Fluminense’s firsthome kit originally featured a shirt split in half vertically, with one side in white and the other in grey. However, due to the difficulty of sourcing these colours — particularly during a trip to England in 1904, where club members sought new kits — the club opted to change its colours. A vote was held, and Fluminense adopted its now-iconic home kit: a vertically striped shirt in burgundy, white, and green, with thinner white pinstripes flanked by broader burgundy and green stripes, typically paired with white shorts and white socks.
The club holds several long-standing rivalries with other clubs, most notably withFlamengo (Clássico Fla-Flu),Botafogo (Clássico Vovô) andVasco da Gama (Clássico dos Gigantes). TheFla–Flu in particular is widely considered one of the greatest football derbies in Brazil and South America, having eventually set the still-standing world record for the highest attendance in a match between football clubs (nearly 200,000 spectators in the stadium of Maracanã).[2]
Fluminense is recognized as the birthplace of theBrazil national football team, which played its first-ever match at the club’sEstádio de Laranjeiras in1914, during Fluminense’s 12th anniversary celebrations. It was there thatBrazil scored itsfirst goal and won itsfirst trophy. To this day, Fluminense ranks among the top contributors to the national team, having provided the fifth most players in Brazil’s history.[3]
Fluminense Football Club was founded on 21 July 1902, in the neighbourhood ofLaranjeiras, in the city ofRio de Janeiro, by a group of young of brazilian aristocracy and football enthusiasts led byOscar Cox, an English citizen born in Brazil, who had come into contact with the sport whilst studying inLausanne, where he got acquainted with the practice of football. Cox was subsequently elected as the first president.[4] Therefore, it was the first football club to be founded in the city, whose most popular sport at the time was rowing.[5]
In 1911, disagreement between Fluminense players led to the formation ofFlamengo's football team.[6] The so-calledFla-Fluderby is considered one of the biggest in the history ofBrazilian football.[7] Three years later, in Fluminense's stadium, theBrazil national football team debuted, against touring English clubExeter City.[6] It was also there that they won their debut title, in1919.[8]
By 1922, Fluminense had 4,000 members, a stadium for 25,000 people, and facilities that impressed clubs in Europe.[9]
The1950 World Cup strengthened football in the country, and as a result, the country's biggest teams, which basically only competed in state tournaments, began to measure their strength in tournaments and matches against teams from other states. To hold the competition, theMaracanã was built, the largest stadium in the world at that time, and which became the main stadium for Fluminense's games.[10]
In the context of the World Cup held in the country in 1950,CBD, accompanied byFIFA andIFAB, decided to hold a competition that pitted the champion clubs from the main FIFA-affiliated countries against each other, thus creating theInternational Champions Club Tournament, better known asCopa Rio. The competition brought together the Champion clubs from countries in South America (Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and Europe (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and Yugoslavia), its first edition was in 1951, being won byPalmeiras.[citation needed]
In the first phase of the competition, the teams were divided into two groups, the first played their matches at Maracanã, and the second played their matches atPacaembu, Fluminense was in the first group and facedGrasshopper (Switzerland),Sporting Lisboa (Portugal) andPeñarol (Uruguay), and qualified in first place. In the semi final they beatAustria Wien (Austria), and in the final they defeatedCorinthians.
From the 1950s, with the creation of theRio-São Paulo Tournament, the forerunner of what eventually would become the national championship, Fluminense established itself regionally by winning the tournament title in 1957 and 1960.[6]
From the 1960s onwards, the first national championships were played in Brazil, so that the country could send representatives to theCopa Libertadores. Fluminense's first national title came in 1970; At that time, Brazil had the best players in world football, and they all played for Brazilian clubs. Its squad was among the main candidates of the season in Brazil, Fluminense won the Brazilian Championship overcoming other major opponents of the season inSantos, Palmeiras andCruzeiro.
In the 1970s, Fluminense signed several famous players such asCarlos Alberto Torres,Dirceu,Gil,Narciso Doval,Pintinho andRoberto Rivellino. This team, called "Tricolor Machine", won the state championship in 1975 and 1976. In the national championship, Fluminense lost in the semifinals to Internacional in 1975 and Corinthians in 1976.
Fluminense became Brazilian champions again in1984, playing in the final against Rio rivalsVasco da Gama. During the decade, they also won three state championships in a row, in 1983, 1984 and 1985, defeating their main rivalFlamengo, in the final of the first two. These titles were won by great players such asBranco,Delei,Edinho,Ricardo Gomes,Romerito and the “Casal Vinte”:Assis andWashington.
At the end of the 1980s,Copa do Brasil was created, inspired by cup tournaments played in European countries. Fluminense reached the final of theCopa do Brasil for the first time in 1992, but lost toInternacional in a penalty shootout, in a controversial match inPorto Alegre.
A disastrous campaign led to Fluminense's relegation fromBrasileirão Série A in1996. However, a set of off-field political manoeuvres not performed by the club allowed them to remain in Brazil's top domestic league,[11] only to be relegated the next year.[12] Completely out of control, the club was relegated fromSérie B toSérie C in 1998.[13] In 1999, Fluminense won the Série C championship and were to be promoted to Série B when they were invited to take part inCopa João Havelange,[14] a championship that replaced the traditional Série A in 2000. In 2001, it was decided that all clubs which took part in Copa João Havelange's so-calledBlue Group should be kept in Série A.[15]
2000s: Copa do Brasil title, first Libertadores final
Fluminense had good campaigns in the 2000, 2001, and 2002 Serie A, finishing in the top four each of these times. Fluminense's first title of the 21st century was the 2002 Campeonato Carioca. In 2005, Fluminense won theCampeonato Caroica and the Taca Rio, and finished fifth in the Brasileirao. Later that year, they reached the final of theCopa do Brasil again, but lost to Serie B clubPaulista 2–0, marking one of the few times that a Serie B club won the Copa do Brasil.
In2007, Fluminense won theCopa do Brasil beating Figueirense in the final, and was admitted to theCopa Libertadores again after 23 years.[6][16][17] In the2007 Serie A, the club finished fourth, and Thiago Neves won the Golden Ball for the league's best player.[17]
The club's2008 Copa Libertadores campaign saw them reach the finals and included a remarkable 6–0 victory againstArsenal de Sarandí in the group stage,[18] winning both games against Colombian clubAtlético Nacional in R16, a comeback againstSão Paulo in the QF,[19] and disposing of defending championsBoca Juniors in the SF with a 3–1 victory.[20] Fluminense eventually finished runner-up, losing thefinals toLDU Quito on penalties after a 5–5 draw on aggregate, despite a hat-trick from Thiago Neves in the second leg.[21] Fluminense had already faced LDU in the group stage, winning 1-0 and drawing 0-0. The club finished fourteenth in theSerie A that season, and only finished one point away from relegation, but curiously still qualifying for the following years Copa Sudamericana.
After signing 27 players and going through 5 different managers in 2009, Fluminense found themselves struggling to avoid another relegation from Série A.[22] With less than one-third of the championship left, the mathematical probability of the club's relegation was 98%.[23] At this point, managerCuca decided to dispense with some of the more experienced players and gave Fluminense's youngsters a chance.[24][17] That, along withFred's recovery from a serious injury and substantial support from the fans, allowed not only a sensational escape from relegation with five matches remaining, but also placed Fluminense in theCopa Sudamericana finals, having eliminated rivals Flamengo.[25][26] For the second year in a row, the club contested a continental cup. In a repeat of the previous year's Copa Libertadores, Fluminense lost the finals to LDU Quito.[27]
For 2010,Muricy Ramalho replaced Cuca. His first task was in the2010 Copa do Brasil quarter-finals againstGrêmio, where Flumiense were eliminated 5–3 on aggregate. However, this elimination was not considered a "failure", in part because with this elimination the club was not participating in any other competitions and could fully focus on the Brasileirao.[17] Eventually, the elimination helped the club, and that year, with Ramalho's effective defensive block conceding the least amount of goals in the league, Fluminense won theBrazilian championship for the third time in their history after 26 years, securing it with a 1–0 victory at home to already relegatedGuarani.[17] It was also the fourth title for coach Ramalho in a decade: Ramalho had won the title three times in a row withSão Paulo from 2006 to 2008.Darío Conca was named the Brazilian Championship's Player of the Season, playing all 38 league matches,[17] whileFred,Washington, and Deco were decisive players in Fluminense's title-winning campaign.
For the 2011 season, Fluminense appointed Abel Braga, who led the team to a third-placed finish in the Serie A and qualification for the following year's Copa Libertadores, despite being eliminated in the round of 16 of the aforementioned competition byClub Libertad. The club decided to keep Abel Braga for 2012 and made big investments for the squad, bringing back Thiago Neves and signing youngsterWellington Nem.[17] On 13 May 2012, Fluminense won theCampeonato Carioca, beating Rio rivals Botafogo 5–1 on aggregate for their first title of the 2012 season. In the Copa Libertadores, Fluminense was eliminated in the quarter-finals by powerhouse Boca Juniors, losing 2–1 on aggregate.[28] Later that year, on 11 November, they won their fourthBrazilian championship after defeating near-relegatedPalmeiras 3–2, with three matchdays left.[29][30] Striker Fred was also the competition's top scorer, with 20 goals, and received the CBF Best Player award.[31] GoalkeeperDiego Cavalieri had a phenomenal season and won the Bola de Prata as the league's best goalkeeper, and Abel Braga was chosen as best coach.[32]
In 2013, Fluminense was eliminated in the Copa Libertadores quarter-finals again, this time to Olimpia. In theSérie A, things took a turn for the worse when they lost six of their first nine matches, leading to the sacking of Abel Braga.[33] Seven undefeated matches in September steered the club away from relegation, but an eight-match winless run put the club back into the fight for relegation, mainly due to the absences of starsDeco, Fred, Thiago Neves,Carlinhos and Wellington Nem, and in December 2013, a 2–1 victory away toBahia in the last round of the Série A had Fluminense mathematically relegated to Série B. However,Portuguesa and Fluminense's main rivalsFlamengo fielded ineligible players in their matches againstGrêmio andCruzeiro respectively, thus losing 4 points after a verdict by STJD (Brazil's governing football jury). The points lost by Flamengo and Portuguesa allowed Fluminense to stay in Série A, with Portuguesa being relegated and Flamengo ending the championship as the lowest-ranked non-relegated club.
In 2014, Fluminense brought backDarío Conca, as well asWalter andCícero. Coupled with Fred's and Carlinhos’ recoveries from injury, Fluminense spent the majority of the2014 Série A in the top five and fighting for one of the berths at the2015 Copa Libertadores, ultimately failing to reach its goal after an unstable final stretch and finishing 6th. In December, Fluminense ended its partnership with its main sponsor,Unimed. For fifteen years, the health insurance company was the main investor in signing players, especially after the team won the 2007 Copa do Brasil, bringing to the club athletes such as Darío Conca, Deco,Diego Cavalieri, Fred,Rafael Sóbis, Thiago Neves and Washington. From 2015 onwards, Fluminense underwent a remodeling, with the departure of some of its main players. The club's youth categories became fundamental for its maintenance in the first division in the following years, and the sale of young players became the club's main source of income.[34]
In 2019, Fluminense hiredFernando Diniz, a young coach with innovative ideas within Brazilian football, but political conflicts within the club forced him out. The following year, the club brought back Fred, one of the greatest idols in the club's history, and in the 2020 season qualified for the Copa Libertadores underOdair Hellmann's tutelage.
2020s: Copa Libertadores title and FIFA Club World Cup finalist
The team returns to compete in theCopa Libertadores after eight years out of the competition, and with consistent campaigns in the Brazilian championship it manages to secure places in the competitions in consecutive editions of the Libertadores. However, after Odair's departure, the club has difficulty maintaining a coach, withMarcão,Roger Machado andAbel Braga taking over the position. In 2022, after winning the Campeonato Carioca against rivals Flu, their first trophy in a decade, with Argentine strikerGermán Cano being the star of the team, and being eliminated from the Libertadores, Abel Braga retires from his coaching career, and Fluminense decides to give Fernando Diniz another chance.
In 2022, Fluminense achieves its best place in the Brazilian Championship in the last ten years, a third place, with an offensive team that is noted for its fluidity and ball possession, and the team qualifies for the group stage of the2023 Copa Libertadores. In the beginning of the season, the football played by the team is considered by many to be the best in South America, and the team reaches the Campeonato Carioca finals against Flamengo; in the first match the red-black team wins 2–0, but in the second game Fluminense achieved a 4–1 victory, winning the Campeonato Carioca for a second year in a row against its main rival, and Diniz clinching his first trophy with the club.[35] In the 2023 Libertadores, Fluminense falls into group D, along withRiver Plate (Argentina),The Strongest (Bolivia) andSporting Cristal (Peru), despite being considered one of the most difficult groups in the edition, Fluminense ranks first, inflicting the biggest defeat in River Plate's history in the competition, 5–1 at Maracanã. In the final stage of the dispute, the opponents wereArgentinos Juniors,Olimpia (Paraguay) andInternacional, the team defeated all opponents without suffering any defeat.
The Maracanã was previously chosen to be the stage for the final; on the other side the opponent would beBoca Juniors, who sought to become champions of the competition for the seventh time, and with this become the greatest champion of the competition, tied toIndependiente. In the final, strikerGermán Cano opened the scoring for Fluminense, but Peruvian right-backLuis Advíncula tied the match for Boca; the match then went into extra time, when youngsterJohn Kennedy, coming from the youth team, came off the bench and scored the team's second goal. The match ended 2–1 for Fluminense, who lifted the Copa Libertadores trophy for the first time. The Copa Libertadores win sent Fluminense to play in the2023 FIFA Club World Cup semi final, where they beat African championsAl Ahly from Egypt 2–0, but lost 4–0 in thefinal againstManchester City.[36] The win also qualified Fluminense for the2025 FIFA Club World Cup. They finished second inGroup F, behindBorussia Dortmund, then beat favoritesInter Milan 2-0 in the round of 16, beat fellow dark-horsesAl-Hilal 2-1 in the quarter-finals, before losing to eventual winnersChelsea 2-0 in the semi-finals.
Map of the largest concentrations of Fluminense supporters.
The supporters of Fluminense Football Club are usually related to the upper classes ofRio de Janeiro.[39] However, the popularity of the club reaches beyond the city limits. Recent polls have estimated the number of supporters to be between 1.3% and 3.7% of theBrazilian population, and between the 11th and 15th most popular club in the nation, falling behind Rio rivals Vasco, but slightly above Botafogo.[40] Considering a population of 203 million people,[41] that would account for numbers between 2.6 and 7.5 million. According to the club's official website,Flu has over 5 million supporters worldwide.[42]
The best attendance ever observed in a Fluminense match was registered on 15 December 1963 in a derby against Flamengo. On that day, an impressive number of 194,603 people showed up atMaracanã stadium.[43] This occasion remains as the stadium's record for a match between clubs.[44]
(2) In 1940 the competition was interrupted with Fluminense and Flamengo in the lead, without the CBD making the title official, however, the clubs and newspapers at the time considered the result definitive and declared the Fluminense and Flamengo as the legitimate champions of the competition.[54][55] The club currently considers itself champion of the competition and includes this title among its achievements.[56]
(3) In 1927, having won the title on the field, Fluminense asked for its annulment for having failed to comply with the regulations, by including two substitutes in its ranks, in a letter sent to AMEA, which resulted in the subsequent annulment of the title.
The team that won its firstCampeonato Carioca, in 1906Ball used in the first-ever match of the Brazil national team at FluminenseTrophy room at the Fluminense HQInformation on the Rio–São Paulo Tournament at the Fluminense Trophy Room
According to the fluzao.info site, the average paying public at the principalclassicos of Fluminense played in theEstádio do Maracanã is 60,107 againstFlamengo, 43,735 againstVasco da Gama, 34,359 againstBotafogo, 25,127 againstAmerica and 22,527 againstBangu (1950-2010). These statistics could be about 20% higher, given the issues of the distribution of gratuities at Maracanã.[58]
Grandpa Derby or Grandfather Derby (Clássico Vovô), played withBotafogo. The name comes from being the two oldest practicing football clubs among the great clubs ofRio de Janeiro, and this is also the oldest derby in Brazil, because its first game was on 22 October 1905, friendly that Fluminense won by 6–0. Along with six other clubs, they were responsible for creating theCarioca Football Championship in 1906.
Fla–Flu Derby, also called Derby of Crowds (Clássico das Multidões), played withFlamengo. It is considered by football experts and much of the sports media as one of the greatest classics in the world. According to writerNelson Rodrigues, the derby was engendered by resentment. On the tricolor side, the fact that their starting players deserted and went to form Flamengo's football department, and on the red-black side, the fact that Fluminense still won the first match, circumstances that have been fundamental in generating the derby's mystique.[59][60]
Silvio Santos Derby (Clássico Silvio Santos), played withCorinthians. It is perhaps the most representative among the various interstate confrontations with big Brazilian clubs played by Fluminense, given the fact that these clubs often intersect at decisive moments in their seasons.[61] The Derby dates back to 1933, in a friendly match that marked both Fluminense's first match as a professional team and Corinthians' first inter-state match as a professional.
The fixture's name was given on 17 August 2024, after the Brazilian television host ofthe same name, died on the same day. Santos was a supporter of both clubs.[62]
SinceL.D.U. Quito defeated Fluminense in the2008 Copa Libertadores final and theCopa Sudamericana final of the following year, a strong international rivalry has developed between the two teams.[63] This rivalry reached new heights when the two teams met on a third international final for the2024 Recopa Sudamericana, which was won by Fluminense. This has been the only case of two CONMEBOL teams facing each other on each of the three continental tournaments.
TheManoel Schwartz Stadium is better known as theLaranjeiras Stadium, or also the Álvaro Chaves Street Stadium, due to the name of the street where its main entrance is located. It was the place where the Rio team played its games for decades, however, for security reasons, due to the high demand for attendance at its games, it no longer does so, currently playing atMaracanã.[70]
Flu's first match at the Laranjeiras Stadium was the 4–1 victory over Vila Isabel, in the 1919 Carioca Championship, with the Tricolor goals having been scored byHarry Welfare (3) and Machado. Opened in 1919 with a capacity for 18,000 people and having had its capacity expanded to 25,000 people since 1922, in some games this stadium had estimated audiences greater than its capacity.[71]
The record for paying audiences was in the Fluminense 3-1 Flamengo match, on 14 June 1925, when 25,718 spectators paid for tickets, although today the audience for Fluminense's match against Sporting, held on 15 July, is unknown. 1928, in the Vulcain Cup dispute, with the stadium full and over 2,000 chairs being placed on the athletics track to accommodate the public present.
Stained glass windows in Fluminense's headquarters
Currently, Fluminense does not play its games at its stadium, at the club's option, as it would no longer have the security conditions and capacity to host large events, and is currently only used for training, small commemorative events, social and educational projects, games of thewomen's football team and the youth teams.[72] The last time an official match for Fluminense's main team took place at Laranjeiras Stadium was in 2003, where Flu drew 3–3 withAmericano, in theCarioca Championship.[73]
The renovation of the stadium has been a long-standing demand of the club, however a series of problems make this difficult, such as technical issues linked to the historical preservation of the building, the small area for the construction of a modern stadium and the opposition of the surrounding residents. The current project, at a more advanced stage, foresees a revitalization of Laranjeiras, with the stadium remaining with a small audience capacity, being able to host lower demand games, such as the first phases of the state championship and women's football.[74]
Since its construction for the 1950 World Cup, theMaracanã has primarily served as the home ground for the four biggest Rio de Janeiro clubs.[75] The stadium was officially completed in 1965, 17 years after construction began. In 1963, more than 194,000 people attended a match betweenFlamengo and Fluminense at the Maracanã, Rio Championship final.[76]
At the stadium, Fluminense won some of the most important titles, such as the1952 Copa Rio, for many the most important in its history, it won its firstBrazilian Championship in1970, theTricolor Machine was twice champion of Carioca (1975–76), led byRoberto Rivellino, it was Brazilian champion over its rivalVasco da Gama, in 1984, was three-time Rio champion against Flamengo (1983–85), he was Carioca champion in 1995 withRenato Gaúcho's belly goal, against Romário's Flamengo (at the time namedFIFA World Player of the Year). In this century he won the 2007Brazil's Cup and the2023Copa Libertadores.[77]
Following its 50th anniversary and aiming to hold the2000 FIFA Club World Cup in Brazil, the stadium underwent renovations which would increase its full capacity to around 103,000. After years of planning and nine months of closure between 2005 and 2006, the stadium was reopened in January 2007 with an all-seated capacity of 87,000. For the2014 FIFA World Cup and the2016 Olympics andParalympics, a major expedition project was started in 2010. The original stand, with a two-level configuration, was demolished, making way for a new single-level stand, and the stadium had its capacity reduced to 78,838 seats.[75]
From 2013 onwards, the stadium was managed by the Brazilian conglomerateOdebrecht. Corruption scandals, the high rents charged by the company and the abandonment of the stadium, meant that Flamengo and Fluminense came together to manage it.[78] Although clubs have kept the stadium in good condition since 2016 and covered its maintenance costs, it was only in 2019 that the government canceled contracts with Odebrecht. Flamengo and Fluminense then created a joint company, "Fla-Flu S.A." opened especially to manage Maracanã and its entire sports complex.[75]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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