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Much pain and much life later, the wind returns to make its round and there Chapecoense finds a sense of his destiny. After the tragedy of 2016 and last year’s relegation, Chapeocense has in fact found the strength to get up by returning to Brasilerao, the equivalent of our Serie A. “We have kept our promise” said the players and managers after the 2-1 victory against Figueirense which gave the mathematical certainty of the promotion.
You will remember, in 2016 the verdeoro club unfortunately became famous all over the world for the tragedy that struck it.
On November 28 of that year, the plane carrying the team crashed due to a breakdown due to lack of fuel: 71 of the 77 passengers died.
Chapecoense was flying to Colombia for the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana against Atletico Nacional. Only 6 managed to survive, including 3 players and a journalist, Rafael Henzel, who disappeared a year ago.
That was a tragedy that went to join the unfortunately long list of sports dramas caused by plane crashes, by the disappearance of the Grande Torino by Valentino Mazzola (1949) at the Munich incident that canceled part of Manchester United (1958) up to the drama of Zambia (1993) to get to the tragedies of Emiliano Sala (2019) and Kobe Bryant (2020), the Argentine footballer flew on a Piper while the American champion was on board a helicopter.
The city of Chapecò – in the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil – plunged into drama, but the whole world was shocked by the news. The Brazilian football movement proposed an anti-relegation clause to the club to avoid the defeat of the club, but the president Ivan Tozzo refused. Economic aid and players arrived from all over the country, a few months later – with more than twenty new players – Chape was saved and finished in eighth place. Last year, relegation was accepted with dignity; a few hours ago, the promotion achieved has allowed the club to return to the greats of Brazil.
Today the Brazilian club celebrated everything with a tweet: «We are back. We are in Serie A! It wasn’t easy to get here. It was harder than we could imagine. With work, with humility, with dedication, with union and above all with strength from above, Chapecoense has managed to keep its promise ». Literally: «With the strength that comes from above, we are back! ».