Mauro, the title-winning centre-back | OneFootball

Guilherme Guarche, from the Memory Center

Located in the south of the state of Minas Gerais, about 260 km from the capital of São Paulo, Poços de Caldas is a welcoming hydromineral resort town, and it was there that Mauro Ramos de Oliveira was born, on August 30, 1930, a distant Saturday. He would later become one of the best center-backs ever to wear the Santos shirt in its glorious history.

Mauro began his victorious football career in his hometown, playing for amateur teams such as Cascudinho, Caxias, RAF, and AA Caldense. In 1947, he also played for Vargem Grande do Sul and for Sanjoanense of São João da Boa Vista.

He was signed by São Paulo in 1948. With the Tricolor do Morumbi, he won four São Paulo state titles until, in 1960, he was acquired by the Black-and-White team from the coast for five million cruzeiros, a fee considered very high at the time.

His first match, on March 27, 1960, was a goalless draw against Palmeiras at Pacaembu in the Rio-São Paulo Tournament. That Sunday, coach Luiz Alonso Perez, Lula, sent the following lineup onto the field: Lalá, Getúlio, Mauro and Zé Carlos; Formiga and Zito; Dorval, Mário, Ney, Coutinho (Tite) and Pepe.

Days later, center-back Raul Donazar Calvet also made his debut, and together with Mauro he would form one of the best defensive pairings Brazilian football has ever seen.

Timing, heading ability, clean tackling, safe buildup play, leadership of Santos’s defensive system—Mauro had all of that, and for those reasons he was the great leader and captain of the Black-and-White team from Vila Belmiro. His class, combined with refined technique, his athletic build of 1.81 meters and 75 kilos, and his elegance in the way he dressed, earned him the nickname Martha Rocha, the woman from Bahia who was elected the first Miss Brazil in 1954.

In the unforgettable year of 1962, Mauro became champion twice, once with the Brazilian National Team and once with Santos, by winning the Intercontinental Cup against Benfica in Portugal.

After leaving Vila Belmiro, he went to Mexico to play for Toluca between 1967 and 1968. He then began his coaching career at Deportivo Oro, another Mexican team. In 1971, he returned to Santos to replace coach Antônio Fernandes, Antoninho, managing the team in 78 matches, with 39 wins, 24 draws, and 15 losses.

After coaching Club Jalisco of Mexico from February 1973 to March 1974, he returned to his hometown, Poços de Caldas, where he devoted himself to business.

Wearing the Santos shirt, Mauro played 352 matches between 1960 and 1967 and scored no goals.

São Paulo State Championships: 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964 and 1965.

Brazilian Championships: 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965.

Copa Libertadores de América: 1962 and 1963.

Mauro Ramos de Oliveira, the great Santos defender, passed away on September 18, 2002, at the age of 72, in his beloved Poços de Caldas.

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