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A little over a week ago, Neymar arrived from Miami to head to the Santos stadium, the club where his story began, for a home final against Palmeiras. He’s been hailed as the returning hero, but he could be a divisive figure. However, Santos is one of the places where the department is decidedly in its favor. In 4 magical years at the club, he led Santos to its first triumph in the CONMEBOL Libertadores, the South American Champions League, since the early 1960s under Pelé.
Fans hope he can do something similar in the future. While he declared himself on social media “the eternal child of Vila” (Vila Belmiro is the name of the stadium), fans chanted for him to return. Could he? That’s one possibility.
The former marvellous Rivaldo thinks so. ” There’s a strong chance he’ll come back,” he told Betfair. “Everyone knows the affection Neymar has for Santos, where he is an idol. After years in Europe and Saudi Arabia, I don’t want anything from a monetary point of view. Maybe he’ll play in Serie A again at Santos and he’ll be close to the Brazilian fans as he prepares for the next World Cup. “
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It’s an intriguing thought. As it stands, Neymar, who has been injured since November due to an ACL injury, will be a free agent in the middle of next year, at the age of 33, when his contract with Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal expires. It would be the right time for him to return and prepare for what will likely be his last dart at the 2026 World Cup. It would be an excellent PR move for him to show up at such a famous former club in exchange for a symbolic gift: a salary. The only challenge is that unless promoted this year, Neymar would be preparing for the World Cup in Brazil’s second division.
In the first season since Pelé’s death, with the mausoleum of this wonderful man dominating the stadium, Santos was relegated for the first time in its excellent history. The occasion (and the ensuing riots in the streets) made headlines around the world. People were stunned. They shouldn’t have been.
It was 15 years ago today that 17-year-old Neymar made his debut for Santos ??A special, special ✨ pic. twitter. com/Q2jJDgmtto
Santos is a prolonged miracle, and even miracles don’t last forever. There is no other club in Brazil like them. All the other major classical groups come from the gigantic state capitals. Santos is a port that experienced a boom in the coffee-growing years. The population is less than even a part of a million. It’s surrounded by the nearby city of São Paulo, an hour’s drive from the top of the hill if traffic is good.
In fact, it’s normal that a club that, by Brazilian standards, represents a small city can keep beating the giants for so long. There was great fortune in the fact that the teenager Pele made it to probably the most productive team in the world. The history of Santos, and then he improved it even more. Throughout the ’60s, they probably claimed to be the most productive club in the world.
This may be unlikely to happen. Once Pelé passed, Santos slipped a bit, only to return with a vengeance in the current century, calling himself one of the world’s greatest developers of young talent. But precautionary signs were emerging. In recent years, Brazilian clubs have learned how to monetize their fans. Revenue comes from television, sponsorships, and fan club shows. But the flows have not been distributed lightly. Huge gaps have widened, making things much more complicated for a club in a small town to compete in. The current capacity of the Vila Belmiro Stadium is less than 18,000 seats.
Santos continued to stand out for his paintings with young people. First of all, they would gain advantages on the pitch from Diego Ribas and Robinho, Neymar and Danilo, and at most recently from Rodrygo. Then, they would balance their accounts with their transfer fees. But all of those clubs are aware that there is a problem. At the end of the day, they’re forced to move players faster, which means the next generation launches faster, with some caving in under the pressure to test and live up to their illustrious predecessors.
Meanwhile, club administrators panic, coaching coach after coach, and desperately recruiting players they can’t afford. Last week, a club assembly rejected the accounts for 2023 and the then-president, like the previous four, is facing expulsion as a member.
Rodrigo Capelo, Brazil’s most sensible football finance expert, is worried. “Santos ended 2023 having already spent some of the money from 2024,” he says, explaining that the club took an advance on part of the TV revenue. “And now they’re no longer in the first division, and they’re not even in the [very lucrative] domestic cup, and their other sources of income are weak: sponsorship, ticket sales, club programs. of revenue which, from time to time, is “Santos Stored Time Thanks to Player Sales”.
At the moment, however, there is no prodigy with a lot of money in the pipeline. “There’s a bomb going off,” Capelo said. And by the end of this year, we’ll have a clearer idea of how big it is. This is just speculation at the moment, but it may be that even if they manage to get promoted to the first division, then the scenario will be so dire, with the desire to invest in a new stadium and the progression of the youngsters, that the solution will be to turn it into a business.
“I’m not saying it’s a smart or bad thing, but the club’s stage can make it a necessity. “
In recent years, legal advances have opened up that possibility. Historically clubs with social membership, Brazilians can now be acquired and owned through domestic or foreign capital. Leading clubs such as Cruzeiro and Botafogo, among others, have embarked on this path. According to Capelo, Santos’ history and prestige make him an apparent candidate for such a transition.
“While Neymar was still at Paris Saint-Germain, his father (and advertising director Neymar Sr. ) tried to act as a bridge between Santos and the Qataris,” he said. “He proposed the concept to [then-president] Andres Rueda, who was uninspired, and the concept died when Neymar left PSG. I don’t know, but it’s conceivable that he’s now thinking about moving in the same direction as the Saudis. “
So, can Santos be a South American Newcastle? One of his T-shirts has black and white stripes. The current president, who returns for his third term, is Marcelo Teixeira. He is considered close to Neymar Sr. , so it will be attractive to see if there will be any announcements. progress throughout the year.
Neymar Jr. , on the other hand, brought Santos luck in the first leg of the home final. They beat Palmeiras 1-0, but a week later they lost the second leg 2-0. Palmeiras were then crowned champions of the State of São Paulo. Winning the festival would have boosted morale, but the real goal, the quest to get back to the most sensible flight, begins this weekend, when the national leagues begin.
The good news is that it appears that Santos has managed to circumvent a global ban on movement, imposed by FIFA for not paying dues to other clubs. An agreement is expected to have been reached with Russian club Krasnodar. Santos brought in former goalkeeper Edinho, better known as Pele’s son, to help him with negotiations, and it turns out his charm, fluent English, and family connections came in handy in closing a deal.
But for many, the real dream is that by the middle of next year there will be a play that does involve money, that one of the wonderful names in the club’s history will be released and that Neymar Jr. will join Santos. ‘ noticed the white shirt.