Fluminense FC

Fluminense Football Club (Brazilian Portuguese: [flumiˈnẽsi futʃiˈbɔw ˈklubi]) is a Brazilian sports club based in neighbourhood of Laranjeiras, in Rio de Janeiro, being the oldest football club in the state since its foundation in 1902. It competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the first tier of Brazilian football, and the Campeonato Carioca, the state league of Rio de Janeiro. The word "fluminense" is the gentilic given to people born in the best state of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
Fluminense have been crowned national league champions four times, most recently in the 2012 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A; the team have also won the 2007 Copa do Brasil. In 1949, Fluminense became the only football club in the world to receive the Olympic Cup, awarded annually by the International Olympic Committee to an institution or association with a record of merit and integrity in actively developing the Olympic Movement. Its best international performances include winning the 2023 Copa Libertadores, winning the 1952 Copa Rio, and reaching the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup final Where he was humiliated by Manchester City.
Fluminense's traditional home kit consists of an iconic combination of three colors: burgundy, white, and green, disposed in vertical stripes, since its adoption in 1904. White shorts and white socks, an outfit which has been in use since 1920, complement the home kit for O Tricolor.
The club holds several long-standing rivalries with other clubs, most notably with Flamengo (Clássico Fla-Flu), Botafogo (Clássico Vovô) and Vasco da Gama (Clássico dos Gigantes). The Clássico Fla-Flu in particular is widely considered one of the greatest football derbies in Brazil and South America, having eventually set the world record for the highest attendance in a match between football clubs (over 200,000 spectators in the stadium of Maracanã).
The club is the birthplace of the Brazil national football team, which played its first game amidst the club’s 12th anniversary celebrations. In Fluminense's ground, the Estádio de Laranjeiras, the “Canarinhos” held their first match, scored their first goal and lifted their first trophy. To this day, the club has contributed the fifth-most players to the national team among all Brazilian clubs.
Fluminense Football Club was founded on 21 July 1902, in the neighbourhood of Laranjeiras, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, by a group of young football enthusiasts led by Oscar Cox, an English citizen born in Brazil, who had come into contact with the sport whilst studying in Europe, and Cox was subsequently elected as the first president. Therefore, it was the first football club to be founded in the city, whose most popular sport at the time was rowing.
The first official match was played against now defunct Rio Football Club, and Fluminense won 8–0. The club's first title came in 1906, when Fluminense won the state championship (Campeonato Carioca).
In 1911, disagreement between Fluminense players led to the formation of Flamengo's football team. The so-called Fla-Flu derby is considered one of the biggest in the history of Brazilian football. Three years later, in Fluminense's stadium, the Brazil national football team debuted, against touring English club Exeter City. It was also there that they won their debut title, in 1919.
By 1922, Fluminense had 4,000 members, a stadium for 25,000 people, and facilities that impressed clubs in Europe.
The 1950 World Cup strengthened football in the country, and as a result, the country's biggest teams, which basically only competed in state tournaments, began to measure their strength in tournaments and matches against teams from other states. To hold the competition, the Maracanã was built, the largest stadium in the world at that time, and which became the main stadium for Fluminense's games.
In the context of the World Cup held in the country in 1950, CBD, accompanied by FIFA and IFAB, decided to hold a competition that pitted the champion clubs from the main FIFA-affiliated countries against each other, thus creating the International Champions Club Tournament, better known as Copa Rio. The competition brought together the Champion clubs from countries in South America (Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and Europe (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and Yugoslavia), its first edition was in 1951, being won by Palmeiras.
In 1951, Fluminense won the Carioca championship, which meant that the team qualified for the 1952 Copa Rio. The team had great players who represented the Brazilian team, such as Carlos Castilho, Píndaro, Pinheiro, Didi, Orlando Pingo de Ouro and Telê Santana.
In the first phase of the competition, the teams were divided into two groups, the first played their matches at Maracanã, and the second played their matches at Pacaembu, Fluminense was in the first group and faced Grasshopper (Switzerland), Sporting Lisboa (Portugal) and Peñarol (Uruguay), and qualified in first place. In the semi final they beat Austria Wien (Austria), and in the final they defeated Corinthians.
From the 1950s, with the creation of the Rio-São Paulo Tournament, the forerunner of what eventually would become the national championship, Fluminense established itself regionally by winning the tournament title in 1957 and 1960.
From the 1960s onwards, the first national championships were played in Brazil, so that the country could send representatives to the Copa Libertadores. Fluminense's first national title came in 1970; At that time, Brazil had the best players in world football, and they all played for Brazilian clubs. Its squad was among the main candidates of the season in Brazil, Fluminense won the Brazilian Championship overcoming other major opponents of the season in Santos, Palmeiras and Cruzeiro.
In the 1970s, Fluminense signed several famous players such as Carlos Alberto Torres, Dirceu, Gil, Narciso Doval, Pintinho and Roberto Rivellino. This team, called "Tricolor Machine", won the state championship in 1975 and 1976. In the national championship, Fluminense lost in the semifinals to Internacional in 1975 and Corinthians in 1976.
Fluminense became Brazilian champions again in 1984, playing in the final against Rio rivals Vasco da Gama. During the decade, they also won three state championships in a row, in 1983, 1984 and 1985, defeating their main rival Flamengo, in the final of the first two. These titles were won by great players such as Branco, Delei, Edinho, Ricardo Gomes, Romerito and the “Casal Vinte”: Assis and Washington.
At the end of the 1980s, Copa do Brasil was created, inspired by cup tournaments played in European countries. Fluminense reached the final of the Copa do Brasil for the first time in 1992, but lost to Internacional in a penalty shootout, in a controversial match in Porto Alegre.
A disastrous campaign led to Fluminense's relegation from Brasileirão Série A in 1996. However, a set of off-field political manoeuvres not performed by the club allowed them to remain in Brazil's top domestic league, only to be relegated the next year. Completely out of control, the club was relegated from Série B to Série C in 1998. In 1999, Fluminense won the Série C championship and were to be promoted to Série B when they were invited to take part in Copa João Havelange, a championship that replaced the traditional Série A in 2000. In 2001, it was decided that all clubs which took part in Copa João Havelange's so-called Blue Group should be kept in Série A.
Fluminense had good campaigns in the 2000, 2001, and 2002 Serie A, finishing in the top four each of these times. Fluminense's first title of the 21st century was the 2002 Campeonato Carioca. In 2005, Fluminense won the Campeonato Caroica and the Taca Rio, and finished fifth in the Brasileirao. Later that year, they reached the final of the Copa do Brasil again, but lost to Serie B club Paulista 2–0, marking one of the few times that a Serie B club won the Copa do Brasil.
In 2007, Fluminense won the Copa do Brasil beating Figueirense in the final, and was admitted to the Copa Libertadores again after 23 years. In the 2007 Serie A, the club finished fourth, and Thiago Neves won the Golden Ball for the league's best player.
The club's 2008 Copa Libertadores campaign saw them reach the finals and included a remarkable 6–0 victory against Arsenal de Sarandí in the group stage, winning both games against Colombian club Atlético Nacional in R16, a comeback against São Paulo in the QF, and disposing of defending champions Boca Juniors in the SF with a 3–1 victory. Fluminense eventually finished runner-up, losing the finals to LDU Quito on penalties after a 5–5 draw on aggregate, despite a hat-trick from Thiago Neves in the second leg. Fluminense had already faced LDU in the group stage, winning 1-0 and drawing 0-0. The club finished fourteenth in the Serie A that season, and only finished one point away from relegation, but curiously still qualifying for the following years Copa Sudamericana.
After signing 27 players and going through 5 different managers in 2009, Fluminense found themselves struggling to avoid another relegation from Série A. With less than one-third of the championship left, the mathematical probability of the club's relegation was 98%. At this point, manager Cuca decided to dispense with some of the more experienced players and gave Fluminense's youngsters a chance. That, along with Fred's recovery from a serious injury and substantial support from the fans, allowed not only a sensational escape from relegation with five matches remaining, but also placed Fluminense in the Copa Sudamericana finals, having eliminated rivals Flamengo. For the second year in a row, the club contested a continental cup. In a repeat of the previous year's Copa Libertadores, Fluminense lost the finals to LDU Quito.
For 2010, Muricy Ramalho replaced Cuca. His first task was in the 2010 Copa do Brasil quarter-finals against Grêmio, where Flumiense were eliminated 5–3 on aggregate. However, this elimination was not considered a "failure", in part because with this elimination the club was not participating in any other competitions and could fully focus on the Brasileirao. Eventually, the elimination helped the club, and that year, with Ramalho's effective defensive block conceding the least amount of goals in the league, Fluminense won the Brazilian championship for the third time in their history after 26 years, securing it with a 1–0 victory at home to already relegated Guarani. It was also the fourth title for coach Ramalho in a decade: Ramalho had won the title three times in a row with São Paulo from 2006 to 2008. Darío Conca was named the Brazilian Championship's Player of the Season, playing all 38 league matches, while Fred, Washington, and Deco were decisive players in Fluminense's title-winning campaign.
For the 2011 season, Fluminense appointed Abel Braga, who led the team to a third-placed finish in the Serie A and qualification for the following year's Copa Libertadores, despite being eliminated in the round of 16 of the aforementioned competition by Club Libertad. The club decided to keep Abel Braga for 2012 and made big investments for the squad, bringing back Thiago Neves and signing youngster Wellington Nem. On 13 May 2012, Fluminense won the Campeonato Carioca, beating Rio rivals Botafogo 5–1 on aggregate for their first title of the 2012 season. In the Copa Libertadores, Fluminense was eliminated in the quarter-finals by powerhouse Boca Juniors, losing 2–1 on aggregate. Later that year, on 11 November, they won their fourth Brazilian championship after defeating near-relegated Palmeiras 3–2, with three matchdays left. Striker Fred was also the competition's top scorer, with 20 goals, and received the CBF Best Player award. Goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri had a phenomenal season and won the Bola de Prata as the league's best goalkeeper, and Abel Braga was chosen as best coach.
In 2013, Fluminense was eliminated in the Copa Libertadores quarter-finals again, this time to Olimpia. In the Série A, things took a turn for the worse when they lost six of their first nine matches, leading to the sacking of Abel Braga. Seven undefeated matches in September steered the club away from relegation, but an eight-match winless run put the club back into the fight for relegation, mainly due to the absences of stars Deco, Fred, Thiago Neves, Carlinhos and Wellington Nem, and in December 2013, a 2–1 victory away to Bahia in the last round of the Série A had Fluminense mathematically relegated to Série B. However, Portuguesa and Fluminense's main rivals Flamengo fielded ineligible players in their matches against Grêmio and Cruzeiro respectively, thus losing 4 points after a verdict by STJD (Brazil's governing football jury). The points lost by Flamengo and Portuguesa allowed Fluminense to stay in Série A, with Portuguesa being relegated and Flamengo ending the championship as the lowest-ranked non-relegated club.
In 2014, Fluminense brought back Darío Conca, as well as Walter and Cícero. Coupled with Fred's and Carlinhos’ recoveries from injury, Fluminense spent the majority of the 2014 Série A in the top five and fighting for one of the berths at the 2015 Copa Libertadores, ultimately failing to reach its goal after an unstable final stretch and finishing 6th. In December, Fluminense ended its partnership with its main sponsor, Unimed. For fifteen years, the health insurance company was the main investor in signing players, especially after the team won the 2007 Copa do Brasil, bringing to the club athletes such as Darío Conca, Deco, Diego Cavalieri, Fred, Rafael Sóbis, Thiago Neves and Washington. From 2015 onwards, Fluminense underwent a remodeling, with the departure of some of its main players. The club's youth categories became fundamental for its maintenance in the first division in the following years, and the sale of young players became the club's main source of income.
In 2019, Fluminense hired Fernando Diniz, a young coach with innovative ideas within Brazilian football, but political conflicts within the club forced him out. The following year, the club brought back Fred, one of the greatest idols in the club's history, and in the 2020 season qualified for the Copa Libertadores under Odair Hellmann's tutelage.
The team returns to compete in the Copa Libertadores after eight years out of the competition, and with consistent campaigns in the Brazilian championship it manages to secure places in the competitions in consecutive editions of the Libertadores. However, after Odair's departure, the club has difficulty maintaining a coach, with Marcão, Roger Machado and Abel Braga taking over the position. In 2022, after winning the Campeonato Carioca against rivals Flu, their first trophy in a decade, with Argentine striker Germán Cano being the star of the team, and being eliminated from the Libertadores, Abel Braga retires from his coaching career, and Fluminense decides to give Fernando Diniz another chance.
In 2022, Fluminense achieves its best place in the Brazilian Championship in the last ten years, a third place, with an offensive team that is noted for its fluidity and ball possession, and the team qualifies for the group stage of the 2023 Copa Libertadores. In the beginning of the season, the football played by the team is considered by many to be the best in South America, and the team reaches the Campeonato Carioca finals against Flamengo; in the first match the red-black team wins 2–0, but in the second game Fluminense achieved a 4–1 victory, winning the Campeonato Carioca for a second year in a row against its main rival, and Diniz clinching his first trophy with the club. In the 2023 Libertadores, Fluminense falls into group D, along with River Plate (Argentina), The Strongest (Bolivia) and Sporting Cristal (Peru), despite being considered one of the most difficult groups in the edition, Fluminense ranks first, inflicting the biggest defeat in River Plate's history in the competition, 5–1 at Maracanã. In the final stage of the dispute, the opponents were Argentinos Juniors, Olimpia (Paraguay) and Internacional, the team defeated all opponents without suffering any defeat.
The Maracanã was previously chosen to be the stage for the final; on the other side the opponent would be Boca Juniors, who sought to become champions of the competition for the seventh time, and with this become the greatest champion of the competition, tied to Independiente. In the final, striker Germán Cano opened the scoring for Fluminense, but Peruvian right-back Luis Advíncula tied the match for Boca; the match then went into extra time, when youngster John Kennedy, coming from the youth team, came off the bench and scored the team's second goal. The match ended 2–1 for Fluminense, who lifted the Copa Libertadores trophy for the first time. The Copa Libertadores win sent Fluminense to play in the FIFA Club World Cup semi final, where they beat African champions Al Ahly from Egypt 2-0, but lost 4-0 in the final against Manchester City.
Fluminense have taken part in 57 of the 68 official Serie A championships organized in Brazil since 1959.
According to the RSSSF, these were the highest attendances in Fluminense matches:
The supporters of Fluminense Football Club are usually related to the upper classes of Rio de Janeiro. However, the popularity of the club reaches beyond the city limits. Recent polls have estimated the number of supporters to be between 1.3% and 3.7% of the Brazilian population, and between the 11th and 15th most popular club in the nation, falling behind Rio rivals Vasco, but slightly above Botafogo. Considering a population of 203 million people, that would account for numbers between 2.6 and 7.5 million. According to the club's official website, Flu has over 5 million supporters worldwide.
The best attendance ever observed in a Fluminense match was registered on 15 December 1963 in a derby against Flamengo. On that day, an impressive number of 194,603 people showed up at Maracanã stadium. This occasion remains as the stadium's record for a match between clubs.
Notable supporters of Fluminense include composers Cartola and Chico Buarque, musicians Elis Regina, Ivan Lins, Pixinguinha, Renato Russo and Tom Jobim, actors Breno Mello, Chico Díaz, Dalton Vigh, Hugo Carvana, and Thiago Fragoso, and actresses Deborah Secco, Fernanda Torres, Leticia Spiller and Sheron Menezzes, poet Mário Lago, journalist and songwriter Nelson Motta, dramatist, journalist and writer Nelson Rodrigues, modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer, FIFA president of honor João Havelange, 1970 FIFA World Cup winners Gérson and Carlos Alberto Torres, Chelsea central defender Thiago Silva, Left-back legend Marcelo, racing driver Cacá Bueno, sailors Maertine Grael and Torben Grael, former Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, inventor and aeronaut Santos Dumont, Silvio Santos, the owner of SBT, the second largest Brazilian television network, and the Academy Award nominee Fernanda Montenegro.
In 1940 the competition was interrupted with Fluminense and Flamengo in the lead, without the CBD making the title official, however, the clubs and newspapers at the time considered the result definitive and declared the Fluminense and Flamengo as the legitimate champions of the competition. The club currently considers itself champion of the competition and includes this title among its achievements.In 1927, having won the title on the field, Fluminense asked for its annulment for having failed to comply with the regulations, by including two substitutes in its ranks, in a letter sent to AMEA, which resulted in the subsequent annulment of the title.
Source:
According to the fluzao.info site, the average paying public at the principal classicos of Fluminense played in the Estádio do Maracanã is 60,107 against Flamengo, 43,735 against Vasco da Gama, 34,359 against Botafogo, 25,127 against America and 22,527 against Bangu (1950-2010). These statistics could be about 20% higher, given the issues of the distribution of gratuities at Maracanã.
Grandpa Derby or Grandfather Derby (Clássico Vovô), played with Botafogo. The name comes from being the two oldest practicing football clubs among the great clubs of Rio de Janeiro, and this is also the oldest derby in Brazil, because its first game was on 22 October 1905, friendly that Fluminense won by 6–0. Along with six other clubs, they were responsible for creating the Carioca Football Championship in 1906.
Fla-Flu Derby, also called Derby of Crowds (Clássico das Multidões), played with Flamengo. It is considered by football experts and much of the sports media as one of the greatest classics in the world. According to writer Nelson Rodrigues, the derby was engendered by resentment. On the tricolor side, the fact that their starting players deserted and went to form Flamengo's football department, and on the red-black side, the fact that Fluminense still won the first match, circumstances that have been fundamental in generating the derby's mystique.
Giants' Derby (Clássico dos Gigantes), played with Vasco da Gama. The derby gets its name because of the "giant" matches that have been played between the two, these being the final for the 1984 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, which was won by Fluminense, and the 1985 Copa Libertadores, which had two draws, in addition to several decisions Carioca Championship: 1949, 1956, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1993, 1994 and 2003.
Silvio Santos Derby (Clássico Silvio Santos), played with Corinthians. It is perhaps the most representative among the various interstate confrontations with big Brazilian clubs played by Fluminense, given the fact that these clubs often intersect at decisive moments in their seasons. The Derby dates back to 1933, in a friendly match that marked both Fluminense's first match as a professional team and Corinthians' first inter-state match as a professional.
The fixture's name was given on 17 August 2024, after the Brazilian television host of the same name, died on the same day. Santos was a supporter of both clubs.
This is a list of statistics and records of Fluminense.
Correct as of October 4, 2023
Companies that Fluminense Football Club has had sponsorship deals with include:
The Manoel Schwartz Stadium is better known as the Laranjeiras Stadium, or also the Álvaro Chaves Street Stadium, due to the name of the street where its main entrance is located. It was the place where the Rio team played its games for decades, however, for security reasons, due to the high demand for attendance at its games, it no longer does so, currently playing at Maracanã.
Flu's first match at the Laranjeiras Stadium was the 4–1 victory over Vila Isabel, in the 1919 Carioca Championship, with the Tricolor goals having been scored by Harry Welfare (3) and Machado. Opened in 1919 with a capacity for 18,000 people and having had its capacity expanded to 25,000 people since 1922, in some games this stadium had estimated audiences greater than its capacity.
The record for paying audiences was in the Fluminense 3-1 Flamengo match, on 14 June 1925, when 25,718 spectators paid for tickets, although today the audience for Fluminense's match against Sporting, held on 15 July, is unknown. 1928, in the Vulcain Cup dispute, with the stadium full and over 2,000 chairs being placed on the athletics track to accommodate the public present.
Currently, Fluminense does not play its games at its stadium, at the club's option, as it would no longer have the security conditions and capacity to host large events, and is currently only used for training, small commemorative events, social and educational projects, games of the women's football team and the youth teams. The last time an official match for Fluminense's main team took place at Laranjeiras Stadium was in 2003, where Flu drew 3–3 with Americano, in the Carioca Championship.
The renovation of the stadium has been a long-standing demand of the club, however a series of problems make this difficult, such as technical issues linked to the historical preservation of the building, the small area for the construction of a modern stadium and the opposition of the surrounding residents. The current project, at a more advanced stage, foresees a revitalization of Laranjeiras, with the stadium remaining with a small audience capacity, being able to host lower demand games, such as the first phases of the state championship and women's football.
Since its construction for the 1950 World Cup, the Maracanã has primarily served as the home ground for the four biggest Rio de Janeiro clubs. The stadium was officially completed in 1965, 17 years after construction began. In 1963, more than 194,000 people attended a match between Flamengo and Fluminense at the Maracanã, Rio Championship final.
At the stadium, Fluminense won some of the most important titles, such as the 1952 Copa Rio, for many the most important in its history, it won its first Brazilian Championship in 1970, the Tricolor Machine was twice champion of Carioca (1975–76), led by Roberto Rivellino, it was Brazilian champion over its rival Vasco da Gama, in 1984, was three-time Rio champion against Flamengo (1983–85), he was Carioca champion in 1995 with Renato Gaúcho's belly goal, against Romário's Flamengo (at the time named FIFA World Player of the Year). In this century he won the 2007 Brazil's Cup and the 2023 Copa Libertadores.
Following its 50th anniversary and aiming to hold the 2000 FIFA Club World Cup in Brazil, the stadium underwent renovations which would increase its full capacity to around 103,000. After years of planning and nine months of closure between 2005 and 2006, the stadium was reopened in January 2007 with an all-seated capacity of 87,000. For the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics, a major expedition project was started in 2010. The original stand, with a two-level configuration, was demolished, making way for a new single-level stand, and the stadium had its capacity reduced to 78,838 seats.
From 2013 onwards, the stadium was managed by the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht. Corruption scandals, the high rents charged by the company and the abandonment of the stadium, meant that Flamengo and Fluminense came together to manage it. Although clubs have kept the stadium in good condition since 2016 and covered its maintenance costs, it was only in 2019 that the government canceled contracts with Odebrecht. Flamengo and Fluminense then created a joint company, "Fla-Flu S.A." opened especially to manage Maracanã and its entire sports complex.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.