Suicidal Tour

Fourteen football players, eight standing and six squatting. The fifth standing and the fourth squatting players from the left have been marked with a red cross.
The 1943 Santa Cruz squad. Players marked with a red cross died during the tour.

The Suicidal Tour (Brazilian Portuguese: Excursão Suicída), also known as the Death Tour (Excursão da Morte), took place when Brazilian professional football club Santa Cruz Futebol Clube toured the North Region of Brazil from 2 January 1943 to 29 April 1943. Over the course of almost four months, they played either 26[1] or 28[2] friendly matches in six different cities to raise funds. The tour gained its name due to the misfortunes endured by the club, including a lack of funds, the threat of German attacks, and deaths.

Looking to recover from a financial crisis, Recife-based Santa Cruz arranged five matches in Belém, Pará. After those, the team was then invited to extend their tour to Amazonas. Traveling up the Amazon River for two weeks, Santa Cruz first started experiencing problems in Manaus, where seven members of the team's delegation caught dysentery. Although most of them recovered, two players went on to catch typhoid fever and died. Two other players left the club in order to play for Manaus clubs. Unable to return home through the sea due to World War II and needing to cover growing costs, Santa Cruz had to return to Recife by land, playing matches along the way to earn more money. The journey back to Recife had further problems, including a fake arrest warrant for a player, a trip alongside thieves, and two train derailments.

  1. ^ Costa (2020).
  2. ^ Aragão (1979), p. 62, "De novo no mar, junto com 35 ladrões" [Back at sea, with 35 thieves] section.