Lucca, Nicolas and Cotia gems in São Paulo's Copinha 2026 squad | OneFootball

On the afternoon of this Tuesday (23), São Paulo released the list of registered players for the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Juniores, the traditional and popular Copinha 2026.

There are 30 players who will defend the title won at the beginning of this season. Among them are some names already familiar to the tricolor fans, such as goalkeeper João Pedro, full-back Nicolas, defender Igão, as well as the talented forwards Lucca and Paulinho. All of them have already trained with Hernán Crespo at Barra Funda this year.

The skillful winger Lucca, in fact, a major highlight of this under-20 team, may not even play in the Copinha, since the idea is to use him in the main squad from the start of the tricolor’s preseason. He may, however, play a few matches in the tournament if necessary, depending on Crespo’s decision.

Many other young players will be closely observed by Crespo’s coaching staff to potentially join the main squad in 2026. As reported by AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR, between four and six names are expected to be integrated into the squad training at Barra Funda next year, also following the club’s financial restructuring plan, given its fragile finances.

Some other Made in Cotia players who are also being considered include right-back Igor Felisberto, defender Osorio, midfielder Pedro Ferreira, and forward Gustavo Santana. The latter, together with Paulinho, will be making their farewell to the under-20s at the Copinha, as they will turn 21 afterwards and surpass the age limit for the category.

Thus, São Paulo will use the youth tournament to decide what to do with the duo: either fully integrate them into the professional squad or loan them out to a smaller club to gain experience. Paulinho currently leads the race for a spot in the tricolor squad for 2026.

In the 2026 Copinha, São Paulo is in Group 19, alongside Real Soccer-SP, Maruinense-SE, and Independente-AP. The venue will be in Sorocaba, with matches held at Estádio Walter Ribeiro. The tournament starts on January 2, but the São Paulo under-20 team debuts only on the 4th, a Sunday, at 11 a.m. (Brasília time), against Maruinense from Sergipe, with live coverage on Record and Xsports open channels. Next, Allan Barcellos’s team faces Independente on the 7th, and wraps up the initial phase against Real Soccer on January 10 of next year.

Tricolor is the current champion of the Copa São Paulo, after a historic title won at the start of 2025, and is also the second biggest winner in history, with five titles, alongside Fluminense and Internacional, behind only Corinthians (11 titles).

See below the list of the 30 registered for the Copinha:

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