palmeiras.
Martínez had his best game yet as, playing as a right winger, he scored twice to inspire a 3-2 victory at Internacional before scoring the only goal at Vasco da Gama. That lifted Retrô to the heady heights of 2nd place after 12 games, only trailing Palmeiras by a point with 2 games in hand. And they went top of Série A for the first time as Ricardo Cavalcante scored the only goal at Paranaense, in which André became the club’s record league appearances holder by surpassing Erik’s 296 games.
August saw two huge bids for Godinho, who had two Saudi sides match his £13.25m minimum release fee but, like an absolute legend, he turned down the big oil money. The strong run ended with a narrow 2-1 defeat at Flamengo, who replaced them at the top of the table and a tricky spell followed, going 6 games without a win. But Cavalcante inspired a 2-1 win over Santos, Ruiz snapped a 10-game goal drought with a brace to earn an excellent 2-0 win over Corinthians and Cavalcante bagged an assist hat trick to lead a 4-1 thumping of Internacional.
Retrô’s First Taste of Continental Football
Retrô’s first continental match saw them take on Venezuela’s Deportivo La Guaira in the Copa Libertadores second qualifying round. A Ruiz brace sandwiched goals by Joílson and Ricardo as they eased to a 4-0 home victory, before the club’s first ever match outside of Brazil saw Joílson earn a 1-1. The toughest possible draw saw them take on Corinthians, against whom they’d lost all 4 previous meetings by a 10-1 aggregate score, in the third qualifying round. They at least halted that trend in a 0-0 home draw, in which Ruiz suffered a calf strain and they set a new gate receipts record of £475k, but lost 2-0 to a Yuri Alberto brace in the away leg.
Retrô dropped into Copa Sudamericana, in which they were drawn in Group A with Ecuador’s Orense, Argentina’s Tigre and Chilean side Universidad de Chile. They opened up at home to UdC and Godinho, André and Ruiz earned a dominant 3-0 win. Martins’ first senior goal rescued a point in Ecuador before Ruiz, André, Ricardo and Advaldo goals helped them batter Tigre 4-0. Ruiz and Godinho goals nicked a point in Chile and they topped the group thanks to Martínez’s first 2 goals downing Orense 3-0.
That sent Retrô into the second round, where they took on the brilliantly named San Antonio Bulo Bulo of Bolivia. Cavalcante and midfielder Fransuar Santos Filho earned a 2-1 win in Bolivia before a fully rotated side drew 2-2 at home to just about progress. Next up was Universitario, and they lost 2-1 in Peru but were ruthless at home as André, Rabelo, Ruiz and Cavalcante earned a dominant 4-0 victory. That teed up a semi final against Rosario Central, and they slipped to a tame 3-1 defeat in Argentina before André’s goal at home wasn’t quite enough to progress. Rosario went on to lose 1-0 to Coritiba in the Final.
Surprise Title Charge?
The uptick in form left Retrô right in the title mix, trailing Flamengo by 2 points having played a game more and level on points with fellow surprise package Sport Recife with 10 games remaining.
Remarkably, Cavalcante repeated his assist hat trick next time out as they defeated Sao Bernardo 4-2 to move into 2nd. But they fell to a 3-1 defeat at Palmeiras and a 2-1 loss at Bahia either side of a 2-0 win over Fortaleza, before Ruiz’s brace downed Vasco 2-1 and an unlikely Advaldo double led a 3-2 success at Sao Paulo. But a draw against Paranaense killed off their outside title hopes, while booking qualification for Copa Libertadores and securing the best finish in club history.
The season wrapped up with Ruiz scoring the only goal in a wonderful win over Flamengo. And that secured a mightily impressive 2nd place finish with 75 points after 22 wins, 9 draws and 7 defeats, scoring 63 and, most impressively of all, conceding a league-low 39 goals. Cavalcante set a new Série A record with 17 assists and Ruiz scored the 2nd most goals with 21 in 36, in addition to the highest xG overperformance (6.97), the most shots on target (58) and the most offsides (58). And Cavalcante was named the league’s Young Player of the Year.
Impressive Overperformance
Lazaró was surprised at just how far this group of youngsters had come, posing a genuine challenge to the biggest clubs in Brazil and qualifying for South America’s biggest competition. Ruiz led the way with 35 goals in 54 games, followed by André (12), Godinho (10), Cavalcante and Martínez (9) and Ricardo and Joílson (7). Cavalcante set a new club record with 20 assists, followed by Ricardo (15), Godinho (14), Mateus (8) and Martínez and Ruiz (7), and Danilo Rodrigues broke his own clean sheet record with 27.
Martínez was named number 11 on NxGn 2032 with Ruiz dropping from 3rd to 30th. And the latest youth intake delivered another exciting batch of youngsters with 4 elite prospects, led by the absolutely outstanding looking 6ft 4in attacker Alex, who became the club’s youngest player aged 15 years 354 days in the Sudamericana semi second leg, along with midfielder Rafinha, right back Lucas Piccoli and centre back Walace.
Those youngsters join the latest Ginga tracker, which continues to led by Ruiz (now on 80), Martínez (75), Godinho and Cavalcante (71), Ricardo (70) and Vera (69).
Lazaró was keen to keep developing these youngsters, but wasn’t necessarily expecting them to challenge at the top of the league again. But he was excited to take on the challenge of Copa Libertadores, having missed out in the qualifiers this season.
Could little Retrô continue to be the surprise package in Série A in 2033? Join us next Monday to find out!
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