page_title: Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense
section_title: The beginning and professionalism at the club
hierarchical_section_title: Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense / History / The beginning and professionalism at the club
caption_attribution_description: English: Grêmio FBPA squad in 1932.
context_page_description: Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense, commonly known as Grêmio, is a Brazilian professional football club based in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. The club plays in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top tier of the Brazilian football league system, and the Campeonato Gaúcho, Rio Grande do Sul's top state league. The club was founded in 1903. The club's home ground is the Arena do Grêmio, to which it moved in 2013, having previously played at Estádio Olímpico Monumental since 1954.
  Grêmio also became Champions of the Intercontinental Cup, after beating Hamburger SV in 1983. Also, Grêmio is the Brazilian club that most won the Copa Libertadores da América, alongside São Paulo and Santos.
  As of 2017, Grêmio was ranked number one in the CBF club rankings and is listed by Forbes as the third most valuable football club in the Americas with an estimated value of $295.5 million. Grêmio has won 38 Campeonato Gaúcho, 2 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, 1 Campeonato Brasileiro Série B, 1 Supercopa do Brasil, 1 Copa Sul and 5 Copa do Brasil. Internationally, Grêmio has won 1 Intercontinental Cup, 3 Copa Libertadores de América, 2 Recopa Sudamericana and 1 Sanwa Bank Cup.
context_section_description: On 7 September 1903, Brazil's first football team, Rio Grande, played an exhibition match in Porto Alegre. An entrepreneur from Sorocaba, São Paulo, named Cândido Dias was besotted with the sport and went to watch the match. During the match, the ball deflated. As the only owner of a football in Porto Alegre, he lent his ball to the players and the match resumed. After the match, he talked to the local players about how to start a football club. On 15 September 1903, 32 people, including Cândido Dias, met at Salão Grau, a local restaurant and founded "Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense". Most of the founding members were part of the city's German community. Carlos Luiz Bohrer was elected as first president.
  The club's first match took place on 6 March 1904, against Fuss Ball Porto Alegre, the first of two matches played that day. Grêmio won the first match 1–0. Unfortunately, the name of the player who scored the club's first goal is lost to history. The trophy Grêmio won that day, the Wanderpreis, is still displayed at the club's museum. Within 5 months the club had inaugurated the Baixada, its first home.
  On 18 July 1909, Grêmio beat Internacional 10–0 on the latter's debut game. Grêmio's goalkeeper Kallfelz reportedly left the field to chat with fans during the match. Even now this victory is remembered with pride by Gremistas (Grêmio supporters). The match was the starting point for a rivalry that rages on to this day. Grêmio was one of the founding members of the Porto Alegre football league in 1910, and in 1911 won the league for the first time. On 25 August 1912, in a city league match, Grêmio beat Sport Clube Nacional of Porto Alegre 23–0. Sisson scored 14 goals in the match to record Grêmio's biggest ever win. In 1918, Grêmio became a founding member of the  Fundação Rio-Grandense de Desportes (later known as Federação Gaúcha de Futebol), a federation that organized the first state championships in Rio Grande do Sul. The first championship was scheduled for 1918, but the Spanish flu epidemic forced the event to be postponed until 1919. In 1921, a year after the arrival of legendary goalkeeper Eurico Lara, Grêmio won its first state championship.
  On 7 July 1911 Grêmio beat Uruguay's national team 2–1. In 1931, Grêmio became one of the first teams in Brazil to play matches at night after installing floodlights at Estádio Baixada. On 19 May 1935, Grêmio became the first team from Rio Grande do Sul to beat a team from the state of São Paulo (considered the strongest Brazilian league at the time) by defeating Santos 3–2. Grêmio was also the first club outside Rio de Janeiro state to play at the Maracanã Stadium, defeating Flamengo 3–1 in 1950.
  During this period, Grêmio started to earn a reputation abroad. In 1932 it played its first international match in Rivera (Uruguay). In 1949, the match against Uruguay's Nacional ended in a 3–1 win for Grêmio and the players received a hero's welcome on their return to Porto Alegre. In that same year, Grêmio played for the first time in Central America. Between 1953 and 1954, Grêmio travelled to Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia, a tour dubbed "the conquest of the Americas". On 25 February 1959, Grêmio defeated Boca Juniors 4–1 in Buenos Aires, becoming the first foreign team to beat Boca at La Bombonera.
  In 1961, Grêmio went on its first European tour playing 24 games in 11 countries: France, Romania, Belgium, Greece, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Denmark, Estonia and Russia. The Gremistas (Grêmio fans) were growing in number. 1946 saw the first appearance of the club's motto  "com o Grêmio onde o Grêmio estiver" ("with Grêmio wherever Grêmio may be"), which was later written into Grêmio's official anthem. An anthem penned by Lupicinio Rodrigues, a samba-cancao composer who became one of the most famous and revered Grêmio fans. The anthem celebrates the Gremistas reputation for attending all Grêmio matches, regardless of the difficulties and obstacles they might have to overcome to see their club. In the late 1950s, Grêmio joined the Taça Brasil, as the Brazilian league was 
caption: Grêmio state champion of 1932. Standing: Poroto, Nenê, Sardinha I, Foguinho, (), Heitor, Luiz Carvalho e Lacy. Crouching: Amâncio, (), Sardinha II, Eurico Lara, Dário e Comani.
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