Mateus Lucena dos Santos (30 August 1994 – 28 November 2016), commonly known as Caramelo, was a Brazilian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played for Chapecoense on loan from

São Paulo FC São Paulo Futebol Clube (), commonly referred to as São Paulo, is a professional football club in the Morumbi district of São Paulo, Brazil, founded in 1930. It plays in the Campeonato Paulista (the State of São Paulo's premier state leag ...

as a right back. Caramelo was one of the victims when

LaMia Airlines Flight 2933 LaMia Flight 2933 was a charter flight of an Avro RJ85, operated by LaMia, that on 28 November 2016 crashed near Medellín, Colombia, killing 71 of the 77 people on board. The aircraft was transporting the Brazilian Chapecoense football squad a ...

crashed on 28 November 2016.

Club career

Mogi Mirim

Born in Clementina, São Paulo, Caramelo joined

Mogi Mirim Mogi Mirim is a municipality located in the eastern part of São Paulo State, in Brazil. The population is 93,650 (2020 est.) in an area of 498 km². The elevation is 611 m. Mogi Mirim is around 65 km from Campinas, the biggest city in ...

's youth setup in 2009, aged 14. On 21 April 2013 he made his senior debut, starting in a 1–0

Campeonato Paulista The Campeonato Paulista Série A1, commonly known as Campeonato Paulista, nicknamed Paulistão, is the top-flight professional association football, football league in the Brazilian States of Brazil, state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo. Run b ...

home win against São Paulo. Caramelo remained as a starter in the following two matches, a 6–0 routing of

Botafogo-SP Botafogo Futebol Clube, commonly referred to as Botafogo-SP, Botafogo de Ribeirão Preto or simply Botafogo, is a Brazilian association football club in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo. They currently play in the Série B, the second tier of Braz ...

and a 1–1 draw against Santos, with his side being knocked out in the semifinals after a penalty shootout.

São Paulo

On 17 May 2013, Caramelo and Mogi teammate Roni signed with São Paulo. He made his Série A debut on 6 June, coming on as a second half substitute for

Maicon Maicon is a Brazilian variant of the given name Michael. It may refer to: Brazilian footballers *Maicon (footballer, born 1981), Maicon Douglas Sisenando, Brazilian football right-back *Maicon dos Santos (born 1981), Brazilian football midfielder * ...

in a 0–1 home loss against Goiás. After returning from loan in January 2016, Caramelo was included in the main squad. Mainly used as a backup to Bruno, he was sent out on loan for the third time after the arrival of

Julio Buffarini Julio Alberto Buffarini (; born 18 August 1988) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Talleres. Club career He spent his entire club career in South America until 5 August 2021, when he signed for Spanish Segund ...

Atlético Goianiense (loan)

Rarely used by ''Tricolor'' in the previous campaign, Caramelo signed a one-year loan deal with

Atlético Goianiense 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 ...

. A starter during the club's

Campeonato Goiano The Campeonato Goiano is the football league of the state of Goiás, Brazil. Format First Division First stage *Teams are divided in two groups of six teams. *Double round-robin, in which all teams home-and-away games against the team fro ...

winning campaign, he was demoted to second-choice during the year's Série B. Caramelo's first professional goal came on 3 October 2014, in a 1–1 away draw against

América Mineiro The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Chapecoense (loans)

In January 2015, Caramelo joined Chapecoense on loan until December. He was rarely used during his first spell at the club, being an immediate backup to starter Apodi. On 5 August 2016, Caramelo returned to ''Chape'' also on loan, until the end of the year. Initially a second-choice to Gimenez, he overtook the latter in the final stages of the season.

Death

On 28 November 2016, whilst at the service of Chapecoense, Caramelo was among the fatalities of the

accident in the Colombian village of Cerro Gordo,

La Unión, Antioquia La Unión is a town and municipality in the Colombian department of Antioquia. It is part of the subregion of Eastern Antioquia. Climate La Unión has a relatively cold subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a ma ...

Career statistics

Honours

;Chapecoense *

Copa Sudamericana 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 ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

(posthumously)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Caramelo 1994 births 2016 deaths Footballers from São Paulo (state) Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Mogi Mirim Esporte Clube players São Paulo FC players Atlético Clube Goianiense players Associação Chapecoense de Futebol players Copa Sudamericana-winning players Footballers killed in the LaMia Flight 2933 crash People from Araçatuba