Manga, the record-breaking goalkeeper | OneFootball

Guilherme Guarche, from the Memory Center

Throughout its hundred-year history, Santos has been defended by countless Afro-descendant goalkeepers, immortalized in the memory of the fans for having honored the Alvinegro Praiano shirt. Among them, Veludo, Barbosinha, Aguinaldo, Edinho, Aranha, and Diógenes will always be remembered.

All were important in different eras, but within this context one name stands out: Agenor Gomes, the late Manga, born on a Sunday, May 26, 1929, the goalkeeper who wore the Santos shirt the most times.

With 401 matches played between 1951 and 1959, he is the record-holding goalkeeper for appearances with Alvinegro Praiano, followed by Fábio Costa (345), Laércio (337), and Gylmar (331). And curiously, at the beginning of his career he specialized in scoring goals, not stopping them.

Born in Serra, a city in the metropolitan region of Vitória, capital of Espírito Santo, Manga, early in his career, oddly enough played as a center forward in the youth ranks of Caxias Esporte Clube, the team from his hometown.

In the local championship he was the team’s top scorer, but he suffered a serious injury and was sidelined for three months. When he returned to the team, he had lost his place. Fate intervened, however, when the starting goalkeeper failed to show up for one of the training sessions, and the coach decided to put Manga in goal because of his good height. “Take it or leave it,” said the coach, and from then on Manga improved in the position to the point of becoming one of the best in the country.

Origin of the nickname

It was a childhood friend nicknamed “Macumba,” his teammate at Caxias, who started calling him Manga because he thought his head was shaped like this juicy fruit from Asia.

Founded in 1940 by members of the Military Police, red-and-black Caxias’s greatest achievement was the 1944 State Championship title. Another important title was the Vitória City Cup in 1970.

His performances between the posts were so impressive that he came under the careful eye of Bráulio Campos, a businessman from Rio with free access to the clubs of Rio de Janeiro. Bráulio saw Manga as a goalkeeper with a promising future because of his agility and boldness.

At the end of 1949, at the age of 20, he was taken to try out for Flamengo’s reserve team. However, at Gávea he faced strong competition and was eventually loaned to Bonsucesso. At the red-and-blue club he made his quality and personality count, as he did not remain static inside the box, behaving as if he were a sweeper.

At Santos, two-time São Paulo champion in 1955/56

The renowned coach Aymoré Moreira, who in his youth played as a goalkeeper, was born in Miracema, Rio de Janeiro, on April 24, 1912, exactly 10 days after Santos was founded. Aymoré, who would later coach the Brazilian National Team in its victorious 1962 World Cup campaign in Chile, managed Alvinegro Praiano from 1951 to 1952, leading the club in 59 matches, with 29 wins, 12 draws, and 18 defeats.

It was he who recommended Manga to the board, and the goalkeeper ended up leaving

Rio football to join Alvinegro Praiano in 1951, making his first appearance in the Santos goal when he came on in place of the injured Leonídio. His debut came on September 30, 1951, a Sunday, at Vila Belmiro, in a match valid for the São Paulo State Championship. Santos lost 2-0 to Portuguesa de Desportos, and Aymoré Moreira sent out a team made up of Manga, Hélvio, and Sarno; Nenê, Olavo, and Pascoal; Tite, Antoninho, Odair, Nando, and Brandãozinho.

Because of his efficiency and his simple, humble, and discreet manner, Manga made many friends in the seaside club’s squad and gradually won the trust of the fans. He was given the nickname “Espantalho Santista” (“Santos Scarecrow”), because opponents saw in him a fierce defender who scared them off and drove them away from the penalty area.

At the beginning of 1954 he was loaned to Bahia, even though he enjoyed great prestige at Vila Belmiro. When he returned months later, he regained his starting spot. In his absence he was replaced by Reginaldo da Costa, Barbosinha, who earned that nickname because of his resemblance to another famous goalkeeper, Barbosa, who defended the Brazilian National Team during the 1950 World Cup held in Brazil.

Back at Vila Belmiro, Manga reunited with his great friend Rubato Calvo Nunes, with whom he had played at Bonsucesso at the start of the decade. In the 1955 São Paulo State Championship campaign, won by Peixe after a painful 20-year wait, Manga was one of the standout players on the team managed by coach Luiz Alonso Perez, Lula.

In that highly competitive championship, Alvinegro Praiano played 26 matches, and Manga was present in 19 of them. Injured, he missed four matches in the final stretch, but returned to the team in the last round, which decided the competition and gave Santos its long-awaited second state title.

In the decisive match on January 15, 1956, a hot summer Sunday in Santos, Santos lifted the trophy by defeating Taubaté 2-1, with goals from Álvaro and Pepe, playing with Manga, Hélvio, and Feijó; Ramiro, Formiga, and Rubato; Tite, Álvaro, Del Vecchio, Negri, and Pepe. A practically unbeatable team was beginning to emerge there, one that in the following years would become the greatest football team of all time.

Wearing the Santos shirt, Manga won the São Paulo championships of 1955, 1956, and 1958; in 1956 he won the International Tournament of the São Paulo Football Federation and the Invincibles Cup; in 1959 he won the Mário Expandi Tournament and the Mexico Pentagonal; and in 1952 the FPF Opening Tournament.

The farewell of a champion

With the arrival of goalkeepers Lalá and Laércio, competition in the team became fierce. At 30 years old, and still holding the record of 401 matches as Santos goalkeeper, Manga felt it was time to seek new directions in his life.

His farewell match took place on December 16, 1959, a Wednesday, at Vila Belmiro, in the São Paulo State Championship, when Santos drew 2-2 with Botafogo of Ribeirão Preto, with goals by Pepe and Sormani. That day coach Lula fielded the team with Manga, Pavão, and Mourão; Feijó, Formiga, and Zito; Dorval, Jair Rosa Pinto, Aguinaldo, Sormani, and Pepe.

Professor Agenor Gomes

After leaving football, he went on to work successfully as a coach. His finest moment in this new stage was a historic achievement in 1964, when he led Portuguesa Santista back to the top division of São Paulo football, secured with a famous 1-0 victory over Ponte Preta at Moisés Lucarelli Stadium in Campinas, with a goal by Samarone.

He also coached Ferroviária (Second Division champion in 1966), São Carlos Clube, Santo André, Grêmio São-carlense, Rio Branco and Grêmio Maringá, both from Paraná, Araçatuba, and Grêmio São-carlense again in 1988. In the year he worked for Santo André, 1967, his name entered Ramalhão history because it was the club’s first year.

In the city of São Carlos (SP), he is regarded as the best football coach ever to lead the team, as he was part of São Carlos’s promotion to the Second Division. He returned to the most famous Alvinegro in the world at the beginning of the 1980s to coach the youth teams. His final professional occupation was as the leaseholder of a cafeteria that supplied meals and snacks to dockworkers at the Port of Santos.

The warrior’s goodbye

Manga had been hospitalized for 40 days at Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Santos, and during this sad and difficult period he received a visit from his former teammate from the 1950s, the eternal King Pelé. The greatest idol went to bring comfort and words of affection to his gravely ill friend, who had to undergo three hemodialysis sessions a week.

At the age of 74, from chronic kidney failure and pulmonary edema, Manga died in the early hours of Friday, Christmas Day 2003. The great warrior from Espírito Santo, who had learned to love the club from Vila Belmiro like few others, was laid to rest forever. His passion was genuine, so much so that he once confided to his son: “Look, Marquinhos, when they open my heart, they’ll certainly find a whale.”

He was buried at the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica in Santos, where several of his former Santos teammates were present.

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