Modesto Roma Júnior (born 5 December 1952) is a Brazilian businessman of the communications industry, and was the current president of

Santos FC Santos Futebol Clube (), commonly known simply as Santos or Santos FC and nicknamed the ''Peixe'' (; "fish"), is a Brazilian sports club based in Vila Belmiro, a '' bairro'' in the city of Santos. It is also the team with the most goals i ...

for three years.

Personal life

Roma was born in

Santos, São Paulo Santos (, ''Saints'') is a municipality in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, founded in 1546 by the Portuguese nobleman Brás Cubas. It is located mostly on the island of São Vicente, which harbors both the city of Santos and the city of São ...

. A journalism graduate, he abandoned his initial career after only three years, and became a businessman in the communications area shortly after. He is also the son of

's former president Modesto Roma, who took charge of the club from 1975 to 1978.

Santos FC

A Santos director from 2004 to 2009, under Marcelo Teixeira's reign (president of the club from 2000 to 2009), Roma submitted his presidential candidacy on 20 October 2014, being supported by Teixeira. On 13 December he was elected the new president, after winning by 1,329 votes. Roma officially took charge of ''Peixe'' on 1 January 2015, with the club immerse in a severe financial crisis left by the previous administration, with players having unpaid wages. Roma saw Aranha, Arouca,

Leandro Damião Leandro Damião da Silva dos Santos (; born 22 July 1989), known as Leandro Damião or simply Damião, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Japanese club Kawasaki Frontale. He has been capped at international level ...

and

Eugenio Mena Eugenio Esteban Mena Reveco (; born 18 July 1988) is a Chilean professional Association football, footballer who plays as a left-back for Argentine Primera División side Racing Club de Avellaneda, Racing Club and the Chile national football team, ...

take legal actions against the club due to unpaid wages, but only the Chilean had a favourable decision; he managed to reach agreements with the others, while Damião lost his case. He also managed to pay the players' wages on 30 January, while saving a total of R$23 million of wages in the year, due to the departures. After only signing players without paying any fee, Roma managed to gather a successful team during his first year in charge of Santos, winning the

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 ...

and being runner-up in the

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil ( en, Brazil Cup) is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de ...

. He also created a

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

to serve as a transition between the youth setup and the main squad, copying the idea from the biggest European teams. After a successful first year, Roma was highly criticized by the supporters during the 2017 campaign, mainly due to Lucas Lima's contractual problems. He was succeeded by José Carlos Peres on 10 December 2017. Peres later revealed that Roma was using the club's corporate card for personal reasons, whilst also paying a total of R$24 million in agent fees.

References

External links

Biography in Máquina do Esporte
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roma, Modesto Junior 1952 births Living people People from Santos, São Paulo Brazilian businesspeople Santos FC