Yesterday on a sports TV show, Bruno, our goalkeeper said that “The fans are certainly important, supporting up there, but sometimes hinders us a little” when he was asked about the pressure the players faced when they got into the field last Sunday and were welcomed b 90.000 fans expecting a victory and therefore the leading two rounds away from the end of the season.

If you read this you’ll probably get the wrong idea. What he meant is that the team must not get careless and try to not get too excited with the crowd.

I am one of these fans that before the match said Flamengo had great chances of becoming leaders, but we had be cautious, because on the recent seasons Flamengo show lack of decision power. Although I was very excited (and still am, as you can read on this link).

Bruno’s entire sentence was “I think that for a moment there was a little lack of concentration and luck. We had to be a little more patient. The work is being done very well by Andrade. We knew it would be difficult, Goiás has experienced players. And it was one of their best presentations this season”.

He also said that when the team gets to a crowded Maracanã, expecting a victory, there are some players that deal very well with the pressure and some others don’t handle it so greatly.

Although I’m not always a great fan of Bruno – because he tends to say stupid things and to fail on some matches – I have to admit he is doing a spectacular season and that this time he said the right words.

Fans must understand that the players are human beings and have emotions. Thankfully we didn’t lose the match and are only a point away from the leaders, but now it’s time to show that all we’ve done this year was a job done by a great team with decisive players.

I wasn’t there. As you know I live 400km from Rio de Janeiro. But seeing the photos, it seems incredible.

The photos are from GloboEsporte.com

Saint Jude’s Mengão renaissance

Jude the Apostle is the patron saint of desparate situations and a club that impassions almost 40 million Brazilians. That club found itself ineludibly submersed in the aforementioned plight in late August.

Flamengo’s Brasileirao title challenge had, indeed, been all but extinguished. They were fresh from a 3-0 loss at newly-promoted Avai, a chorus of humiliatory olés from the home fans compounding what was already another debasing failure.

The Rio de Janeiro giants had suffered three straight defeats. They languished in 14th place, 13 points off the pace. They were arguably devoid of desire; they were apparently devoid of confidence. An assault on the crown seemed inconceivable; a relegation battle was becoming more and more probable.

Whoever laughed at us can now see how close we are to success. We never stopped believing. This is the result of the squad’s unity.

Goalkeeper Bruno on Flamengo’s jump from 14 to second








That was when Saint Jude decided to answer the Flamenguistas’ prayers. He has done so through a handful of disciples: Andrade’s motivational muscle and tactical acumen has been the renaissance’s driving force; goalkeeper Bruno has provided an often-impenetrable barrier; Maldonado has solidified a turbulent midfield; playmaker Petkovic has belied his footballing relic [the Serbian turned 37 in September] to radiate; and striker Adriano, who was a solitary, albeit flickering, bright spark during the first half of O Mengão’s campaign, has attained once more the zenith that most felt he had long outgrown.

The response since that Avai nightmare has been emphatic. Flamengo have, despite an examining sequence of matches, won ten, drawn three and lost just one of their last 14 outings; results that have rocketed them to second in the Brasileirao – just two points behind Sao Paulo with three rounds remaining – and sent their supporters into a state of rhapsody.

“Whoever laughed at us can now see how close we are to success,” declared Bruno. “We never stopped believing. This is the result of the squad’s unity.”

This unity was palpable when the final whistle brought their 2-0 win over Nautico in Recife to a close on Sunday, provoking the players to assemble, arms around one another, for nearly one minute. It was at the summoning of the No1. “I said at that moment that Rio de Janeiro was painted red and black, and that the supporters who were there represent a nation that need and deserve this title,” Bruno explained.



Only three rounds remain for Flamengo to outstrip Sao Paulo, who are chasing an unprecedented fourth straight Brasileirao prize, but the omens are caped in red and black as they chase a first gold since 1992. Indeed, two of O Mengão’s remaining fixtures will be played at the Maracana, where they have, imbued by the masses of Flamenguistas that cram the venerated stadium to its rafters and provide a unique, thunderous current of inspiration, won their last six matches, conceding just once in the process. O Tricolor Paulista, for their part, have two away dates to fulfill – six of their seven losses this term have been on their travels.

“I’m very proud of my players,” said Andrade, who was a midfield icon in Flamengo’s all-conquering team of the 1980s. “They’ve done very well to come this far. It’s been a long time since Flamengo were in a position like this, but we’ve got to keep going. The tension rises with every game. Sao Paulo are strong candidates and the title is in there hands, but if we keep our side of the bargain, then who knows?”



Adriano, the competition’s 19-goal leading marksman, attributes Flamemgo’s prosperity to his coach. “We’re in this position because of Andrade,” he said. “Before the game (against Nautico), I joked with him that, if he needed me to, I’d play at left-back [regular No6 Juan was suspended, his deputy Everton Silva injured]. That’s the spirit of this group.

We’re in this position because of Andrade. Our objective is to win the title for our wonderful supporters. It would be the capstone of my career.

Flamengo’s Adriano








“Our objective is to win the title for our wonderful supporters. We have to concentrate on our own work, not think about our rival. It would be the capstone of my career.”

Quite a statement from a man who pocketed the player of the tournament award and a winners’ medal at the Copa America 2004, seized the adidas Golden Ball and adidas Golden Shoe en route to Brazil’s FIFA Confederations Cup Germany 2005 triumph, and helped Inter Milan to three Italian Serie A crowns.

However, given how inconceivable Flamengo conquering the Brasileirao sounded three months ago, maybe the completion of mission impossible would be the capstone in the devotion of a majority of Flamenguistas – even those old enough to have revelled in the halcyon days of Zico, Junior et al. It’s over to you, Saint Jude…

Not everybody knows, but Brazil is the largest Catholic nation in the world and Flamengo being the most popular football team in Brazil, maybe in the world, you can say we have a huge nation of St. Jude Thaddeus devotes.

As our fans are also devoted to this team, Flamengo, better, we, the supporters, earned a commemorative date in the city of Rio de Janeiro calendar. That happened in 2007, while we were going through a great moment on the Brasileirão leaving the 19th place and reaching the 3rd one. The City Mayor decided to turn the Flamengo supporters a Cultural Patrimony of the City for promoting shows in Maracanã, turning October 28 not only St. Jude Thaddeus’ day, but also Flamengo supporters’ day.

And what can I tell you about our supporters? Nothing. They speak for themselves, being the only fans that have their official date, which goes to Maracanã and turn a boring match in to a spectacle, that have a team and the power to command this team. Our fans are never satisfied, but are always in love with the team, no matter how bizarre the players are, how bad they shot on goal, how much the boards steals from the club’s money, we, fans, can say we are not Flamengo fans, but Flamengo is our team. We have a team and not the opposite – the team doesn’t have us.

We also have a God; Zico. A true God. One who gave us happiness for years, who lead the fans and the other players to the glory and who become a symbol of what this nation represents. He turned misery lives in to moments of joy. We can say he had his Apostles, as Jesus had. Júnior, Andrade, Adílio, Nunes, Mozer, Leandro, Tita, Raul, Carpegiani, Bebeto and Zé Carlos. We also had great leaders on ancient times, but they didn’t get even close to this one. This is our God and he is the one we follow.

It has been 17 years since we won the National League and that doesn’t mean our supporters number is decreasing. Surveys say Flamengo has the greatest number of supporters among the kids (23% can you imagine that?) meaning that we’ll be Brazilian greatest forever and just get bigger when talking worldly.
Our supporters are the kind of fans that buy 15,000 anticipated tickets four days before next Saturday’s match even though they know that today we have an away match against Barueri and if we lose we can probably forget about the title.

Now, let me see. We have a God, we have a patron saint, we have some Apostles, we have a home and we have a huge number of citizens/fans/supporters/devotees. Those who say Flamengo isn’t a Nation must be wrong. And I add; Flamengo is not only a Nation but it is also a Religion.

With a bigger population than any city in the world, Flamengo supporters are celebrating their day for the third time since it’s been created. Now, they want a good evening as well. Tonight we’ll face Barueri, as I already said, and depending on a combination of results, if we beat them for 3-0 or more, we can sleep as the Brasileirão leaders.

I am not in São Paulo so I won’t be able to watch the game in the stadium, but everybody knows that there will be only Flamengo supporters in there and I expect the team gives them reason to celebrate even more.

Right now I have one thing to say about last night’s match. We started winning, then Vitória tied the game, we scored again and they made two goals. And when the score was 3-2, they started spending time, faking injuries, the balls were missing and the ball boys (thank you Daryl) began to take a long time to retrieve the balls for players. I consider that and I was proved right when Flamengo scored the equalizer.

Although we are having World Cup Qualifiers this weekend, here we continue to have matches for the Brazilian League. So we will face São Paulo at Maracanã (home sweet home) and Petkovic already called all the fans to support the team. He said he wants an audience record every match. That’s all everybody wants. We all know that when Maracanã is full, we are almost unbeatable.

So, hey ho, let’s go! Let’s beat São Paulo and get closer to next year’s Libertadores da América. Right now, two days from the match, we have already sold around 18.000 tickets. I guess will have more than 50.00 people at Maracanã on Saturday.

Tonight’s matches were all great for Flamengo. Palmeiras 2-2 Avaí, Botafogo 3-1 Atlético-MG and Cruzeiro 3-0 Goiás. Of all the 5 teams in front of us, only Internacional won. We are getting closer and closer.

Earlier today the National Squad was training and the first team beat the reserve players’ team 3-1. Adriano scored 3 times. So, Daryl, once again, I can’t let him go. Not for the next 8 seasons.

That tonight’s gonna be a good night. Well. Not on a Black Eyed Peas way of good night. I don’t expect a victory, but having in mind that we had a clean sheet for the last 6 matches, I expect another tonight, and even though we are going to face our inglorious brothers who never honored the red and the black, we will play in their stadium. We played against them 50 times, winning 31 matches and losing only 8. But I wouldn’t be so surprised if we win.

As I might’ve already said, the city of Rio de Janeiro has a little more than 6 million people, and the State of Rio de Janeiro has around 16 million. So, Flamengo’s supporters are most located out of Rio. Part of these supporters lives northeast and there they have traditional teams (although having no titles) such as Vitória, Sport, Bahia (the only one with a National League title) and their fans hate the fact that Flamengo has more supporters there than they have.

The picture bellow is from the last year’s match against Vitória. There is a completely full part of the stadium and other that is not so full of people. You have one chance to guess on which part of the stadium our fans are. There is a white banner (poster, flag, band, and don’t know how you call it) that says “VERGONHA DO NORDESTE”, something like “Northeastern Shame”.

That happens not only when we play against Vitória. Also happens when we go to Recife, play against Sport, and this season, when we went to Goiânia to match Goiás, their manager said that he hate those people that was born there and support teams from Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo.

Vitória’s fans already said that they will have a new banner o tonight’s match. Some say it will be more aggressive, some say it won’t attack our supporters so directely, but the thing is that Flamengo, as the biggest Brazilian team has to protect its fans and sometimes support them.

Besides scoring 15 times on 21 matches and being the Brazilian League leading scorer, there are some other important numbers about Adriano.

As most of you know, although having one of the biggest economies, Brazil is a very poor country. And just to clarify something we don’t have monkeys living on our big cities and just a small part of our territory is covered by forest.

As Flamengo has about 35 million supporters it is obvious to say that most of it leaves with very little money just like all the other teams’ supporters. So when you need to choose between a meal and a football shirt, you will take the option that will guarantee your survival.

Here the official shirts costs around US$80 and a ticket is priced from US$5 to US$50. These are another aggravating numbers considering that you will choose to watch your team instead of buying a football shirt. And this is where piracy begins, selling jerseys for US$10.

On September 28th Adriano completed 4 months playing here and in this period there were 75.000 shirts sold with his name and the number 10 on it. This means that the team had a US$350.000 net income and that the sponsor had a US$3 millions net income. The kit manufacturer pays half of his salary and their gains are 13,5 times the value they paid since the beginning of the partnership.

Also, Flamengo regained international status and has been invited to some friendly matches. Now, we can say that with some quality management and an international star, Flamengo can start to get back on the right way.

So here I am now and what news do I have? I might say that in the last 3 months nothing really special happened. I mean, we’ve changed our manager (as usual) after some bad results, but it was necessary. Cuca did not managed the players very well and that way the group got against him. I know, it may sound ridiculous, but things like these happen frequently here in Brazil, especially when we are talking about Flamengo.

Now Andrade – one of the most our brilliant players – took control of the team and after a terrifying start, on which the team got really close to the relegation zone, we began to win and for the last 6 matches Flamengo had a clean sheet. It’s the first time we reach such a great number since, I don’t know, decades. From the last 18 points, Flamengo won 14 of them and now we are on the 6th position. Only 4 points away from the continental competition classification zone. And that is happening because now we have a great defensive line with Ronaldo Angelim and Álvaro and a new defensive midfielder, Maldonado.

And what I can tell about Adriano? Maybe the best player I’ve ever seen playing wearing this shirt. Reading this you may think I am crazy, but I’m 22 years old. I did not see Zico, Andrade, Leandro, Adílio… I saw Junior and I will never forget he caused the reason I became crazy about Flamengo, but I was too young when that happened (I was only 6) and I can’t remember that right. What about Romário? And Petkovic? Sávio? They are the reason I said Adriano is MAYBE the best player I’ve watched playing for Flamengo. And why am I saying such a thing? Watch these videos bellow.

Take a look on his goal against Coritiba. Better. Take a look on all the three goals. But specially on his goal you can notice that he is fast and lethal once again. Good to have you back, Adriano. I missed you since the good old times at Milano. Now, with 22 matches, he is the top scorer making 15 goals.

Flamengo may get a place on next year’s Libertadores da América, finishing the league at least on 4th, but title is something almost impossible. It all depends on how many times Dunga will call Adriano to the National Squad. When he plays, we are almost unbeatable.

On pre-sale (one week period), Flamengo already sold 204.840 shirts. Incredible, considering that Nike used to sell around 120.000 jerseys a year.

Here is a image comparing the old shirt and the new one. Besides that, you can also compare fat and slim Adriano.

Now, our contract with Nike has finished after a complicated year on which we fought against them, tried to break the contract, suffer some restriction from the sponsor that wouldn’t send us material to practice and to the Olympic sports such as basketball. It was a difficult year, but now, we’ve legally signed a R$ 175 million (about US$ 87,5 million) for 5 years with Olympikus that counts with the construction of 10 stores through the country and one museum at Gávea. Besides that, Olympikus will be the main sponsor for the next 3 months, putting the “Olympikus Tube” name on our shirt.

Gotta say, a spectacular contract! And after watching the event that showed us the new kits, I also watched some Olympikus’ directors being interviewed and they showed, at least on their first talking, respect and the willing to develop their name using Flamengo as part of it.

Olympikus is the biggest brazilian sports material company, but Flamengo is their first contact with football and they are thinking that nothing is better to enter this market than the world’s most popular team. I agree, since they try to help Flamengo. As Jerry Maguire used to say “help me help you”. And as they’ve already shown, they are helping us help them. A parcel of Adriano’s wages will be payed by a percentage of products sales revenues.

A new era? Certainly. A great new era? Only time can say.

Here are the jerseys. Football and basketball kits.

The home kit, at first, made me nauseous, but then I got used to it (actually, really fast) and now I’m thinking the jersey is great. But the away kit is looking amazing.

And you guys, what do you think about it?