Between memory and nostalgia: The last title, in fact, of Paraná Clube

The 2006 title was different. It was the only one I really experienced. I remember the first game of the final well. I met some friends at the bar my father had at the time. Right away, Paraná made it 3-0. An immediate, almost unexpected relief. As if, after so long, history was finally returning to its place. But it was in the return game that he scored for good.

Paraná could even lose, but it wasn’t simple. It started behind, 1-0, and the tension appeared. Until that moment came. The lack. The expectation. And an unlikely character. Marcelinho wasn’t even supposed to play, since Maicosuel was the starter. But destiny has these things. Marcelinho went there and knocked. And it did.

That team had something different. I had an identity. There was delivery. The late Flávio Pantera at the finish line. The folkloric Goiano player moved to the right flank. A trio of defenders led by the experienced Emerson. In midcourt one of my biggest idols: Beto, the captain. Maybe it wasn’t unanimous, but for me it symbolized everything: race and leadership. Up front, Leonardo’s eye for goal, which was outstanding that season.

Then would come the Brasileirão, the unprecedented place in the Libertadores. But for me, it all starts there.

Twenty years later, time tried to give history another direction. Dark directions, by the way. But that achievement remains intact. Unfortunately, the last one in a suit. Distant. As the club itself highlights, “the past is gone”. Good memories. Time may have changed everything, the club, my life. But he didn’t take the feeling away. We continue the fight, kind of forged in steel. The story will not end.