Santo Andre

Esporte Clube Santo Andre, commonly referred to as simply Santo Andre, is a Brazilian association football club in Santo Andre, Sao Paulo, currently playing in the Paulistao A1, the top tier of the Sao Paulo state football league.

Santo Andre greatest rival is Sao Caetano, the other team in ABC region. The club's mascot name is Ramalhao ("Big Ramalho") after Joao Ramalho, the bandeirante who founded the city of Santo Andre in 1553.

History

Santo Andre was founded on September 18, 1967, by people that wanted to have a team in their city representing the professional football of the Municipality.

The first Santo Andre directorship was elected on October 4, 1967, and was composed by the following members: Newton Brandao, the President; Wigand dos Santos, Antonio Ferreira dos Santos and Hildebrando Mota Carneiro, the vice-presidents; Nelson Cerchiari and Durval Daniel, secretaries; Matheus Guimaraes Jr. and Joao Manha, the treasurers.

The first official match of the club took place on April 8, 1968, at Americo Guazzelli stadium in a friendly match against Santos. Pele did not play, but watched the game and participated in the festivities. Santo Andre won 2 - 1.

In 1984 Santo Andre were invited to play in Serie A based on their State Championship performance. The team reached the third round (ranked 10th overall), but were not invited to compete the following year as the criteria changed.

Santo Andre next made headlines in 2003 when the team finished as runners-up to Ituano in Serie C and thus were promoted to Serie B.

In 2004, Santo Andre won their first national title when they defeated Flamengo in the Copa do Brasil final, gaining the right to compete in the following year's Copa Libertadores de America. Their first season in Serie B was over before it started as the team was docked 12 points for playing an ineligible player. This meant at the time of the Copa do Brasil success their point tally on the local tournament was negative. The team recovered to c

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