Guilherme Guarche, from the Memory Center
On August 22, 1930, in the Macuco neighborhood of Santos, there was born the man who would years later become the most renowned goalkeeper in Santos history: Gylmar dos Santos Neves, popularly known as “Giraffe.”
The phenomenal goalkeeper began his career with the amateur team of the Portuários of Cia. Docas de Santos, then moved to Jabaquara and subsequently went on to play for a team in the state capital, bought as a “counterweight,” since the directors of the capital club wanted to sign the midfielder Ciciá, and Jabaquara only agreed to the deal if the club took Gylmar as well.
He came to Santos in 1962, where he remained the starting goalkeeper until 1969, winning the most important titles in the history of the Alvinegro. Gylmar made his debut in goal for Santos on January 7, 1962, in Peixe’s 6–2 thrashing of Barcelona of Ecuador at the Monumental Isidro Romero stadium in Guayaquil, in a friendly match in which Coutinho scored four goals, while Zito and Pepe added one each. Santos lined up as follows: Laércio (Gylmar), Olavo and Décio Brito; Lima, Calvet (Formiga) and Zito (Getúlio); Dorval, Tite (Mengálvio), Coutinho, Pelé (Pagão) and Pepe (Tite). The coach was Luiz Alonso Perez, known as Lula.
For the Alvinegro of Vila Belmiro, Gylmar played 331 matches from 1962 to 1969; for the Brazilian National Team, while a Santos player, he played 38 matches.
Titles with Santos: World Champion (1962/63) Copa Libertadores Champion (1962/63) Brazilian Champion (1962/63/64/65/68) Rio-São Paulo Tournament Champion (1963/64/66) Paulista Champion (1962/64/65/67/68) Intercontinental Recopa Champion (1968).
Also on August 22, but in 1940, another goalkeeper was born who left his mark defending Santos’s goal: Cláudio César Aguiar Mauriz, who played 232 matches for Santos in 1965/68 and 1972/73.
During Gylmar’s time in goal for Peixe, the other goalkeepers who defended Vila’s net were: Laércio, Carlindo, Peres, Élcio, Silas, Rosan, and Cláudio. After the unforgettable keeper Gylmar left, the goalkeepers who took over Santos’s goal were Aguinaldo and Jair Estevão, followed in the 1970s by Joel Mendes and Edevar, and finally the Argentine goalkeeper Cejas, who became the starter as the guardian of Santos’s citadel.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.