Players remember Água Santa in the floodplain – 03/23/2023 – Sport

Shortly before the start of the Paulista Championship semifinal, Alexandre da Silva Laguna, 48, met with a member of the board of directors of Água Santa. Recognized, he received a hug of gratitude.

“He thanked me and said I’m part of that whole story.”

Xande is one of the greatest scorers in the history of today’s finalist in the Paulista Series A1 Championship. In the decision, he will face Palmeiras. The first game is scheduled for April 2nd.

Even now, with the club at its peak in professional football, the time of amateurism remains etched in the memory.

“I have the last shirt that Água Santa wore in an amateur match. It was in 2011, in the final of the Copa TV Mais, against Eldorado. I don’t sell it, I don’t lend it, I don’t give it away, I keep it like a relic”, says Luciano Bastos, Choquito, 42, former defender and captain in the varzeano years. Time when the team won everything on the synthetic grass and dirt fields in the ABCD region, in Greater São Paulo.

They form a kind of old guard of the club created in 1981, started playing in regional tournaments in 1999 and became professional in December 2011. Veterans who share stories of trips to other regions to play under the scorching sun, memories of Tubaínas drinks at the headquarters Jardim Inamar, in Diadema, the fields full of fans even in the amateur era.

“Água Santa always paid the players. It was good change, reasonable money. If it were today, it would be the equivalent of R$ 2,000 per month plus gas money. It is reasonable money”, recalls Fabio Palacio Vieira, 42 , Mentirinha, defensive midfielder who played for the team between 2008 and 2011.

Bringing them together is listening to memories of times that, for them, are glorious. From 1999, when it decided to play for championships at ABCD, until 2011, Água Santa piled up titles. Between 2009 and 2011, he was three times champion of the first division of the Diadema league. In between, he had his best year ever in 2010.

“We won the Diadema league, the TV Mais Cup and the Kaiser Cup with Pioneer, which had a partnership with Água Santa and used the same players”, says Choquito.

They’ve been seeing each other more than usual these past few weeks. Almost everyone attended the Água Santa games in the Paulista knockout stage. Cell phones are full of photographs taken at Allianz Parque and Vila Belmiro, during the penalty shootout victories over São Paulo and Red Bull Bragantino.

The consensus among them is that Água Santa was never just any floodplain team. In addition to paying allowances (they don’t call them salaries) and bonuses, he had a philosophy of professionalism. That’s why the decision to start playing tournaments for the FPF (Federação Paulista de Futebol), taken at the end of 2011, didn’t take everyone by surprise.

“I left Ferroviária de Araraqura because I no longer wanted to play professionally, but Água Santa was different. Despite the amateur league, they weren’t amateurs at all. And when I arrived at the club, in 1999, I was already told that the project for the future was professionalization. They would create a structure for that”, guarantees Xande.

It’s not a shared memory for everyone. There are those who claim that the news that the team would leave the floodplain was a shock.

“We didn’t know what would happen. Água Santa would start in the last division, which is an under-23 championship. Everyone was already older than that”, remembers Mentirinha.

When it abandoned amateurism, the team managed, according to its old guard athletes, to unite even the biggest rivals. In the Paulista semifinal, the defensive midfielder claims to have met people linked to the teams that made classics with Água Santa in the ABCD floodplain: Unidos da Vila, Eldorado, Tricolor and Casagrande.

“It’s incredible to see Água Santa in the Paulista final. It brings back wonderful memories for everyone who was part of the team in the years prior to becoming professional”, says Choquito.

It’s more or less what Xande heard from the director before the Vila Belmiro semifinal: everyone is part of the club’s current moment. Season in which the Jardim Inamar association can reach the top of football in the state.

“It’s a joy to see what’s happening. I’m Água Santa in green and yellow. I’m also from Corinthians. But I never played for Corinthians, right? Only for Água Santa. So, it’s a source of pride to see the team’s trajectory. We see the strength that this current squad has. At the beginning of Paulista, he took three blows and they imagined he was going to fall. I replied that it’s in the fall that you rise. It’s there!”

Watching Água Santa in the Paulista final is like reliving a time when the team won titles, as Xande is well aware. At a recent party in Freguesia do Ó, a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the capital, where the former midfielder lives, the board honored him with a plaque that recalls the more than 100 games in which he played in defeats and the five titles won.