Santos, São Paulo and Inter: The Fall

By: Bruno Romani | June 1st, 2008

Since the beginning of the century, Santos, São Paulo and Inter somehow were on the top of Brazilian football. The three clubs produced a number of talents, won many titles and were feared by rivals. Their officials got instant praise, and their structure was pointed out as the angular rock of their success. But maybe the magic is fading away. São Paulo and Santos tied this weekend in a boring and goalless derby. Santos has 4 points in the table whereas São Paulo not only is one point behind, but also it has not won a single match yet in the league. Inter has 4 points as well. And this weekend, it failed to beat Sport again, despite the fact that the rivals is focusing in the finals of Copa do Brasil.

The season already dropped traumatic eliminations for the 3 clubs in the quarter-finals of the championships which all of them placed more importance. The fans now question what is left for their clubs for the remainder of the year. Before looking at the future, it is mandatory to look at the mistakes that took these 3 clubs from success to mediocrity.

Despite a few particularities, the root of the problem is very similar to all of them. After becoming world champions, both São Paulo and Inter official’s created an illusion that their teams were unbeatable no matter the context. So both clubs were handed from great presidents to mediocre ones. But the illusion of a great squad remained. The reality is rather harsh. These clubs are not that different from other Brazilian clubs. The lack of good planning put together good players, but a bunch of great names do not work alone. Some player may not be in a good moment, and recent idols may not be the same anymore. Who would have thought of São Paulo fans criticizing Rogério Ceni and Inter fans booing off Fernandão?

By selling great talents, the fans of these clubs were under the impression that their clubs were in good financial situation. However, the money does not seem to be reinvested, or at least reinvested in the proper way. Santos blew away all the money that the Robinho generation left, causing Luxemburgo to quit the club at the end of last year. (Everybody knows Luxemburgo just works with clubs with a lot of money. Whenever he quits it is a bad sign.). São Paulo and Inter don’t seem to be in the rush for using the money they got by selling Breno and Pato.

The collapse of the greats has been translated in the most Brazilian way possible: the departure of coaches. Leão quit Santos on Tuesday. Abel Braga did the same on Saturday. Muricy Ramalho is next. What is ironic is that rumors say that Muricy will go to Inter. And if that happens, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Leão at São Paulo. But this sounds like a desperate move to emulate the past (Leão is considered the father of the team that gave the world to São Paulo, and Muricy is remembered as the man who started the project that took Inter to the top of the world). Changing coaches have no effect when officials made wrong decisions about the players they buy (if they hire at all, which does not seem to be the case of São Paulo and Santos).

It still early to say that the 3 clubs won’t do well in the league, but football is full of cycles. And it seems that after a decade an era has come to an end.