Athletico 100 years: Vitor Roque, the top scorer worth a SAF

Looking back, it seems like everything was ephemeral like a summer love. But the scorer’s passing Victor Roque lasted 600 days of high amperage. “Tigrinho” arrived at Athletico in April 2022 as the biggest signing in red and black history: R$24 million.

A year later, it was sold to Barcelona in the second biggest transaction in the history of South American football, a value similar to the amount paid by Ronaldo Fenômeno for 90% of Cruzeiro’s SAF shares, around R$400 million. The blue team from Belo Horizonte, in fact, was where Furacão looked for the prodigy, the most successful commercial move in the club’s history.

The high investment in a 17-year promise yielded immediate results. In the 19 months that Tigrinho spent at Furacão, there were 81 games, 28 goals and a lot of connection with the fans. Lots of fighting, charisma, dancing, sponsored and spontaneous celebrations. He was loved by the children and made his uncles happy.

Athletico was also good for him. The Minas Gerais native who arrived as a teenager and left as a married man, with the most promising future of a player of his generation.

Here, Vitor Roque was the club’s youngest player to score in the Copa Libertadores (17 years and 120 days) and put his name on the list of CAP’s top scorers in this sublime competition: he scored six goals, the same number as Luisinho Netto, Lima and Marco Reuben.

And speaking of Libertadores, the red and black anthology includes his goal with the first touch of the ball against Libertad, the great goal that lined up Galo defenders in Baixada, and also the agonizing goal of classification in the last minute against Estudiantes. Go with gods, Little Tiger. And thank you very much for La Plata. Both ways!