Chapecoense’s 2016 season ended in disaster when the team’s plane crashed as they travelled to Colombia for the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional. 19 players sadly perished in the tragic accident, namely Marcos Danilo Padilha, Cleber Santana, Bruno Rangel, Tiaguinho, Lucas Gomes, Filipe Jose Machado, Everton dos Santos, Ananias, Willian Thiego, Josimar, Dener, Guilherme Gimenez, Sergio Manoel, Matheus Biteco, Gil Paiva, Ailton, Arthur Maia, Marcelo Augusto and Mateus Caramelo. Until then they had been on course for a historically successful season, and not just in the Copa Sudamericana. In the league, the team that reached Serie A just three years ago spent much of the year in the top half of the table and lost just four home games all term. After Guto Ferreira left in June, the club hired Caio Junior to replace him in the dugout and went from strength to strength. Playing a 4-1-4-1 system with legendary striker Bruno Rangel leading the line and with goalkeeper Marcos Danilo Padilha playing just as well at the other end, they were a difficult-to-beat team, as evidenced by the fact that no team drew more games than them and by the fact that only the top four teams lost fewer times.
The aforementioned Danilo and Bruno Rangel were among the best performers, but Cleber Santana may have been their best player. For the second year in a row the former Atletico Madrid midfielder was superb as he directed the middle of the park. He may not have contributed with any goals, but he fulfilled a vital role.
For Chapecoense, the long and harrowing rebuilding process now begins. Vagner Mancini has arrived as the new coach and he should be a safe pair of hands at this turbulent time. He has held 14 previous head coaching positions in Brazilian football, so he knows the league well. He’ll need to bring a lot of players through from the youth academy, but he certainly has an eye for talent given that he was the man to hand Neymar his professional debut at Santos. The team should also welcome in plenty of free agents and loan players, as other clubs look to show solidarity with Chapecoense by loaning them enough players to build a competitive squad. The rumoured arrivals of high-profile talents such as Ronaldinho may never come to fruition, but the team is likely to sign enough B-grade players to form a talented squad. It will be up to Mancini to install team chemistry from scratch, but his wealth of experience should give him a good chance of doing so.
