lit a candle 6h agoSaw a clip once of that giant Santos crest unfurled across the pitch, didn't know the name behind it until now. Don't really know what to say about someone I only ever knew through a photo of his work.
Their story
Roberto Ramos dos Santos, known as Beto Bandeiras, was a Brazilian artist and banner maker from Santos whose giant flags became part of the spectacle at Santos FC matches. He was also the founder and president of Torcida Camisa 10, a supporters' group created in tribute to Pele. He died…
Roberto Ramos dos Santos, known as Beto Bandeiras, was a Brazilian artist and banner maker from Santos whose giant flags became part of the spectacle at Santos FC matches. He was also the founder and president of Torcida Camisa 10, a supporters' group created in tribute to Pele. He died in Santos on 4 November 2026, aged 47, after a reported heart attack.
Beto began making banners in 2000, first for a single Santos supporter and then for organised supporters' groups in Sao Paulo state and further afield. Over time he produced banners for clubs, fan groups and institutions, and his work was covered several times by the Santos newspaper A Tribuna. He was described in that coverage as a visual artist, and his craft involved marking out designs in chalk on vast lengths of fabric before painting them.
His best known work was the giant Santos crest banner first unfurled in 2017. TV Tribuna reported that it measured 100 metres by 70 metres, used 550 kilograms of fabric and 200 kilograms of paint, weighed about 750 kilograms and took 16 days to make. Conceived by businessman Flavio Pires and made by Beto, it was shown at Pacaembu before covering the pitch at Vila Belmiro. In 2019 he made a banner honouring coach Jorge Sampaoli, and that October, with Torcida Camisa 10, he presented the Pele Museum with a 25 by 12 metre banner to mark Pele's 79th birthday.
A devoted admirer of Pele, he founded Camisa 10, the number Pele wore, to honour the player and the club together, saying that it was impossible to speak of Pele without Santos or of Santos without Pele.
His death on 4 November 2026 was reported by A Tribuna, and Santos FC paid tribute to him on its social media channels. The club described him as president of Torcida Camisa 10 and a producer of banners for clubs, supporters' groups and institutions. Supporters remembered him as the man whose work gave Vila Belmiro some of its most memorable images.
Biography adapted from A Tribuna, TV Tribuna (Rede Globo), Prefeitura de Santos, Santos FC.
Photos
1by People Forever
