Toloi celebrates São Paulo return, ready to face Botafogo | OneFootball

Officially introduced this Tuesday, at SuperCT, Rafael Toloi celebrated the opportunity to defend São Paulo once again. The defender, who signed a contract until December 2026, with the possibility of extension until the end of 2027, expressed his happiness to experience his second stint with the Tricolor and showed readiness to take the field.

"It's the dream of any athlete to play in a club as grand as São Paulo. I'm having the opportunity of my second stint and I was very happy when I received the call with the intention to hire me. I didn't think twice. In the first stint, I experienced the thrill of being a champion with the unprecedented South American title, which marked my career. The negotiation now was very quick and easy. I am honored and happy to be here again," said the new number 2 of São Paulo.

Experience and physical conditioning

The defender is already training with the São Paulo squad and says he is prepared to be an option for Hernán Crespo. Regularized in the BID (Daily Information Bulletin) of the CBF, Toloi's re-debut is conditioned only to the physical issue. His last official match was on May 4, still for Atalanta.

"In these weeks, I worked very well. With technology and training data, I was able to monitor my performance and I was satisfied. Even before agreeing with São Paulo, I kept up the physical work on my own, especially in the aerobic part, something I always valued in Europe. This helped me a lot. Today I feel good and available for the coach for the weekend," he added.

São Paulo faces Botafogo next Sunday, at 5:30 pm (Brasília time), at Morumbis, for the 23rd round of the Brazilian Championship. At the moment, the Tricolor is in seventh place in the table, with 32 points in 22 matches, and continues to fight for a spot in the G6.

Second stint at the club

Revealed by Goiás, Toloi arrived at São Paulo in 2012 and, in his first stint, played 133 matches, scored six goals and was part of the champion squad of the South American Cup that year. In 2014, he was loaned to Roma and, in mid-2015, transferred to Atalanta.

In Italy, he built a solid career: there were 313 matches, 14 goals and 18 assists for Atalanta, in addition to the Europa League title in 2024. Naturalized Italian, he also defended the Azzurra on 14 occasions and won the Euro 2021.

Now, he returns to Morumbis to reinforce the defensive system, a sector that has been suffering from the absence of Arboleda, injured. The squad also has Alan Franco, Ferraresi and Sabino as options for the defense.

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