Juary, Santos's fleet-footed marksman | OneFootball

Guilherme Guarche, from the Memory Center

By coincidence or fate, another important football player and one of Santos’ greatest idols, Juary Jorge dos Santos Filho, was also born in São João de Meriti, on June 16, 1959, a Tuesday, just like his fellow townsman João Paulo, the Papinha da Vila, who also comes from the same city in Rio de Janeiro.

As a boy, he used to play football with other kids his age in the streets of his city, in the violent Baixada Fluminense, and it was one of his neighborhood friends, Baba, who played for Santos’ youth team, that recommended him for a trial with the team from Vila Belmiro.

At 14, he came to Santos, took part in the trials, was accepted to train with the youth teams, and began living in the accommodations at Estádio Urbano Caldeira. At 17, he signed his first contract with the Alvinegro Praiano.

His first appearance in the Santos shirt came on May 27, 1976, in a friendly in Volta Redonda, Rio de Janeiro, in a 3–0 defeat to the local team. Alfredo Sampaio, known as Alfredinho, gave Juary his debut in place of Léo Oliveira.

The club from Vila Belmiro, then presided over by Modesto Roma, was going through one of its financial crises in 1976 and took the field with: Ricardo, Tuca, Vicente, Fausto and Fernando; Carlos Roberto and Léo Oliveira (Juary); Admundo, César, Didi and Edu.

In the 1977 Campeonato Paulista, he was used in a few matches, and his excellent performances earned him the chance to play in the Taça Governador do Estado, where Santos, after eliminating Corinthians in the semifinal, reached the final against Atlético Madrid.

The highly acclaimed center-back of the Spanish team was Luís Pereira, Luís Chevrolet, who had been a starter for the Brazilian national team at the 1974 World Cup in Germany and is still considered one of the greatest defenders in the history of Brazilian football. And it was in front of a huge crowd of Santos fans at Morumbi that they saw defender Luís Pereira lose the ball to the young Juary, who scored Santos’ goal.

Santos ended up losing on penalties in a match that finished 1–1, but the next day the newspapers highlighted Juary’s performance and goal, noting how he had not been intimidated by the famous and excellent defender Luís Pereira.

His quick style of play and opportunism earned him a starting place in the Santos team, and an unforgettable moment for him came when he took part in King Pelé’s final match in New York, on October 1, 1977. Juary played alongside the King in the second half of Santos’ 2–1 defeat to the New York Cosmos. Pelé played one half for each team.

But it was thanks to coach Francisco Ferreira de Aguiar, the late Chico Formiga, that he had the opportunity to establish himself in the Santos squad, playing in that group of youngsters known as the “Meninos da Vila,” where Juary definitively won the admiration of the Santos fans.

He was one of the main names in the Alvinegro team during the victorious campaign that gave Santos the 1978 Campeonato Paulista title. The nimble number 9 was also Peixe’s top scorer in the regional competition with 29 goals.

One of the teams that suffered most against center-forward Juary was São Paulo, with goalkeeper Valdir Perez. The speedy striker was not very tall: he stood 1.66 meters and weighed 66 kilos. Even so, his pace was a torment for opposing defenses, and his way of celebrating goals was to run around the corner flags.

Leaving Vila Belmiro for Mexico

A tempting offer made by businessman Nicola Gravina in December 1979 led the Santos board, then headed by Rubens Quintas, to agree to sell his rights to Universidad Guadalajara of Mexico for 13 million cruzeiros.

Juary left Santos, the club for which he played from 1976 to 1979, and then again in 1989, totaling exactly 229 matches and 101 goals, making him the 23rd top scorer in Santos history.

But he stayed only three years in Mexican football before being transferred to Unione Sportiva Avellino. The following season he played for Inter Milan, and he also went on to represent the Italian teams Ascoli and Cremonese.

But it was at Futebol Clube do Porto, the traditional Portuguese club, that he found the joy of playing football again. Coming off the bench in the decisive match against the powerful Bayern Munich side, Juary scored the winning goal that gave Porto the UEFA Champions League title in the 1986/87 season.

Another important title Juary won with the blue-and-white team was the Club World Cup that year, against Peñarol of Uruguay. The team won 2–1, and the boy from São João de Meriti became, to this day, one of the greatest idols of the Portuguese club.

In April 1988, at the age of 28, he decided to return to Brazilian football and signed with Portuguesa de Desportos, but his spell at Lusa do Canindé was not one of the best, and the following year Juary returned to Santos, ending his career in 1990 after an unremarkable stint with Moto Clube of Maranhão.

In 2015, during the administration of president Modesto Roma Júnior, Juary even worked in Santos’ youth academy alongside his fellow Fluminense countryman João Paulo.

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