Young coach Alberto Valentim led Botafogo to regional success as LoneStar team won the Carioca State championship before Série A started. Fogão didn’t have a very impressive start, but it wasn’t too bad either when Valentim left the club after the round 12 to join Middle East football. By that time, Botafogo was sitting on a decent 9th position. After that, things gone immediately wrong, with new coach Marcos Paquetá, who was at Botafogo’s helm for only 15 days. Three defeats in four games were enough for the board to change direction and bring the former Flamengo Zé Ricardo.
Things didn’t improve. In fact, the board needed to be more lenient with their third option, since Zé Ricardo had an even worst start than his predecessor, collecting only two points in his first four games. The club was clearly underperforming, and the injuries on the two iconic goalkeepers Gatito (round 2) and Jefferson (round 17) had certainly a big impact, as the unexperienced third option Saulo had to be thrown into the big stage on regular basis. By the time the season was on its 31st round, Botafogo was agonizingly close from relegation zone, holding only one point more than Chapecoense, at the 17th place. Goalkeeper Gatito returned for the round 32, which coincided with Botafogo’s take off. An amazing series of four victories, including top teams like Flamengo and Internacional, as well as Corinthians, with Gatito on the goal, saw Botafogo finally get out of trouble and head for a more acceptable mid-table position.
While the influence of Gatito Fernandez’ return for the last seven rounds was undeniable, we must give credits to other players who were there for a bigger part of the season. Erik had certainly a great impact on the team after his arrival on August. His excellent goalscoring form in the final rounds was also key on Botafogo’s good ending form. Kieza had a reverse influence as his five goals in the first part of the season kept Botafogo in a mid-table position before the Post-Valentim depression. The likes of Lindoso in the midfield and full-back Marcinho offered more stable and regular performances to the team, but the stand out was the centre-halves duo: Joel Carli and particularly Igor Rabelo were the solid rock at the back that gave Botafogo the stability that was lacking everywhere else, at times. On the down side, the injury problems were the biggest issue Botafogo had to deal with: besides the mentioned big injuries on the two goalkeepers, midfielder João Paulo missed almost all season, while the likes of Jean, Renatinho and Marcos Vinícius were unavailable more often than not.
