The 2005 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (officially the Taça

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

Brasileirão 2005 for sponsorship reasons) was the 49th edition of the

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian"), and also known as Brasileirão Assaí due to sponsorship with Assaí Atacadista, is a Br ...

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians ( grc, Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους) is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-aut ...

claiming their fourth national title. The season officially kicked off on April 23, 2005 and concluded on December 4.

New teams for 2005

Promoted in 2004

Brasiliense and Fortaleza

Relegated in 2004

Criciúma, Guarani, Vitória, Grêmio

The season

Champion and contenders

Pre-season favorites Corinthians captured their fourth national championship edition despite a turbulent early season and a campaign that went through 3 different head coaches. Key players

Carlos Tevez Carlos Alberto Tevez (; born 5 February 1984) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player. A quick, tenacious, powerful, hard-working and dynamic forward in his prime, Tevez was capable of playing as a striker, as a winger ...

, Carlos Alberto,

Roger Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...

and Gustavo Nery led the team to a result of 81 points in 42 games. Despite early season turmoil, Corinthians benefited from being one of the few teams in Brazil who could afford to maintain their talent base throughout the season without having to sell key players. The legitimacy of their title was disputed late in the season due to several scandals on and off the field. As 2005 champions, Corinthians received berth into the first round of the

Libertadores Cup The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club association football, football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level ...

as well as the

South American Cup The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American ...

in 2006.

Internacional Sport Club Internacional (), commonly known as Internacional or simply Inter, is a Brazilian professional football club based in Porto Alegre. They play in the Série A, the first division of the Brazilian league, as well as in Campeonat ...

of Rio Grande du Sul executed a strong campaign, finishing with a total of 78 points. Coach

Muricy Ramalho Muricy Ramalho (born 30 November 1955) is a Brazilian former football coach and player who is the current sporting director of São Paulo. During his playing career, he was as an attacking midfielder. His most recent position was as manager of ...

led a team with Rafael Sobis, Fernandão, and Tinga to the best performance of any team in the second half, narrowly missing the opportunity for their own fourth national title, but also securing a place in the first round of the Libertadores.

Goiás Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goiânia. ...

and

Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...

were awarded pre-Libertadores qualifying matches with teams to be determined by

Conmebol The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

for their 3rd (Goiás's best ever) and 4th-place finishes.

Consolation prize

In the top middle of the pack

Fluminense Fluminense Football Club (), known as Fluminense, is a Brazilian sports club best known for its professional football team that competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the first tier of Brazilian football and the Campeonato Carioca, th ...

, Atlético/PR, Paraná, Cruzeiro,

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

, Santos, and

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

were awarded allocations in the 2006 Copa Sul-Americana; with São Paulo, who cannot participate due to Libertadores commitments, ceding their spot to 12th placed

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...

. Santos in particular saw their season nose-dive as star player

Robinho Robson de Souza ( or , born 25 January 1984), known as Robinho (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. In 1999, at 15 years of age, Robinho was picked by Brazil legend Pelé as his heir apparent and, in 2002 ...

was transferred to

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

mid season (a similar fate encountered by Cruzeiro as striker

Fred Fred may refer to: People * Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Mononym * Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French * Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico Ro ...

was shipped off to

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

). Atlético/PR and São Paulo both suffered for having to dedicate their primary attention to the 2005 Libertadores Finals.

The bottom

Finishing in the bottom four and relegated to Série B for 2006 are storied franchise

Atlético Mineiro Atlético, Spanish for ''athletics'', or Athletico in English, may refer to: Sports Teams Athletico *Athletico SC (Lebanon), a Lebanese football academy *Athletic Bilbao, or Atletico Bilbao, Basque students athletic club (also forming Athletic Cl ...

as well as perennial mid-majors

Coritiba Coritiba Foot Ball Club, commonly known as Coritiba and colloquially referred to as "Coxa-Branca" or "Coxa", is a Brazilian football club from Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest f ...

, Paysandu, and Brasiliense. Série B champions and runner-up Grêmio and Santa Cruz took their place.

New teams for 2006

Promoted in 2005

Grêmio and Santa Cruz

Relegated in 2005

Coritiba, Altético/MG, Paysandu, and Brasiliense

Turmoil on and off the field

The season experienced significant turmoil off the field, marred by a match fixing scandal, which resulted in the replay of 11 série A matches between rounds 31 and 37.

Miscellaneous

*At 39 years young,

World Cup 1994 The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

hero Romário won the title of leading goal scorer in the league with 22 goals for Vasco da Gama. *2005 noticed a marked impact by foreigners in the Brazilian league. Corinthians contracted 3 Argentine players (with Carlos Tevez becoming the 3rd “gringo” to captain a Brazilian team to the championship) and started the season with

Daniel Passarella Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...

, of Argentina as coach. Native Serbian Petkovic led

to a respectable result and won the Silver Ball for the second year in a row as the best midfielder in the Brazilian tournament. *This season also marked a sponsorship boom for Brazilian football clubs. After the success of

Pepsi Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961. History Pepsi was ...

’s marketing campaign for Corinthians, Korean electronics brand

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

came on as Corinthians’ shirt sponsor within the season, with

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

as a secondary sponsor. At the same time, electronic giants Panasonic signed a new sponsorship deal with Santos Futebol Clube, whilst Italian tyre manufacturer Pirelli and Chinese handset maker LG continued their sponsorships with Palmeiras and São Paulo, respectively. Siemens also became a main shirt sponsor for Cruzeiro, whilst also having a contract with Spanish giants

. *

Bola de Ouro The ''Bola de Ouro'' (Golden Ball) is an annual award given each year, since 1973, by Brazilian sports magazine ''Placar'' to the best player in the Campeonato Brasileiro. A group of sports journalists watch every match of the competition and rat ...

(Golden Ball), awarded by Placar magazine for best overall player of the year: Carlos Tevez of Corinthians. *Bola de Prata (Silver Ball), awarded annually by Placar magazine for best player at each position: Fábio Costa (Corinthians); Cicinho (São Paulo), Lugano (São Paulo), Gamarra (Palmeiras), and Jadílson (Goiás); Mineiro (São Paulo), Marcelo Mattos (Corinthians), Petkovic (Fluminense) and Juninho Paulista (Palmeiras); Tevez (Corinthians) and Rafael Sobis (Internacional).

Statistics

Final standings

Top goal scorers

Mid-season transactions

While the CBF and

Clube dos 13 Clube dos 13 (Club of the 13) was the organization responsible for representing the interest of the most powerful football clubs of Brazil, including members from several football state federations such as Federação Paulista de Futebol, Federaç ...

continue to modify the league format in the hopes of decreasing the number of mid-season departures and improve the overall quality of play, the 2006 edition saw a significant number of players depart for Europe and elsewhere.

External links

CBF
Confederação Brasileira de Futebol - Brazilian Football Confederation

Placar magazine online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A 2005 1

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...