Abilio Diniz: Businessman complained when São Paulo lost – 02/19/2024 – Market

A São Paulo fanatic, businessman Abilio Diniz used to call the club’s management, and even players, to complain when the team lost.

Diniz died this Sunday (18), aged 87. The wake will take place this Monday (19) in the main hall of the Cícero Pompeu de Toledo stadium, Morumbis, in the west of the capital of São Paulo.

“Sometimes, when we lost a game and I went to the dressing room, he was already calling me”, said the president of São Paulo Futebol Clube, Júlio Casares, in the early afternoon of this Monday (19), in an interview at Morumbis .

“I said that you shouldn’t call anyone when you lose a game, because when a team loses no one has any mind, and he said he would call the next day at noon, then”, joked Casares.

Diniz, said the director, was a kind of advisor to the club’s presidency and called to advise players when renewing their contracts, for example.

The team president said he had brought Diniz a Copa do Brasil champion medal, after the unprecedented title won last year. And he recalled that the businessman posed with the players in the traditional end-of-year photo in 2023.

The club intends to talk to the businessman’s family to promote a sports project in Diniz’s name. “Abilio had this vocation for health, for the mind, for the body. This is worth a lot for sport and we are going to work with the São Paulo brand”, he stated.

“Saying farewell to him here at Morumbi, his home, is recognition for a sportsman, who in addition to being from São Paulo, was an optimist who left us with a void.”

The businessman, who propelled Grupo Pão de Açúcar into a retail giant alongside his father, was considered one of the greatest leaders in the Brazilian corporate world.

He began to feel ill during a trip to Aspen, Colorado, United States, and had to return to Brazil in a hurry on a plane adapted with an ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Diniz had been admitted to Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, in São Paulo, since the end of January.

“It is with extreme regret that the Diniz family announces the death of Abilio Diniz at the age of 87 this Sunday, February 18, 2024, victim of respiratory failure due to pneumonitis. The businessman leaves five children, wife, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and will meet his son João Paulo, who passed away in 2022. The family is grateful for all the messages of support and affection”, says the note released by the family.

The death comes a year and a half after Abilio lost his son, João Paulo Diniz, at the age of 58, after a sudden illness. At the time, the businessman said that the loss was the hardest blow he could receive. “I’m floored,” he said in a social media post. “The pain I feel is inexplicable.”

Abilio Diniz built an empire in retail. With Pão de Açúcar, he became one of the richest men in the country, personifying a successful era of family businesses with influence in governments. He saw up close crises in his business, faced a fierce family dispute and a kidnapping.