Brasileirão

Neymar won't be heading to Major League Soccer after all.

The Brazilian star is reportedly signing with Santos and will be leaving Al Hilal, effective immediately, according to football reporter Fabrizio Romano:

Paul Tenorio and Mario Cortegana of The Athletic reported earlier in January that the Chicago Fire had "held discussions" to bring Neymar to the United States, but added that "MLS is not currently a priority for Neymar and his family, despite the exploratory dialogue between his camp and representatives of the Fire."

Neymar, 32, made just seven appearances for Al Hilal across 18 months, in large part due to a torn ACL and meniscus he suffered in Oct. 2023 while playing for the Brazilian national team.

Two weeks ago, Al Hilal manager Jorge Jesus told reporters the star winger "can no longer play at the level we are used to," and Neymar wasn't even registered to play for the team in the first half of the season. That, combined with his pending free agency after the season, made him a candidate to be transferred during the January window, and Al Hilal ultimately terminated his contract.

Per ESPN's Jeff Carlisle, Neymar is expected to sign a six-month contract with Santos, retaining his free agency ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.

He was potentially leaving around $65 million on the table by terminating his contract with Al Hilal, according to Carlisle, though "sources told ESPN he could make up at least some of the shortfall by having himself and his father, Neymar Santos Sr., become part of an investment fund that includes shares in Santos. However, ESPN Brazil is reporting that Neymar is still determined to recoup the money from Al Hilal and that any deal involving shares in Santos would be extremely difficult to execute in the short term."

Carlisle also noted that Neymar and Al Hilal ultimately came to an agreement on a contract termination, though it's unknown how much money he recouped.

As for Santos, Neymar will return to the club where he began his professional career in 2009 and spent four years before his famous stints at Barcelona and PSG. Santos won promotion back to Brazil's Serie A in November after winning the Serie B title and will begin its Campeonato Paulista campaign on Jan. 29 against São Bernardo.

Santos is one of the most prestigious clubs in Brazil and has launched the careers of a number of other stars, including Pelé, Robinho and Rodrygo.

A bomb detonated inside a bus carrying Brazilian soccer team Bahia ahead of Thursday night's 2022 Copa do Nordeste match against Sampaio Correa.

Freddie Keighley of the Daily Mirror reported Friday goalkeeper Danilo Fernandes required an overnight hospital stay after being struck by shrapnel.

"Danilo Fernandes is fine, but will spend the night in the hospital," the club said. "The goalkeeper had multiple injuries to his face, neck and lower limbs, which had to be sutured, and will be under observation for further examinations and an ophthalmologist's evaluation, as there is a cut near the eye."

Bahia scored a 2-0 win after the match moved forward as scheduled despite the attack.

Daniel and Hugo Rodallega scored for Bahia, the competition's defending champions. The match took place at Itaipava Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador, Brazil.

Marca reported the club's own fans are among the suspects in the case amid frustration about the team's results, which includes being relegated to the second division last year.

"We will collect footage, statements from players and witnesses that were on the spot at that moment. We will use our maximum capabilities to identify and arrest the perpetrators," police investigator Victor Spinola said.

Bahia manager Guto Ferreira also responded to reports of the attack coming from Tricolor fans, per Marca.

"This is stupid, people believe such moves will intimidate an athlete, making him perform," Ferreira said. "It always the coach that is bad, the player is bad. That's not how you solve problems."

Bahia's next match is scheduled for Sunday when they take on Juazeirense in the Campeonato Baiano.

Chapecoense have been relegated to the second tier of Brazilian football almost three years to the day since the plane crash that killed 19 of their players. 

They lost 1-0 at home to Botafogo in the Brasileirao on Wednesday to drop nine points from safety with three games of the 2019 season remaining:

They could theoretically still tie on points with Ceara, who sit in 16th place. But the first tiebreaker in the Brazilian top flight is games won. 

Ceara currently have 10 victories this term, and Chapecoense would only reach nine if they won their last three matches.

It is Chapecoense's first relegation from Brazil's top tier and marks the end of a six-year spell for the club in the Brasileirao.

On November 28, 2016, a plane crash near Medellin, Colombia, killed 19 Chapecoense players, as well as numerous members of the coaching staff and accompanying journalists.

Only six of the 77 passengers on board survived.

The team were travelling to take part in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional, the culmination of a remarkable ascent for Chapecoense, having risen from outside Brazil's four national divisions to the top tier and continental recognition inside a decade. 

They were subsequently awarded the Copa Sudamericana title by CONMEBOL at the request of Nacional:

The club rejected the proposal of protection from relegation for a three-year period and avoided the drop in the 2017 campaign after other clubs loaned them players for free. 

In 2018, after many loanees returned to their clubs and the departures of other players, Chapecoense finished 14th, just two points above the relegation zone. 

After their relegation was confirmed on Wednesday, captain Douglas said, per Adriana Garcia of ESPN FC:

"It's a delicate moment, difficult to find words in this situation. We players are very sorry to leave Chapecoense in this situation, but Chapecoense has always shown unity.

"I think this is the time for the whole community to unite again, rearrange things, leave everything on track for Chapecoense to return to Serie A, which is the club's place, and continue to build this beautiful story."

On October 30, Sao Paulo took on Palmeiras in one of Brazilian football's biggest derbies, and one man was dominating the pre-match discussions. 

"Is it a crime to leave Dani Alves on Sao Paulo's bench?" asked a headline on ESPN's SportsCenter in Brazil.

Rewind to July, and no one could have seen such a question being asked. 

Back then, Alves had just been chosen as the best player of the Copa America as he lifted the 40th trophy of his career. 

Following his departure from Paris Saint-Germain, he had managed to attract 18 offers from multiple sides around the world before eventually deciding to fulfill a longtime dream and return home to sign a three-year deal with Sao Paulo, his boyhood club.

When he was unveiled at the Morumbi stadium, over 40,000 fans packed into the stands to welcome him, while messages of support from former team-mates, such as ex-Barcelona colleagues Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, were displayed on the big screen.

The excitement was palpable—a poll made by Globo Esporte voted him the fourth-biggest signing of all-time in Brazilian football, behind only Romario to Flamengo in 2005, Ronaldo to Corinthians in 2009 and Ronaldinho to Flamengo in 2011.

He took just 39 minutes of his debut to make an impact, scoring the game's decisive goal against Ceara.

Ten matches later, however, all the hype had vanished.

When Sao Paulo visited Palmeiras last week, the 36-year-old found himself under fire. Having played mostly in midfield since his return, he was placed in his usual right-back spot, but he could not prevent an overwhelming 3-0 defeat.

Unlike some of the team's youngsters, Alves did not speak to the press in the mixed zone after the clash. Sao Paulo's boss, Fernando Diniz, on the other hand, was once again asked about which role suited the Brazil international best.

Although Alves has pushed for a more advanced role, he hasn't exactly been lighting it up in the middle of the pitch.

Despite having built up one of the most impressive CVs in football history during his time in Europe at massive clubs (Sevilla, Barcelona, Juventus and PSG), it appears that even Alves himself wasn't anticipating such hysteria over his homecoming.

"I believe that these have been the most intense three months of my career," he reflected in a recent interview with SporTV, explaining why he had spent most of his glorious career abroad.

"There's no stability here [in Brazil]. How can you build a career here? I've got just three months back in Brazil and I'm already useless. 

"I'm the biggest player in the history of football [in terms of trophies] and yet there's already a debate on whether I'm useful or not. Man, I've got three months in Brazil. Damm, I played for eight years at Barcelona, won 23 titles because you have stability—you don't build things overnight."

Alves has returned to play club football in his homeland for the first time since leaving at the age of 19 back in 2002.

Back then, he was just another promising teenager looking to make his way at Bahia, whose manager at the time, the legend Evaristo de Macedo, didn't even know his name, referring to him as "Samuel" instead of Daniel. 

Alves ultimately established himself in the first team before being whisked off to Sevilla for a bargain price.

In truth, the much-coveted veteran had never really had a real glimpse of what Brazilian football is actually like.

"When it comes to Brazil, he's only had a small experience. Obviously, he had already enjoyed a few situations with the national team, played a World Cup, the Copa America, winning it on home soil—they all give you a fair idea of what it's like, but not the full picture of the daily routine of a Brazilian team, dealing with the media," Arnaldo Ribeiro, a football pundit for SporTV, tells Bleacher Report.

"He's getting a sense now of what is like playing for a big Brazilian club that haven't won any major trophy in a long time. The volatility is pretty intense. I think he has never experienced this before."

Throughout his whole career in Europe, Alves had, in total, 11 different managers; Sao Paulo have had four coaches this year alone.

Widely known for producing some of the best talents in the country, including the likes of David Neres, Casemiro, Eder Militao, Ederson Moraes and Lucas Moura, they've not won a single title since the Copa Sudamericana crown in 2011.

Hoping to bring back the triumphant days, like when they beat Liverpool in the Club World Cup final back in 2005, the six-time Brazilian champions made a bold move by going after Alves, offering him the highest wage in the country, R$1.5 million per month (around €350,000).

It's almost as much as newly promoted CSA pay their whole squad.

And yet, when the two teams met in September, CSA held Sao Paulo to a 1-1 draw at Morumbi, leading home fans to boo Alves and his team-mates.

As he passed through the mixed zone that day, he stood in front of the cameras to criticize the media for suggesting that he should play as a right-back—until then, he had been used just in midfield, where, in his own words, he can touch the ball more often and so be more helpful to his colleagues.

"I know how difficult it is to build something in Brazilian football due to the fact that you [journalists] are always around to destabilize. Therefore, we have to be very cautious every moment, otherwise, we will find ourselves in situations that don't benefit us," he said.

"Most of the media have never played football, so they just create discomfort inside the club, asking if I play as full-back or midfielder. I'm here to help Sao Paulo, my team.

"Before coming back to Brazil, I went through a brainwashing process realising that over here only the strong survive."

Two days later, though, Alves broke into a news bulletin from Globo to smilingly say that he wanted to make it up. A few days ago he again tried to flip the narrative by posting an impassioned "never give up" message on Instagram that finished with the hashtag #GoodCrazyMood.  

His return has been a rollercoaster of emotions for everyone so far.

"It was unimaginable at the time to think that he would leave PSG as a Copa America winner, Brazil's captain, the outstanding player of the tournament, and go straight to Sao Paulo. Very few people actually believed it was a real possibility," Marcelo Hazan, Globo Esporte reporter covering Sao Paulo, tells B/R.

"Normally, when players return from Europe, they're looking to retirement, but that's not Daniel's case. In a way, he has twisted this logic.

"He's a guy that, whenever he speaks, everyone stops to listen because he has interesting things to say, he stays away from cliches. It's been really intense and nice to mingle with such an extra class footballer who played with the biggest names of this generation. Overall, it's been a very rich experience for everybody."

In Brazil's domestic environment, where players sometimes do interviews three times or more in a week, Alves possibly still needs a little while to fully adapt.

"He has always been one of the most straightforward players when answering a question, but the thing is that we were used to seeing him do one, two interviews per year in Brazil. Now, he's speaking much more often", Ribeiro reveals.

"I think he is surprised by the reaction to the things he said. He has never felt, quote-unquote, 'so much pressure' like now. 

"Suddenly, he has become one of the main names in the Brazilian football featuring for a club that finds itself super pressured. His winning record will be of no use if he doesn't win a competition with Sao Paulo. He's currently facing this dilemma and learning how to live with that."

Despite being a devoted Sao Paulo follower his whole life, Alves' comeback to Brazil was mainly down to one reason: his childhood club was the only one willing to offer him a three-year deal and a chance to remain on the Brazil national team's radar.

He makes no secret about his desire to stay in contention for the 2022 World Cup, when he will be closing in on 40.

Apart from that, it was also a chance to reunite with his two children, who had moved away to the United States following his Barcelona exit, but having failed to settle there, packed their things for Sao Paulo.

After being recently described by Tostao, Brazil's greatest football writer, as someone who "plays as if he saw the game from above," Alves still needs to recover his confidence to get back to his best form. In order to achieve that, moving away from controversies might need to become paramount.

He has not had a break since his arrival.

Sao Paulo's former boss Cuca allegedly left his position after a row with Alves. When Cuca wanted his marquee player to return to his more traditional right-back spot, Alves insisted on continuing in his midfield role. 

Frustrated with an apparent lack of support from the board on the issue, Cuca decided to step down as manager of the club.

The immediate response was to replace him with technical coordinator Vagner Mancini as interim coach. Although the club came to an agreement about that internally, the decision was never made official.

Mancini would quit before taking charge of a single game. In a leaked audio that would later emerge—and whose veracity was confirmed by the man himself—Mancini explained to a friend why he had resigned his contract.

"Do you know why I left? They had given me the job, but then, four hours after that, Daniel Alves went there asking them to name Fernando Diniz [as coach] instead. They called me back and told me they were having doubts. I replied to them, 'If you're in doubt, go after Diniz because I'm leaving,'" he said in the audio.

Diniz took charge of Sao Paulo the following day.

"So far, Daniel Alves had one great game but didn't really make a difference in the other ones," Luis Augusto Simon, a football columnist for UOL, tells B/R.

"[The Diniz appointment) was based on his opinion, although I'm not sure if he was asked to give it. It's interesting because he apparently didn't know Diniz that well a short while back. 

"I remember that, when he was at PSG, he praised him in an interview as one of the good things in Brazilian football but couldn't remember his name.

"Until now, [Alves] has been more effective in the media than playing football."

It felt like Alves wanted a coach who could help him unlock a more expansive game, emulating his Barcelona's days, but his whole experience back in Brazil might prove to be more difficult than he ever imagined.

As Ribeiro concludes: "It's not Sao Paulo who have to adapt to Daniel Alves, but the other way around. As soon as he understands this, the better for him."

Follow Marcus on Twitter: @_marcus_alves

Former Barcelona full-back Dani Alves has joined Sao Paulo on a free transfer after his contract with Paris Saint-Germain expired at the end of June. 

Sao Paulo confirmed the move via the club's official Twitter account on Thursday:

The 36-year-old told reporters: "I could have chosen anywhere to play, but I chose to return to Brazil."

The 115-times capped Brazil international recently captained his country to the 2019 Copa America title as  hosts, where he was also voted the tournament's best player.

FIFA confirmed Alves will wear No. 10 at the Estadio do Morumbi:

The transfer also brought an end to Alves' 17-year career in European football, having joined Sevilla from his first professional club, Bahia, in 2002, per Goal:

Alves has signed a contract that will keep him in Sao Paulo until the end of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which is scheduled to finish in December of that year.

Sao Paulo have a history of selling and acquiring big names to and from Europe:

Alves played only a season-and-a-half with Bahia before Sevilla recruited him, meaning this move gives the defender a second chance to impress in front of his native supporters.

The veteran has won major titles with almost every team he's played for. Alves left Barcelona for Juventus in 2016 and joined PSG one year later, winning La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 titles back-to-back.

TalkSport reported his trophy count stands at 43 and makes him the most decorated player in history.

Alves will join ex-Brazil star Alexandre Pato and former Juventus team-mate Hernanes at the Estadio do Morumbi.

Sao Paulo are fifth in the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A table and eight points off leaders Santos.

Radio reporter Rafael Henzel, who was one of six survivors of the 2016 plane crash that killed many members of the Chapecoense football team and 71 people in total, died on Tuesday aged 45 after suffering a heart attack.

Reuters' Andrew Downie (h/t Channel News Asia) relayed the news from the Brazilian club:

Per Globo (h/t Downie), Henzel was taken to hospital after he collapsed while playing football in Chapeco and died shortly after his arrival.

In a statement, Chapecoense paid tribute to Henzel: "Throughout his brilliant career, Rafael told the story of Chapecoense. He was a symbol of the club's reconstruction and he will always be remembered in the green and white pages of this institution."

So too did La Liga club Athletic Bilbao:

Chapecoense are due to play Criciuma in the Copa do Brasil on Wednesday, but they have asked the Brazilian Football Confederation to play the match on Thursday instead following Henzel's death, per Sport's Juan G. Arango.

In November 2016, a plane carrying 77 people—including the Chapecoense team, staff and 21 journalists—crashed on the way to Medellin, Colombia, where the club were due to compete in the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional.

Only six survived, including Henzel and three Chapecoense players.

Flamengo CEO Reinaldo Belotti has said the fire that killed 10 young players at the club's training ground on Friday was caused by an electricity spike that sparked a fire in an air conditioning unit.

Per Reuters (h/t ESPN), the fire followed a storm over Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday night that killed at least six people.

Belotti attributed the electricity spike to the weather: "It was a succession of events after a catastrophic day for Rio that led to this even greater catastrophe."

The fire burned through a dormitory at the Urubu's Nest training ground, where the club's youth players slept:

Following the fire, the mayor's office for Rio said the club had been told to close down the dorm "almost 30 times" because the area it was built on was registered as a parking lot, but Belotti dismissed that issue as a contributing factor:

"This area was well known to everyone, It was comfortable and adequate. We were proud of it. The truth is that it was a tragic accident. It was not because of a lack of investment by Flamengo. It was not because Flamengo did not take care."

All of the victims have been identified and were aged between 14 and 17 years old.

A club supporters group paid tribute to those killed:

Three others were hospitalised—one in "serious condition"—while 10 other teenagers escaped unharmed. One boy recounted that he woke in the early hours of Friday morning to discover his air conditioning unit was aflame.

Flamengo were scheduled to host Fluminense in the semi-final of the Taca Guanabara on Saturday, but the match has been moved to Thursday.

A fire at Flamengo's training complex in Rio de Janeiro has killed 10 people.

According to Adam Forrest of The Independent, firefighters have confirmed at least three people have also been injured after the blaze broke out early Friday morning at the Urubu's Nest training centre. It was extinguished after burning for over two hours.

Per BBC News, the victims have yet to be identified, but a dormitory used by youth players aged between 14 and 17 was engulfed by the flames while the players were asleep.

Brazilian news outlet G1 provided an image showing the effects of the fire:

The cause is not yet known.

Brazil legend and former Flamengo player Zico posted a message on his Instagram page in the wake of the tragedy, per Eurosport: "What a shock getting this news here on the other side of the world," the former Brazil midfielder wrote. "May the Red-and-Black nation have strength and faith to get through this moment."

Real Madrid attacker Vinicius Junior, who moved to the Santiago Bernabeu from Flamengo last summer, also took to social media to offer his condolences: "What sad News! Praying for everyone! Strength, strength, strength."

Flamengo, five-time champions of Brazil, finished runners-up in the Brasileiro last season.

The 2019 league campaign does not get under way until April, but Flamengo are scheduled to face Fluminense on Saturday in the semi-finals of the Taca Guanabara.

"If you believe in some power that can guide Chapecoense this afternoon, now is the time to appeal to it," Rafael Henzel asked fans from his radio booth.

As Chapecoense went into Sunday's final round of the Brazilian Serie A season fighting to avoid relegation for the first time since they earned promotion in 2013, a record crowd of 19,992 headed to Arena Conda for the decisive game against Sao Paulo. It was the equivalent of one of every 10 people from Chapeco, a small agricultural city in southern Brazil, deciding to attend the match.

Many of them were wearing earpieces so they could hear Henzel, the club's favourite match commentator, call the game for Oeste Capital radio.

The atmosphere was incredible.

While Henzel spoke about faith in the moments prior to kick-off, he was aware that Chapecoense had not been as close to the drop since their promotion. The club, once dubbed the Brazilian version of Leicester City for their overachievements, were only one point above the relegation zone after struggling to find their best form throughout the season.

But the 45-year-old announcer was not the type of man to lose faith in the side's chances of securing another season in Brazil's top flight.

Henzel is a miracle himself.

He is one of the six survivors of the tragedy that devastated Chapecoense in 2016, after 71 people, including 19 players, died in a plane crash en route to the final of the Copa Sudamericana in Medellin, Colombia.

When he woke up on Sunday to prepare for the final fixture of the season, he knew it would be an emotional day that would stir up recent memories.

"It's impossible to forget that nearly two years ago the coffins of our friends were being brought into Arena Conda for fans to pay tribute to them in a ceremony," Henzel told Bleacher Report.

The Sao Paulo match—a fixture that local newspaper Diario do Iguacu had dubbed "the most important game of Chapecoense's history"—was being held on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the memorial services held at Chape's stadium back in 2016.

Back then, Henzel had not been released from a hospital in Colombia. He still had a tube down his throat and was sedated after breaking seven ribs in the crash. It would only be later that he learned about the caskets being carried on to the pitch for the wake.

On Sunday, though, he was back at work. Climbing those familiar stairs to take his place in the press box and begin broadcasting a full 90 minutes before the kick-off. However, this time, instead of 50 bodies on the pitch, he had 11 footballers wearing green and white colors, running to show the surviving spirit remains at the club.

Being relegated to the Brazilian Serie B would have been seriously problematic for Chapecoense's future.

Chape, as the club is affectionately known, have had 54 lawsuits brought against them by families of the victims. They have already reached a deal to settle eight of the compensation cases—arranging for the payments to be made in installments over a period of five to 10 years.

The legal battle is far from finished, however, and since August, fearing a possible relegation, the club has postponed reaching new agreements until they had clarity on their future.

For the Santa Catarina-based side, going down to the second division would mean watching their annual broadcasting rights revenue, the largest source of income for the club, drop from R$28 million (£5.7 million) to R$7 million (£1.43 million) and make it near impossible to honor similar settlements to those already agreed.

The financial concern was so big over the course of the season that the footballers even discussed it inside the dressing room.

"We have talked about this situation—how important the first division survival would be for everyone," says Douglas, one of Chapecoense's captains. "The club is being rebuilt almost from the scratch. We are aware that so many people and families rely on our work to move on with their lives. From the first day, it has always been our main goal to remain in the Serie A. Fighting to the end is part of our DNA and will forever be."

Not many people expected the uncertainty to go on until the last round of games, though. Results in the previous season had set the bar higher than the team could sustain after all it went through.

In 2017, a few months after the plane crash, Chapecoense surprised rivals to sit top of the table for the first time in their history. It seemed inevitable that the initial sprint would not endure, and a midseason slump saw them fall down the table, but they still managed to finish in eighth, their best-ever position, and secure a spot in the Copa Libertadores.

It was another remarkable success story for Chapecoense, a club that went from the fourth tier to the elite in just five seasons, but the cracks finally started to show this campaign.

"I've got the impression that last year the players played for the cause," explains Henzel. "Chape was recovering from a tragedy, did not have a squad and had to reconstruct the team with loan players.

"Although they were not emotionally connected with the city, it was possible to see they wanted to honor the memories of those who had died.

"I could not recognise the same this season—it looked more like a random team than one who was continuing the rebuilding work."

Former Chapecoense marketing executive Andrei Copetti says bringing in more expensive footballers also failed to pay off and instead created a distance between the club and the fans.

"When we gained popularity across the country, Bruno Rangel [one of the players who died in the crash] had the biggest salary at the club, around R$120,000 (£24,495) monthly," Copetti tells B/R. "He was revered in the whole city. Nowadays, we're paying R$200,000 (£40,826) for some players, with no criteria.

"Chapecoense has lost its essence."

Besides that, it has also been chaotic off the field, with three different coaches (Gilson Kleina, Guto Ferreira and Claudinei Oliveira) taking over during the season, high-ranking directors (Rui Costa and Joao Carlos Maringa) being dismissed and president Plinio David de Nes Filho embroiled in a controversy over a proposed bonus payment for Chapecoense finishing second in the Santa Catarina Championship.

Amid this confusion, the footballers still have to cope with the pressure of replacing names such as Danilo, Cleber Santana and Kempes, who lost their lives in the disaster.

Even for an experienced player like Artur Moraes, that proved a tough ask. The goalkeeper, who played for big clubs like AS Roma, Benfica and Cruzeiro during his career, was part of Chape's rebuilt 2017 squad.

"Being compared to those heroes was something very hard to handle," Moraes admits.

"Perhaps not handle, I mean, but to deal with—it's inhuman because you will never be able to take their places—and most importantly, you don't even want that. They're irreplaceable and will forever be remembered. It's impossible to fill the vacuum in the fans' hearts.

"Nevertheless, it was a very heavy comparison for me and took me some time to understand the supporters. But after three months, I realised I had no other choice. Our main legacy was the respect we showed to the families and people who went through the tragedy while encouraging them to continue."

Despite the rebuild still being a work in progress, rows and lawsuits with relatives of the plane crash victims have seen Chapecoense lose their spot as the second team in the hearts of many fans in Brazil.

However, they can still rely on their loyal fans to make sure the surviving spirit keeps pushing them ahead.

"The atmosphere of the weekend's game reminded me a lot of the one we had on November 23, 2016, when the goalkeeper Danilo made a brilliant save in the end of the semi-final against San Lorenzo to confirm the 0-0 draw and our place in the final of the Copa Sudamericana," Henzel recalls.

The noise in the ground went a long way toward explaining how the small-town club beat Sao Paulo 1-0 to secure a spot in the first division for the sixth season in a row.

As the referee blew the final whistle, wild celebrations took over the Arena Conda.

Henzel could not contain himself in the press box and cried while repeating several times that Chapecoense "could never be relegated to the second tier."

At the same time, two other survivors of the crash—Alan Ruschel, who played 18 times this season after an eight-month recovery process, and Jakson Follmann, a former goalkeeper who has a prosthetic leg and now works as an ambassador of the club—went around the pitch on a golf buggy, carrying Chapecoense's flag.

The trio demonstrates that, despite the confusion off the field, the fairytale story of the Brazilian club is still open for new chapters.

Follow Marcus on Twitter: @_marcus_alves