A decade after finding Palmeiras’ phone number on Google to provide sponsorship at a critical moment, Leila Pereira has become the most influential manager in the club’s recent history – now president, a popular figure among fans and the linchpin of the rebuilding process that has taken Verdão to the pinnacle of Brazilian and South American football.
- Estêvão is the first Brazilian since Neymar To make an immediate impact on a European giant
According to Portuguese newspaper A Bola, in January 2015, a month after Palmeiras escaped relegation to Serie B in the final round of the Brazilian league, Leila and her husband José Roberto Lamacia decided to act. During breakfast, I suggested to the family company Crefisa to start sponsoring the club to try and stop the run of poor results.
– I’m sure we would have been able to help Palmeiras – Leila recalled, in an interview with ESPN Brasil.
The response was immediate. She is 61 years old, and today Forbes magazine listed her among the richest women in the country, and reported that she looked up the club’s phone number on the Internet, called it and was discredited by the employee who answered. He insisted and asked to contact marketing and was able to schedule a meeting for the same Saturday. From here emerged the partnership that would change the team’s fate.
Since then, Crevisa and the FAM Educational Group have invested the equivalent of around €160 million in Palmeiras, allowing important deals to be signed, the first of which is Dodo, which was contested by São Paulo and Corinthians. The project was reinforced with titles: the Copa Libertadores, three Brasileiro titles and other trophies that brought the club back to the top.
Her connection with the fans earned Laila the nickname “Auntie Laila”, while her constant presence in daily life and on social media turned her into something of a “pop star” among managers – as the Argentine newspaper Olé described her.
Unsatisfied with being just a sponsor, Laila ran for the club’s board of directors in 2017, and in 2021, she won the presidential election with 88% of the vote. Under her management, main sponsorship moved to betting company Sportingbet, while maintaining its direct influence on football policy and administration.
His name also gained continental recognition. Recently, he responded strongly to the president of the South American Confederation, Alejandro Dominguez, after a statement deemed offensive to Brazilian clubs – reaffirming his heroism abroad as well.
Layla plans the next step: winning the world title.
– I came to Palmeiras to make them world champions. It’s my dream, and it doesn’t matter how long it takes. “I’ll do it,” he says.
She also does not hide her admiration for Abel Ferreira, whom she considers “the best coach in the club’s history,” promising to keep him as long as the coach “feels happy” in his position.
And this Saturday, Leila could extend her legacy if Palmeiras beat Flamengo in another Libertadores final – a result that would cement a decade that began with a Googled call-up and which today places them as the absolute champion of national football.