Making it 40 million fans

Franck asked me on my Welcome comments to make it 40 million Flamengo fans. We “only” have 33 million so let’s get he work started. I am going to write 5 texts about Flamengo, showing pictures and videos, telling a little bit of our glorious history and the day I became a fan. Who knows someone else turn into a new fan.

I have broken our history into five periods. The first one, before Zico, goes from 1895 to 1971. The second, I called First Zicozoic, that goes from 1971 to 1983. The third period is knwon as Zicozoic Break. It goes from 1983 to 1985. The forth one, called Second Zicozoic period, starting on it goes until 1989. That is when Post Zico period started and it continues until today.

Flamengo was founded on November 15, 1985 as a rowing club and officially became a soccer club on December 1911 after some players from Laranjeiras had a disagreement and joined Flamengo founding the terrestrial sports division and then the soccer team. The first official match was player on May 3, 1912 and the team beat Madureira 16 to 2.

The team used to pactice on a field located on Russel Beach and then began to play on a field on Paiçandu Street. So from 1930 to 1938 two brothers worked hard to get a piece of land and build a stadium. By the end of this period, the city mayor made a land donation to the club. The Gávea Stadium was finished by September 4, 1938 and the first game was a lose against Vasco da Gama.

At first, our mascot was Popeye, a famous character that represented our strenght and persistence. However, it has never been a success between the fans. On the 60’s the rivals started calling the scarlet-black fans “urubu” (in English, vulture) on a racist aggression to the fans which embraced the name on a Sunday game against Botafogo on May 31, 1969, when a fan brought a vulture to the stadium, letting him fly with our collors tied on his feet during the game.

During these years, the team won 15 Rio State Championship, one Rio-São Paulo Tournament and one Taça Guanabara. There wasn’t a National wide championship, so the teams concentrated their games on local derby. After being founded on 1912, the team reached a two time Rio Statet Championship on 1914/1915 and then on 1920/1921 and turned into a three champion on 1942/1943/1944 and 1953/1954/1955.

On 1971 a young player called Arthur Antunes Coimbra, made famous as Zico (Galinho, White Pelé, God (to us), God Soccer Phi (to the Japanese) or even King Arthur (to the Turkey)) came to Flamengo and on a victory against Vasco da Gama on 1971 started playing. It was the beginning of a Golden Age.

The video shows the 1963 Rio State Championship Final between Flamengo and his historical major rival Fluminense. The game score was 0×0 an we became champions.

Category: History

Tags: Flamengo, Gávea, History, Zico

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