Happy Flamengo supporters day

By: André | October 28th, 2009

October 28. St. Jude Thaddeus – one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus – feast day. In the Roman Catholic Church he is considered the saint of desperate cases and lost causes; therefore, he is the patron saint of Flamengo. When Flamengo is in need of something, the board goes to the Igreja de São Judas Tadeu (St. Jude Thaddeus Church) and there they pray for those things they want – usually, not to be relegated, a title, or even a blessed new shirt.

sao judas

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.

zico deus

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.