Hard to get it right? São Paulo now on 7th right-back, Pedro Lima back | OneFootball

Pedro Lima is São Paulo’s new right back, the seventh still under contract with the club this season. Arriving on loan from Wolverhampton, England, the youngster was introduced this Thursday (17) at the Tricolor training center in Barra Funda.

Yes, adding those sidelined, injured, and out on loan, Tricolor have an incredible seven right backs belonging to the senior squad.

They are: Aurélio Buta, Cédric Soares, Igor Felisberto, Lucas Ramon, Maílton, Maik, and now Pedro Lima. However, only three of them have been available to Dorival Júnior in recent days.

The latest loss was also the newly arrived Buta, the Portuguese-Angolan who barely played and has already joined Reffis with pain in his right knee. He may even need surgery and become unavailable for even longer.

Portuguese fullback Cédric Soares has been permanently removed from training since Dorival Júnior’s arrival, and is working separately at Tricolor. Unable to reach an agreement with the club over an exit, he is expected to see out his contract until it ends in February 2027.

The players out on loan

Two Tricolor fullbacks are out on loan. Maílton, who arrived in 2025 as one of the standout players in Série B but never got going at São Paulo, is currently playing for Fortaleza until the end of the season. With Tricolor, his contract runs until December next year.

Meanwhile, young Maik, developed in the youth ranks at Cotia, dealt with off-field issues at São Paulo and ended up being loaned out to little-known Slovak side Dukla Banska Bystrica, where he will stay until the middle of next year. At Tricolor, he is under contract until May 2028.

Will it finally work now?

Finally listing the only three names currently part of Dorival Jr.’s squad, Lucas Ramón is the current starter in the position, whether as a fullback or wingback on that side. He has not been letting the team down and, although he is nothing special in the role, he puts in decent performances.

A youngster already well known at Tricolor and currently alternating between training at Barra Funda and games with Júlio Baptista’s under-20 side, Igor Felisberto is one of Cotia’s biggest gems. A member of Brazil’s youth national team setup, he has had few minutes with São Paulo’s first team, but is seen as hope for the near future.

Lastly, Pedro Lima is “back” at São Paulo. No, the new signing has never played in the Tricolor shirt, but he already tried to. He was rejected in a trial for the youth teams, as he revealed at his presentation, and is now fulfilling the dream of returning to the three-time world champion, where he will stay until June 2027.

Mistakes and more mistakes

The high number of names in the position only further highlights the huge mess the club is in. All the incompetence in the top ranks ends up affecting several areas of the club, including what happens on the pitch.

Players “pushed” by agents, bizarrely long contracts, unknown names, and the failure to make use of the academy explain the disastrous choices at right back in recent years.

Besides the talented Felisberto and Maik, both developed at Cotia, São Paulo also still have in the academy Angelo, a 17-year-old gem who is also part of Brazil’s youth national team and has already been sold to Europe, and Lucyan, a versatile under-20 talent. And few of them have been tested in the senior team. Tricolor are going from bad to worse.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.