Unbeaten at rival Palmeiras, Allan Barcellos digs at São Paulo | OneFootball

Leading the Brazilian U-20 Championship and still unbeaten since taking charge of Palmeiras’ youth team, coach Allan Barcellos continues to find success, now on the opposite side.

In just over a month at his new club, Barcellos has already played eight matches with Palmeiras without yet knowing what it is to lose. He took over the lead in the national youth league after a 1-0 win over Corinthians in a derby played this Tuesday (19). Meanwhile, his successor at Tricolor, Júlio Baptista finally managed to earn his first win with São Paulo’s U-20 team.

After a troubled departure from Tricolor following the club’s unfulfilled promise to gradually integrate Barcellos into the senior team, the coach was full of praise for his new home and took some subtle jabs at São Paulo.

“There is enthusiasm, a very good energy when it comes to bringing the U-20 and senior teams closer together. Here, we all have a clear direction and believe in this process,” Allan Barcellos said in an interview with Globo Esporte.

“Perhaps in this short period, since I’ve been experiencing this transition process, it has been the smoothest transition. Because of the openness, but also because of the communication link, the way people are treated, the clarity the club has, and the care the club shows in this bottleneck between the U-20 and the senior team,” he continued.

“Palmeiras does not want to lose, it does not want any loose ends in this regard, because I think this is the most difficult moment within a club’s development process.”

One of the major difficulties Allan pointed out in making the process work at his former club was the distance between the Barra Funda and Cotia training centers, where São Paulo houses its youth players.

“It is very much related to a method within a stage of transition for young players that is very demanding, which is the move from the U-20 level to the senior team. So in the end, we talk little, and when we are at different training centers, that communication becomes even more distant,” he said.

However, Barcellos did not fail to express his affection for Tricolor, where he won the 2025 Copa São Paulo and the U-20 Copa do Brasil in the same year.

“I am very grateful to São Paulo, to the people who were there, the fans and the players, especially the players—they may not even realize it, but how much they taught us and continue to teach us—so I am very grateful to the institution,” the coach said.

Tricolor is still suffering after Barcellos’ departure. It even took time to officially announce Baptista, who is still searching for better results at youth level in this early stage of his work.

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