Football Season Guide

Serie A
Brazil
Serie A
2017
Avai FC
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Avai FC

In


Lucas Otávio (Mid, Santos B, on loan), Gustavo (Def, EC Bahia), Junior Dutra (Att, Vasco da Gama), Alemão (Def, CA Aichinger), Leandro Silva (Def, Figueirense FC), Vinicius (Mid, Atletico-PR, on loan), Salazar (Def, Barra FC (SC), on loan), Marcelinho (Att, Dehli Dynamos), Capa (Def, Guarani-SC), Denilson (Att, Fluminense U20, on loan), Douglas Friedrich (GK, Corinthians, on loan), Ferdinando (Mid, free agent)

Out


Renan (GK, Ludogorets), William (Att, EC Agua Santa), Taua (Att, Tombense), Fabio Sanches (Def, Goias EC), Tata (Att, Al-Kharitiyat), Gabrial (Def, LOSC Lille), Vitor (GK, Votuporanguense), on loan), Wilker (Att, released), Luiz Gustavo (Def, Palmieras, end of loan), Judson (Mid, Tombense, end of loan), Elivelton (Mid, released), Lucas Coelho (Att, Grêmio, end of loan), Renato (Def, Fluminense, end of loan), Nildo (Mid, released), Jajá (Mid, Flamengo, end of loan), João Filipe (Def, Tombense, end of loan), Rafinha (Mid, Fluminense U20, end of loan)

Having finished as the runner-up in last season’s Serie B, Avai are back in the top tier of Brazilian football and they hope to avoid the same fate of their previous two participations, when they were relegated in 2011 and 2015. Their preparations for this campaign have been hot and cold, with the team reaching the final of the Catarinense State Championship, where they lost to Chapacoense. Yet they have already been knocked out of the Brazilian Cup as they lost at home to Serie B side Luverdense on penalty kicks. That will have worried some fans about their potential to compete in the top tier. Although they were able to retain the backbone of the promotion-winning squad, they have not added too much talent, with the arrivals of Vinicius and Leandro Silva the most exciting ones. They’ll hope that coach Claudinei Oliveira can bring the best out of their squad and extract more quality than it looks, on paper, like there is. It won’t be easy, though, and the team won’t even have that much of a home advantage as their bowl of a stadium is rarely full and certainly not intimidating for opponents.

Target


Avoiding relegation is without a doubt the target for Avai this season. To book another year in the top flight would be considered a great success, but they will be up against it going by the lack of talent on their books.