Athletico 100 years: Lucas, “I am Lucas”

In the late 1990s, Athletico adopted the policy of bringing semi-ready players to finish their training at CT do Caju. The idea was good and proved to be brilliant when, in 1998, the defender Gustavothe steering wheel Cocytus and the attacker Lucas Severino. Three large worms in a single hoe.

Lucas, however, was already ready to be a great player in one of the most beautiful phases of these 100 years: the return to Baixada, the national affirmation, “Atlético Total”.

As a great striker, he scored a goal on his debut, at Vila Capanema. On June 24, 1999, he scored the goals of Arena da Baixada for the first time.

Everything was “divinely wonderful” in those days: the uniform, the bars in the Baixada corridors, our team, which under Vadão’s compass, had the magic square: Lucas, Kelly, Adriano and Kléber.

One of the greatest moments in history was the change to the unfortunate statement made by Flamengo goalkeeper Clemer – at the time a big customer in our book – saying that he didn’t know our number 9.

Because the quick attacker took advantage of a vulture “leave-me-leave” and just poked the corner of the motionless Clemer. “I’m Lucas”, he introduced himself to the camera behind the goal. It became a t-shirt in the club store and a sentence never forgotten by the fans.

In the first game of the Seletiva finals, Lucas had the greatest individual performance by a striker with the Atleticana 9 in space after Ziquita and before Alex Mineiro.

The three winning goals in the first leg put us in our first Libertadores, where Lucas was highlighted again, scoring another three goals in the best campaign of the first phase of the Libertadores. The enlightened phase took him to Australia to play in the Olympics.

In the negotiation that launched CAP’s legend as the best-selling club in the country, Lucas left for Rennes, in France, for around US$21 million. By far, the most expensive player in local football and the second most expensive in Brazil until then. Crucial money to pay for the completion of the still semi-complete first incarnation of the Arena.

After creating roots in Japanese football, the striker returned in 2011 to score a few goals and say goodbye to the fans who always knew very well that he is one of the greatest in our history.