Athletico 100 years: Laio, the Flying Fortress

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In the mid-1920s, the boy Antônio Alves dos Santos jumped the fence and crossed the Água Verde river to watch Athletico games for free, the team that had just been created and played its matches at the stadium close to his home.

Fifteen years later, in 1941, under his nom de guerre, Laius, was hired by the club to compete for the position with the legendary Caju. At Athletico, he was champion of Paraná in 1943, 1945 and, in 1949, he became the starting goalkeeper of the unforgettable team called “Furacão”, winning the state championship undefeated.

It wasn’t the only time that Athletico had, at the same time, two spectacular goalkeepers taking turns on goal; just remember Roberto Costa and Rafael in the 1980s and, more recently, Santos and Bento.

However, Laio was the right goalkeeper to replace Caju. Below the beams, it was so spectacular in its plastic and ornamental air defenses that it was nicknamed the “Flying Fortress”, in allusion to the B-17 Airplane, the bomber created by Boeing in the second half of the 1930s and widely used by the Allies in the Second World War. World War.

In the memory of his colleagues, the bombs that Laio threw were different: he was the “remarkable” player in the current football vocabulary, as he didn’t save anyone’s face when it came to giving nicknames or making jokes to relax the atmosphere.

Lieutenant Colonel of the Military Police, Laio, after retiring, lived for decades in the city of Matinhos, on the coast of Paraná, with his wife Iolanda, where he enjoyed receiving fans to share stories of his times at Athletico until he passed away at the age of 93.