2023-12-07 16:10:03
Photo courtesy
São Paulo Brazil
Santos de Sao Paulo, the team where Pelé and Neymar shone, fell this Wednesday to the second division of Brazilian soccer for the first time in its centenary history.
After years of sporting and economic crises, the specter of relegation materialized for the traditional ‘Peixe’ just as it is about to mark one year since the death of the ‘king of football’.
Although it arrived in 15th position on the last day of the Brasileirao, with 43 points, Santos lost at home 2-1 with Fortaleza and definitively fell back to 17th place, the last one to give an unwanted ticket to play in Serie B in 2024 .
His former attacker Marinho, in the 39th minute, opened the account for the visitors, coached by Argentine Juan Pablo Vojvoda. Defender Messias equalized (58), but Argentine forward Juan Martín Lucero (90+6) buried them in stoppage time.
At the end of the match, fans threw various objects onto the field and there was disorder outside the stadium, with cars and buses set on fire, according to images broadcast by local media.
It also didn’t help Santos that the other two teams that started the match 38th below them in the table, Vasco da Gama and Bahia, won their respective matches against Red Bull Bragantino and Atlético Mineiro.
Vasco, led by Argentine coach Ramón Díaz, won 2-1 and Bahia, led by legendary former goalkeeper Rogério Ceni, won 4-1.
Now Sao Paulo and Flamengo are barely surviving as the only Brazilian teams to have never fallen to the second category.
Reactionless
Eight-time Brazilian champion, three-time champion of the Copa Libertadores and two-time champion of the defunct Intercontinental Cup, Santos had a rough start to the year that already gave rise to bad omens.
The team founded in the port city of Santos in 1912 was eliminated in the group stage of the Sao Paulo state tournament (Campeonato Paulista) in March, in the round of 16 of the Copa do Brasil in May and in the group stage of the Copa Sudamericana in June.
Throughout the season he had four coaches: the Brazilians Odair Hellmann, Paulo Turra and Marcelo Fernandes – on the bench at the time of the fall – and the Uruguayan Diego Aguirre.
After finishing the first round of the Brasileirao in the relegation zone, in August, the club opted for name reinforcements to support the ‘Meninos da Vila’, as the youth players who emerged from its prestigious quarry, where Neymar was trained, are known. .
Internationals such as the captain of Venezuela, Tomás Rincón, and the Colombian striker Alfredo Morelos arrived.
The Venezuelan led the midfield, but failed to lead one of the teams with the worst defense in the tournament (64 goals in 38 games) to a successful conclusion.
Apart from the poor results, they coexisted with strong pressure from the fans, with some of them threatening members of the institution or carrying out violent acts at the Vila Belmiro stadium.
sad commemoration
The relegation has another painful aspect: it takes place a few days before the first anniversary of the death of Pelé, who died on December 29, 2022 at the age of 82.
‘O Rei’ made the Albinegros world famous and gave them their best moments: six of their eight leagues (1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968), two of the three Libertadores and the two Intercontinental Leagues, both in 1962 and 1963, in addition to several state titles.
The ’10’ played practically his entire career at ‘Peixe’ (1956-1974), except for his last years, when he signed for the New York Cosmos of the United States, where he retired in 1977.
Several decades later, although with fewer triumphs, Neymar picked up the baton of what many consider the best footballer in history.
He was in the conquest of the Copa do Brasil-2010, the team’s first, and delighted in the third Libertadores, in 2011, and in the Recopa Sudamericana, in 2012. But he could not conquer the league, which the team won for the last time in 2004.
In 2013 he left for Barcelona and then Paris Saint-Germain. Like Pelé while he was alive, he usually keeps an eye on the club and has said that he dreams of retiring defending that jersey.
“We will smile again,” wrote ‘Ney’ in a story published on Instagram minutes after the final whistle.
Since his departure, Santos has only been content with winning a couple of Paulista Championships (2015, 2016) and with two runners-up finishes in the Brasileirao (2016, 2019) and one in the Libertadores (2020).
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© Agence France-Presse
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