Best Ever Season: Marítimo 1992/93 | OneFootball

In 1992/93 Marítimo became the first team from Madeira to qualify for a UEFA competition

In a new series, PortuGOAL’s resident football historian Miguel Lourenço Pereira catalogues the best ever season experienced by Portugal’s top flight clubs. In Miguel’s own words:

“Best Ever Season” is a nostalgia time-travelling experience to revisit the best campaign ever at every top Portuguese club, a place to remember the most enjoyable and memorable time of their fandom’s life.

First up, and to celebrate their return to the Primeira Liga, the spotlight falls upon Marítimo.

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Football in Madeira had been shut out from the continent for decades. When it finally managed to reconnect with the national identity, it came blasting. Less than a decade and a half before debuting in the top tier, Marítimo became the first island club to earn a ticket to play in Europe. The 1992/93 campaign became memorable for the history of the most popular club in Madeira, a reminder that there was a time when travelling to Funchal was like crawling through purgatory even for the big boys.

Marítimo won the Campeonato de Portugal in 1926. For a season, they were the best Portugal had to offer. A side able to beat the likes of FC Porto, whom they trashed 7-1 in the semis, and the mighty Belenenses. That was massive. The club had existed since 1910, played in all but one edition of the Campeonato de Portugal – where the regional league standings selected those who were able to perform in the knockout stages, confirming them as the biggest club in the islands – and even fostered one of Portugal’s first top-class strikers, Artur de Sousa, known as Pinga.

Political stance leads to isolation

Everything was going their way, but then a military coup organised from the islands of Madeira and the Azores, who sought to bring down António Oliveira Salazar from power, ended it all. The Republican ethos of the islands was well present in Marítimo’s identity and colours, almost finishing them off. Salazar sent some of the most prestigious Funchal families and military personnel to Africa, as punishment, never to come back. He shut down economic support to key manufacturers on the island who backed the coup and also prevented the local sporting clubs from taking part in any national competition.

Logistics would be the excuse in the following years. Briefly the teams from the islands were able to play among themselves to select a side that could enter the newly formed Taça de Portugal, but then they had to travel to Lisbon to play their home matches there, regardless of the opposition. No top division side visited the island of Madeira for decades as they grew in complete isolation from the rest of the country. Impoverished and all alone. Things started to change under Marcelo Caetano, Salazar’s successor, and they were finally restored to the national leagues, albeit starting from the very bottom.

Top-flight staple for four decades

Marítimo were still the top team in Madeira, and they crawled fast to the top, reaching the first division for the first time in 1977/78, when Portugal had already restored democratic rule. After three brief seasons at the top, they were relegated only to be promoted back again in 1983. It was the last time until recently that they tasted lower league football.

Marítimo turned out to be undistinguished for the Portuguese football elite for over four decades, and they quickly established themselves as one of the toughest opponents in the land. Travelling to Funchal was already hard in terms of logistics for continental sides, and the financial backing of the newly formed Regional Government, headed by Alberto João Jardim, an influential right-wing politician who turned the island into a tourism landmark, helped to turn Marítimo into a middle-tier side quickly enough. And when Paulo Autuori, a young ambitious Brazilian manager, landed at the Estádio dos Barreiros in the winter of 1990, everything changed.

Autuori brings the good times

Reflecting on his coaching career years later, Paulo Autuori said the Marítimo 1992/93 team was “ahead of its time”

Autuori was part of a football culture in Brazil still in awe of the attacking finesse of their golden years and he was influenced by the likes of Telé Santana. He had also worked with Marinho Peres, a former Brazilian centre-back international who turned Portuguese football upside down in the mid-1980s when he coached Vitória SC and then Belenenses, becoming a much-beloved figure. Like Peres, Autuori believed in football as a spectacle and wanted his sides to be as attractive as they were ruthless. He coached Nacional da Madeira in the second division, getting them promoted for the first time to the top tier and then moved briefly to Guimarães, where he had been assistant coach to Peres. His experience there was short and troubled, and he was sacked mid-season and then came the opportunity to return to the island when Marítimo came knocking. It was a decisive move for both.

By the start of the 1991/92 campaign, he had already put in place some of his tactical ideas and had a side flourishing with talented players who had flown under the radar for a while. In his first full campaign, Marítimo finished seventh, their best-ever result in the league, but it was clear for all to see that they wanted more. And that was what they got. Preparing for the new campaign, the side moved smartly in the transfer market. A young promising goalkeeper Bizarro was signed from Ovarense to replace the veteran Ewerton – although the Brazilian kept his job in the end – while Valido was brought in from Benfica to captain the defence alongside the veteran Heitor to replace Carlos Jorge, who had just signed for Sporting.

In midfield, Autuori managed to bring Humberto from Brazil, who played for Vasco, and the veteran Soeiro, whom he knew from his coaching days at Guimarães. The young teenage wonderkid Bruno, the experienced Ademir and Edmilson and the likes of Gustavo or Vado were also key, but it was in attack that the main guns arrived. Jorge Andrade was signed from FC Porto, and the promising young striker Paulo Alves came in from Tirsense. Together they would score 15 goals in the league campaign, although the top striker would be, once again, the Brazilian Edmilson.

Brazilian attacking midfielder Edmilson spent six fruitful years at Marítimo

Speedy, offensive gameplan

Fast and attacking football was Autuori’s trademark. He usually deployed Edmilson and Soeiro on the wings supporting Andrade while Ademir, Gustavo and Vado ran the game from midfield, with José Pedro and João Luís patrolling the right and left back areas alongside Valido and Heitor. Funnily enough, perhaps imagining that this would be a historical campaign, the club dropped the usual striped kit for a more modern take, with the green and red stripes slashing horizontally with their usual white or green shorts.

Marítimo opened the campaign away at Chaves with a hard-fought 2-1 win, Edmilson and Andrade netting the goals, despite a red card for Valido in the second half, which ended up making things difficult for them. For their Barreiros debut, they beat Vitória with a comprehensive 3-0 triumph, a particularly tasty result for Autuori, but the following week they were surprisingly beaten by Beira-Mar in Aveiro. The islanders rebounded from the setback in style, thrashing Gil Vicente 7-1 at home.

It seemed business as usual, but then a series of six matches without a single win hurt the side’s aspirations. There were defeats against Belenenses, Tirsense and Famalicão away and home draws with Estoril, Paços de Ferreira and Salgueiros. Without playing any of the top four sides, they were placed 8th in the league table, two points below Sporting in fifth, but only one above the drop zone. Then the winds started to change, and November heralded a series of wins. Braga, Espinho and Farense were put to the sword with hard-fought victories by a single goal as Marítimo moved up to sixth, only a point behind the duo of Sporting and Boavista and three below Benfica.

Titanic clashes with Sporting and Benfica

Then came the match against Sporting and the chance to make a name for themselves. A win would have seen them climb into fourth, but the Bobby Robson-led side ended up prevailing, thanks to two early goals from Jorge Cadete. Edmilson pulled one back, but the Polish striker Juskowiak netted a third, making Vado’s goal in the second half not enough to grab a point. Still, the performance had been good, and the side left the Alvalade in a positive spirit. They were rewarded a week later as Benfica visited Funchal. Once again, an early goal from Yuran seemed to put the game in Benfica’s hands, but Marítimo dominated possession, and Heitor scored a rocket to tie the scores before half-time. The home team had the better chances in the second half, but they were denied by Silvino, and yet, that draw proved to be a massive achievement and was celebrated properly in the stands.

Defeats against Boavista away and Porto at home finished a terrifically testing four-match cycle with Marítimo still dreaming of bettering their result from the previous campaign as they sat ninth with 16 points while Belenenses were fifth with 19. There was an entire second round of matches to be played, and Marítimo seemed eager to learn from past mistakes.

Brilliant “segunda volta”

A brilliant second half of the season (9W, 3D, 5L) propelled Marítimo into Europe for the first time in their history (Image: zerozero.pt)

Wins against Chaves and Beira-Mar, at home, and a 2-2 draw in Guimarães in one of the most exciting matches of the campaign, were good signs, but slippery defeats against Gil Vicente and Estoril away proved that Marítimo remained something of a two-faced team, performing to expectations at home but suffering every time the plane took off from Funchal airport on their way to the continent.

By April, however, they were firmly in contention for finishing in a European place again as they decisively beat Belenenses, Tirsense, Salgueiros and Famalicão, all of whom had been in the mix for Europe. A defeat away at Braga once again proved to be their undoing, more so knowing that the last four matches would be played against the sides who sat in the top four spots in the league table. They crucially beat Espinho and then grabbed a late draw in Faro, thanks to a Jorge Andrade goal that would prove decisive in the weeks to come, before facing their final hurdles against Sporting, Benfica, Boavista and reigning champions Porto.

Sporting put to the sword

When they left the Algarve, they sat in fifth, a point ahead of Farense and Belenenses and four above Beira-Mar, who seemed already facing the reality that their season had ended. Boavista had two more points than the Funchal side while Benfica led the table by a single point over Porto. Only Sporting had nothing to play for, well established in third place far from any menace from below and without any chance to scramble for the title. That mood perhaps helped as Marítimo ran riot against the Lisbon Lions, who scored early through the Russian prodigy Sergei Cherbakov, but were then hammered by two goals from João Luís, a penalty kick netted by Heitor and a late goal from Valido. It was one of the most memorable home wins for the club and, with Farense losing in Estoril and Boavista in Guimarães, the two points pulled them up into fourth place.

If only they were able to win against Boavista at home, in two weeks’ time, Europe would be guaranteed mathematically with two games to go. Expectations were high in the island, and nervousness kicked in. It was a lifetime moment, but a trip to Lisbon brought them back to reality. With Benfica now trailing Porto after an unexpected defeat in Aveiro, they destroyed the Madeira side 5-1 in their desperate hunt to get back to the top in their fight with Porto. Boavista came away winners against Beira-Mar and recovered fourth place. Farense’s draw with Belenenses made it official. A win for Marítimo in the two forthcoming matches would suffice. The problem was, it was Boavista and then Porto who awaited.

Marítimo-Boavista crunch game: a match for the ages

On 30 May, in an afternoon kickoff, and more than 10,000 Marítimo supporters flocked to the Barreiros hoping to witness history being made. Autuori had his first-choice XI all fit and ready to meet Manuel José’s boys. In the 34th minute Edmilson drove the crowd wild with an opener. Ricky tied the match only two minutes later and then scored again at the start of the second half. The mood had changed completely.

The resilience and the spirit of the Marítimo players while playing at home, though, came to life once again and in two minutes Ademir became the hero of the hour. In the 86th minute he netted the equaliser. Although it didn’t settle things, it was a huge boon as news came through that Farense were being demolished by Paços de Ferreira away. Still, there was one more goal to come. A minute later, the Brazilian midfielder scored his second of the afternoon and brought “the cauldron of the Barreiros”, as it was popularly known on the island, to boiling point.

Ademir equalises in the 86th minute to send the crowd at Barreiros wild with delight (Image: www.csmaritimo.org.pt)

It was too much for Boavista, but as the final whistle blew, both sides had confirmed their qualification for UEFA competitions the following season. For Boavista it was business as usual, but for Marítimo it was an historical event without precedent, and the party didn’t finish until well into the night. The following week’s defeat at the Estádio das Antas didn’t matter. The Madeira side witnessed Porto’s title celebration as they also celebrated, even if it meant finishing in fifth as Boavista managed to grab a win against Estoril to finish ahead of the islanders in the table in the end.

The 1992/93 achievement ushers in a golden age for Marítimo

Marítimo’s fifth-place finish was a club record, even if they managed to equal it in the following campaign and as well in the 1997/98, 2007/08, 2009/10 and 2011/12. Sadly for Marítimo’s European ambitions, they were drawn in the first round of the UEFA Cup in the 1993/94 season against Antwerp, who had just lost the Cup Winners’ Cup final to AS Parma and proved to be a better side than the Madeira outfit. Nevertheless, it became the beginning of something very special.

Marítimo returned to Europe on several occasions and fared better, and they had great sides for the following decades, but that 1992/93 campaign remains the club’s most beloved for everything it represented. The coming of age of an historical institution that had once been the best in Portugal and was forced to suffer the consequences of a political uprising and still managed to find themselves again in the place they belonged. The 1990s and 2000s were Marítimo’s golden age, and everything started with an ambitious blonde Brazilian, a side mustered with top players nobody seemed to believe in anymore, and a style of play that rocked the heart of the Funchal crowd. It was a special moment, and for many this remains Marítimo’s best side ever.

Footage of Marítimo’s brilliant 1992/93 campaign