Here it goes a little introduction to Brazilian soccer. To
make it easier for me, the teams in this list are in the same order as they are
in the Brazilian Championship now (10/10/2013). So, the bests are first.
1-Cruzeiro (My
team! Yesss!)- Cruzeiro is part of the name of the constellation Cruzeiro do
Sul (In English I think it is Crux. The same one in Australia’s flag). Our
mascot is a fox and our colour is blue.
These are the symbol of the team and our mascot. Esporte
Clube means Sport Association. The stars represents the Crux. And this crown
represents one year when we won the state and two national championships. Cruzeiro
is known in South America as La Bestia Negra (this words are in Spanish and
mean The Dark Beast) because it scare other teams. We have two continental
championships, sometimes they are represented in our jersey by two trophies,
but they aren’t showed in this picture.
2-Grêmio- Grêmio is just another way to say association. They are from south Brazil and their mascot is a musketeer. Their colours are blue, white and black and because of it they are called tricolor (means “with 3 colours”).
The stars over the symbol represent the national,
continental and world championships, each of them won in different years.
Grêmio is also called O Imortal (The immortal) because they use to win games
and championships when everyone think they are lost.
3-Atlético Paranaense- Atlético is a word almost useless in Portuguese, which means something related to athletes, but we have lots of teams with this name. Paranaense means “from Paraná”, which is a Brazilian state. As I said we have a lot of Atléticos, so we use their origin to determine about which one we are speaking. Their mascot is a hurricane and their colours are red and black.
Yes, I know. Not very sympathetic. The two stars here mean
the second division national championship and the first division one. The first
division is a tournament between the 20 best teams in whole country. The second
division is between the 21th until 41th. Yes, it would be great if all the
stars had the same meaning.
4- Botafogo- Botafogo is the name of a famous suburb in Rio. This name is funny because if you divide it in Bota Fogo it means put fire. Because of it the team is also known as Fogão, which is the same word for a big fire and stove (Yes, Portuguese doesn’t make much sense). Their colours are black and white and their mascot is a dog.
As you can see, they also have one star, this one without
meaning. But it is so big that the team is also called A Estrela Solitária, or
The Lonely Star. They are also famous for have only a couple fans (It is a
joke, it has millions of fans, but their stadium is dangerous and far from the
city, so it is always empty) and being very unlucky. There is a Brazilian quote
that says “Tem coisas que só acontecem com o Botafogo” or “Some things only
happen to Botafogo”. Another funny expression we use for Botafogo is “Cavalo
Paraguaio” or “Horse from Paraguay”. In Brazil, things from Paraguay are famous
for their terrible quality, so a horse from Paraguay is one that gets tired
before the end of the race. In soccer, means a team that starts the competition
in the first position and finish between the lasts. This year, Botafogo was the
first. Now… it is a Cavalo Paraguaio.
5-Atlético Mineiro-
This is the worst team in the whole world. Just kidding, this is the other team
from my city, Belo Horizonte. It means that every person who root for Cruzeiro
have a lot of friends atleticanos (Atleticano is someone who root for Atlético.
Any Atlético). So, when one team win, its fans make a lot of fun from their
friends whose root for the rival. And usually the state championship is decided
by the two teams. Because of all it, the two torcidas (Torcida is the Brazilian
word for a lot of fans of the same team or the crowd in a stadium. It has this
name because many years ago people used to watch games with tissues in their
pockets. When the game was very exciting they started to torcer, in English the
word is twist, their tissues) are almost enemies and during the clássicos
(Clássico means traditional. When two very traditional teams play we call the
game a clássico. Is more used for matches between teams from the same city or state)
Belo Horizonte becomes a little dangerous. Inside the stadium its ok. Ah! The
word for stadium is estádio but in Brazil each stadium is called by a name. The
Belo Horizonte’s stadium is called Mineirão, wich means a big Mineiro. Mineiro
is a person from my state, Minas Gerais (because of it is Atlético Mineiro),
and also a person who works in a mine. Back to the point, Atlético Mineiro’s
colours are black and white and their mascot is a rooster.
As you can see, they only have one star, representing the national championship they won 42 years ago (And that was the first Brasileirão ever- Brasileirão is the name of the national championship nowadays). They won their first continental championship this year but they hadn’t had time to add it in the symbol yet.
6-Vitória- Vitória means victory but is not a good name for this team. It is very small and usually plays the second division. Each year the 4 last in the first division change place with the first 4 in the second. Vitória usually is one year between the last four in first division and in the next is one of the 4 best in the second. This year is being pretty good to them. Their colours are red e black and their mascot is a lion.
Yes, they don’t have any star because they have never won
anything important, just state championships.
7- Internacional- Internacional means international and this team is Grêmio’s rival. They are both from the city of Porto Alegre and it becomes as dangerous as Belo Horizonte in clássico days. Their color is red, because of it the team is also called Colorado, which is a formal word to red. Their mascot is the Saci Pererê, so, time for a legend now: Saci Pererê is a famous myth of Brazilian folklore. He is a black boy with only one leg who like to play small tricks to bother distracted people, such as put salt in no attended pans or do knots in horses’ tails.
Inter (we use this name because Internacional is too long) used to carry 4 stars over its symbol, representing 4 national championships. But in end of 2006/start of 2007 they won a crown too, because of two continental and one world championship in 365 days. When it completed 100 years, in 2009, they decided to put all stars and crown off and keep the foundation year (1909) in the symbol.
8- Santos- Santos is the name of a city in São Paulo’s (The state. We also have a city with the same name) coast and also means saints. This is the team of the legendary Pelé and the new star Neymar (maybe you’ve never heard about him, but will). But, as you can see, it is not so good anymore. Santos, the city, is very famous because as São Paulo, the city, doesn’t have beaches, during the weekends all paulistanos (people from São Paulo, the city) go to Santos. Due to this relation with beach and sea, Santos’, the team, mascot is a whale, but the team is also known as Peixe (fish). Their colours are black and white. There is a formal world to black and white too: alvinegro.
Can you see two faces under the symbol? The guy on the left
is Pelé and on the right is Robinho, someone they thought would be famous
someday. They have two stars because of two world championships, both won while
Pelé was playing. Yes, long time ago…
9- Corinthians- This is the most hated team in Brazil. Not only for me but for everyone who not root for Corinthians. Corinthians doesn’t mean anything in Portuguese. They saw this name in an English team and copied. They are very famous to cheat in a lot of games with the referees’ help. They actually won the national championship in 2005 after a very convenient discover that the referee had manipulate the result of a lot of games that Corinthians had lost. They repeated the games, Corinthians won all them and, consequently, the championship. Their mascot is also a musketeer and It is alvinegro (black and white). As you can see, they are not very creative.
Paulista is a person from São Paulo, the state. And
paulistano is from São Paulo, the city. São Paulino is someone that root for
São Paulo, the team. We will get there. Corinthians doesn’t have estrelas but
they already won 3 national, 1 continental and 2 world championships. It is the
only team in the whole world which have more world than continental
championships. Why? The world soccer championship is a tournament between the
continental champions from South America, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa
and Oceania. In South Americas case, you need to win the Libertadores (It is
the name of the continental championship) to have right to play the world
championship. One day, CBF (CBF means Confederação Brasileira de Futebol, or
Brazilian Soccer Confederation) decided that Corinthians should participate
too, although Vasco was Libertadores’ champion. Why? No reasons, just because
CBF likes Corinthians. And then they won. Corinthians is also famous for,
according to soccer culture, being the favourite team of São Paulo’s, the
state, thiefs . In Minas Gerais, thiefs’ favorite team is Atlético and in Rio
is Flamengo. We will talk more about that.
10- Portuguesa-
Portuguesa means Portuguese woman. Yes, from Portugal. Not much to talk about
this team. It is small and usually is at second division. This year is being
pretty good to them, too. They are also called Lusa, an abbreviation of
Lusitana, which is a formal word to Portuguesa. Its colours are red, white and
green as Portugal’s flag. Their mascot is a lion too.
Small team, no stars. Ah! Portuguesa is also from São Paulo,
the city.
11- Fluminense- Fluminense means person from Rio de Janeiro, the state. Someone from Rio, the famous city, is carioca. It is the only big Brazilian team that never won a Libertadores. Because of it they are famous as an inoffensive team. Their stadium is called Laranjeiras, which means Orange Trees (Laranja means orange, the colour and the fruit) and is terrible. They are always trying to reform it while all other Rio’s team have their own good stadium. Its colours are red, green and white, so they are also known as Tricolor das Laranjeiras (The team with three colours from Laranjeiras’ stadium). Their mascot is a cartola. Cartola is top hat, but is also the word for team manager.
There are no stars but Fluminense has 4 national championships. They have interesting stories: recently, Fluminense’s team was horrible. Mathematicians said they had 98% of chances to go to second division. They needed to win 6 out of the 8 last games. And they did it. Not only did it as won the championship in the next year. The literally went to last to the first place. The other story is that one time they actually went to the second division and then to the third! When a team go from a better division to a worse we say that it was rebaixado, which means went down. And when the team come back we say that it subiu, which means went up. For a team go up from the third to the first division it needs to pass one year in the second and win it. Not Fluminense. They won the third division and went up directly to the first! Now we say that the team is cursed and they won’t win Libertadores until they play the second division.
12- Bahia- Bahia is the name of the probably happiest state in Brazil. Bahia’s capital is the famous Salvador, which has an incredible carnival with a lot of trios elétricos (big trucks playing loudly- very loudly- music). Bahia, the team, have been the first team ever to win a national championship (It wasn’t called Brasileirão on that time). And that is it. No, joking. They won one more but now they are one of that teams which live between the first and second division, also called Série A and Série B, respectively. Their colours are blue, red and white (yes, they are tricolor too) and their mascot is a kind of Superman.
Two stars, two national championships. And nothing else.
13- Flamengo- Flamengo is another famous Rio’s suburb, as Botafogo, and the word doesn’t mean anything. Even if divided. It is the team with the biggest number of fans in the whole country (The second is Corinthians) and because of it they always receive free publicity on TV and some help from the referees. As I said before, Flamengo is loved by a lot of thieves, but I think it is just because it is loved by a lot of people, including thieves. The same for Corinthians. It’s colours are red and black and they are also known as Rubronegro, the formal word to red and black. Their mascot is a vulture.
They doesn’t have stars but they already won two Libertadores
and two World Championships. Anyone knows how many national championships they
have because one time the champion of the first division (Flamengo) should play
against the champion of the second (That year a team called Sport) but Flamengo
refused to play. So, CBF declared Sport as national champion but Flamengo
insists that they won. Thus, some people believe that Flamengo has 6 national
championships and some believe that are only 5. It made a mess with the called
Taça das Bolinhas (Small Balls Cup), a trophy that would be gave to the first
team which won 5 national championships. According to Flamengo, they did it
first, so, they deserve the trophy. But they are taking in account Sport’s
championship. Without it, São Paulo was the first team to complete 5
championships. They couldn’t never decide who is the truly owner. Sometimes the
trophy stood with Flamengo and sometimes with São Paulo, but now the Taça das
Bolinhas still with CBF.
15- Coritiba- Curitiba (Yes, with U) is Paraná’s capital. Any other meaning. It is the biggest enemy of Atlético Paranaense and Curitiba is also a little dangerous during the clássico. Not as much as Belo Horizonte or Porto Alegre. Another name for Coritiba is Coxa Branca and is not a beautiful story. Coxa means thigh and Branca means white. When soccer started in Brazil the country was very racist and black players were avoided. But black people have always been good players. So, Coritiba maintained its black players but required them to paint their leg with white make up. Because of it, the team was called white thigh, or Coxa Branca. Its colour are white and green and its mascot is a old man.
One star, one national championship. And did you remember
Fluminense’s story, when they stood in first division against all
probabilities? Coritiba went to second division in their place. Coritiba’s fans
became really, really angry and destroyed their own stadium. Because of it,
Coritiba was prohibited from playing in Curitiba for one year.
16-São Paulo- São
Paulo is the name of the state and also of the city where this team is from.
São Paulo means Saint Paul and I don’t know why the state has this name. The
city has because of the state and the team has because of both. It is a very
unpleasant team because it always beat Cruzeiro. Always. They did it today
(10/10) and they are the 16th while Cruzeiro is the first!
Unbelievable! Their colours are red, black and white (another tricolor!
Probably the most famous of all) and the mascot is São Paulo, yes, the saint.
As I said, São Paulo is always arguing with Flamengo for the
Taça das Bolinhas and is the most victorious team in Brazil (This year is being
pretty bad for them). They have 6 national championship (3 of them in sequence.
Any other team have never done it), 3 continental and 3 world championships.
This explain that amount of stars over their symbol: The three red stars
represents the three world championships. The interesting part are the yellow
ones. São Paulo invest in other sports besides soccer. One of them is distance
jump. One of its jumpers, called Ademir da Guia, established two world records,
represented by the yellow stars. Other interesting characteristic of São Paulo
is that people say it is the favourite team for gays. In Rio, gays love
Fluminense and in Minas Gerais, Cruzeiro. But São Paulo is the most famous and
they are also called Bambis. Yes, the deer. It is because deer in Portuguese is
veado and viado is a bad word for gay (Please, never call a gay that viado. Gay
in Portuguese is gay. Viado is a word that heterosexual people use to bother
each other- I’m not proud about that. For gays its really offensive. And only
use Bambi to make fun of São Paulo’s fans. They don’t like it. To make fun of
Cruzeiro’s fans call them Maria (Maria is the most common woman name is Brazil)
and of Fluminense’s fans call them Flor (Flor is flower and is a word joke with
Flu, an abbreviation for Fluminense)).
17-Vasco- Here
starts the Zona de Rebaixamento (Go down zone). If the championship would end
today, the four teams in this zone would go to second division. Vasco has this
name in honour of Vasco da Gama (Actually the team is called Vasco da Gama, but
is too long, so we use just Vasco) the Portuguese guy who found the way from
Europe to India. Vasco is also from Rio and is very famous to end competitions,
rankings and everything in second place. It is also the second team which more
times ended in second place. Hahaha It colours are black and white, but instead
of being called alvinegro it is cruzmaltino. Its because their jersey is white,
with a diagonal stripe and a small red Malta’s cross. Malta’s Cross is the
symbol of christian warriors. Its mascot is a Portuguese sailor, in this case,
Vasco da Gama (Brazilians always represent portugueses with a mustache. I don’t
know why.).
.
No stars, but Vasco has four national and one continental
championships. They didn’t win the world championship because of that
maracutaia (maracutaia is a way to do something wrong that other people
shouldn’t note. But everyone knows that they will note) with Corinthians,
remember?
18- Criciúma- Probably the smallest team in the championship. Criciúma is a city in the state of Santa Catarina, not even the capital (which is called Florianópolis because was founded by a guy called Floriano). Santa Catarina has great volleyball teams, but is not so good in soccer. Criciúma is a city very famous by its enormous pollution and the team is famous for being one of the unique yellow teams in a country which the selection wears yellow! But Criciúma is actually black and yellow. Its mascot is a tiger.
18- Criciúma- Probably the smallest team in the championship. Criciúma is a city in the state of Santa Catarina, not even the capital (which is called Florianópolis because was founded by a guy called Floriano). Santa Catarina has great volleyball teams, but is not so good in soccer. Criciúma is a city very famous by its enormous pollution and the team is famous for being one of the unique yellow teams in a country which the selection wears yellow! But Criciúma is actually black and yellow. Its mascot is a tiger.
The three stars are a kind of maracutaia because they
represent three national championships but none of them is of the first
division. One represents Brazil’s Cup (Copa do Brasil), which is a good
championship. The other two are the second and third division of the
Brasileirão.
19- Ponte Preta- Ponte Preta means black bridge and the team has this name because it is from a suburb called Ponte Preta in the city of Campinas, São Paulo. As many of the last positioned teams, Ponte is always between Séria A and Série B. They went up last year and will probably be back. Their colours are also black and white and its mascot is a monkey. Because Ponte Preta is a female name, the team is also called Macaca.
No stars, only state championships, Ponte Preta is boring.
20- Náutico- Náutico means related to ships and sail. It’s from Recife, capital of Pernambuco, which is a state. Pernambuco doesn’t mean anything but Recife is a name for small coral barrier. Recife has three teams, each of them has a lot of fans but they are all terrible. Only Náutico is at first division. The others, Sport (Yes, that in the story of Taça das Bolinhas) and Santa Cruz are in the second. Beside the horrible soccer, their stadium are always completely full. Pernambuco’s teams are also famous to have terrible grass in their stadiums, so only their teams know how to play there and can win some games playing at home. Náutico’s colours are red and white and its mascot is a mouse.
Seven stars, not bad, right? But Náutico have never won a
national or continental championship, all the stars are for state
championships. The six in the top represents when they won 6 state
championships in sequence and the one below is for the state championship they
won when completed 100 years old, in 2001. The lack of trophies doesn’t mean
Náutico is not famous. In 2005 only two teams would go up from the second to first division. One of them would be Santa Cruz and the other would be the
winner in the match between Grêmio and Náutico that would happen in the Estádio
dos Aflitos, or Afflicted Stadium, Náutico’s home. The match was incredible.
Náutico had two penalties in their favour and lost both. One of their players
was sent off. FOUR Grêmio’s players were sent off too (One more and Náutico
would won the match for lack of adversaries. True story). Even with only 7
players, Grêmio could score a goal and won the game and the championship.
Náutico continued in the second division. The match was so exciting that there
is a Wikipedia’s article and even a documentary about it.
21- Palmeiras- Palmeiras means palm tree and it is another team from São Paulo, the city. The Brasileirão- Série A has only 20 teams, but Palmeiras is the first in the second division now and I think it deserves a place here. Although many teams live between Série A and Série B, every year one of the most traditional teams is bad lucky and ends in second division. It’s Palmeira’s time. Only 4 teams have never visited second division in Brazil: Cruzeiro, São Paulo, Flamengo and Internacional. When a big team goes to second division it usually come back in the next year and it will probably happen with Palmeiras too, so, if you want to know the most famous teams in the country, you definitely should meet it. Its colours are green and white and the mascot is a parrot, but, I don’t know why, the team is very famous as pork, so they have kind of two mascots.
22- América Mineiro- América means the continent, of course, and Mineiro is from Minas Gerais. I think it deserves a place here because América is the most common name for soccer teams in Brazil, more than Atlético. All states have an América and many cities too, but curiously any of them are in Série A. We have two in Série B, the one from Minas Gerais in 8th and one from Natal, in Rio Grande do Norte, in the 17th position, in the Zona de Rebaixamento. Although it is not their best year, América is the third biggest team in Belo Horizonte and the only to win 10 state championships in sequence. Only two times in whole story a team beside Cruzeiro, Atlético and América won the state championship. América’s colour are White, black and green and their mascot is a rabbit.
Eu não sou
cruzeirense (I don’t root for
Cruzeiro)
Eu não sou
cruzeirense (I don’t root for
Cruzeiro)
Eu não sou
viado (I’m not gay)
Não sou
viado (I’m not
gay)
Eu não sou
atleticano (I don’t root for
Atlético)
Eu não sou
atleticano (I don’t root for
Atlético)
Eu não sou
ladrão (I’m not a thief)
Não sou
ladrão (I’m not a
thief)
Dá-lhe
Coelho (Go Rabbit)
Dá-lhe
Coelho (Go Rabbit)
Ok, I wrote almost 5000 words and could write even more, but
I think It is enough for today…
Update: 1-My friend Ana here explained why Palmeiras is known as Porco. It is related with the Second War as well. During this period, people used to refers to italians as pork, meaning something dirty because they were enemies, so Palmeiras was a team of porks. It was very popular, the fans don't worried and kind of incorporated the nick name.
2- A really boring America fan claim that there are more than 300,000 America's fans in Brazil and the red star actually represents a tournament called Sul-Minas, which doesn't exists anymore.
3- According with the same boring guy, the national champion of the host country always can play the world championship (This is true) and because of it Corinthians could play with Vasco in 2000. The problem is that Corinthians had won the Brasileirão in 1998 and the correct was the champion of 1999 plays. Anyway, it still a maracutaia for me...
Update: 1-My friend Ana here explained why Palmeiras is known as Porco. It is related with the Second War as well. During this period, people used to refers to italians as pork, meaning something dirty because they were enemies, so Palmeiras was a team of porks. It was very popular, the fans don't worried and kind of incorporated the nick name.
2- A really boring America fan claim that there are more than 300,000 America's fans in Brazil and the red star actually represents a tournament called Sul-Minas, which doesn't exists anymore.
3- According with the same boring guy, the national champion of the host country always can play the world championship (This is true) and because of it Corinthians could play with Vasco in 2000. The problem is that Corinthians had won the Brasileirão in 1998 and the correct was the champion of 1999 plays. Anyway, it still a maracutaia for me...
