Clube de Regatas do Flamengo, more commonly known as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football team that plays in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, as well as the Campeonato Carioca. The following list covers the period from 1912 (when the club joined the Campeonato Carioca) to the present day. It details the club's achievements in all major league and cup competitions, and the top scorers for each season.
Background
Flamengo was founded on 17 November 1895, by a group of rowers gathered at club member Nestor de Barros's manor on Flamengo Beach in Rio de Janeiro. In the late 19th century, rowing was the elite, upper middle class sport in the region and the group hoped to impress the young women of the city's high society by establishing a rowing club.
The recently formed football (soccer) team before a match vs. Paysandu, 1912.
Flamengo's football team was only established after a group of ten dissatisfied players from Fluminense broke away from that club following a dispute with its board.[1] The players decided to join Flamengo because Alberto Borgerth, the team's captain, was also a rower for Flamengo. Also, establishing a land sports department at Flamengo was preferable to joining football rivals Botafogo or the all-English club Paysandu (now, Paissandu). The new members were admitted on 8 November 1911. A motion against the club taking part in football tournaments was put to a vote but was defeated, and as a result the members officially established the club's new football department on 24 December 1911.
Since then, Flamengo established themselves as one of Brazil's most successful sports clubs in the 20th century during the era of state leagues in Brazil when they captured several Campeonato Carioca (Rio de Janeiro state league) titles prior to the establishment of the first Brazilian national football championship in 1959. Since then, they have remained successful in Brazilian football, having won 7 times the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A,[2] the 1987 Copa União (a Brasileirão title contested by Sport, although CBF recognizes both champions,[3] the STF does not.[4]), 5 times the Copa do Brasil, 2 times the Supercopa do Brasil, and a record 38 times the Campeonato Carioca. They are one of the only two clubs to have never been relegated from the Brazilian Série A, the other being São Paulo. In South American and worldwide competitions, the club's highest achievements are their conquests of the 1981, 2019 and 2022 Copa Libertadores, and 1981 Intercontinental Cup against Liverpool, led by the club's most iconic player Zico, in addition to the 1999 Copa Mercosul, the 1996 Copa de Oro and the 2020 Recopa Sudamericana. Flamengo's fiercest and longest-standing rivalries are with the other "Big Four" of Rio de Janeiro: Fluminense, Botafogo and Vasco da Gama.
Flamengo is the most popular club in Brazil, with over 40.2 million supporters as of 2020.[5] It is also Brazil's richest and most valuable football club with an annual revenue of R$950.0 million (€163.04 million)[6] and a valuation of over R$2.9 billion (€469.21 million).[7]
^Until 1994, two points were awarded for a win, and one for a draw. In some of the Brasileirão seasons, extra points were awarded for goal difference (1975 to 1978) or a penalty shootout (1988). From the 1995 season onwards, three points have been awarded for a win.
^Figures include goals in all the tournaments depicted.
^Two championships were disputed simultaneously in 1933, each by a different league. The AMEA defended the maintenance of amateurism in the sport, while the LCF adopted the professionalism, thus organizing the first professional Campeonato Carioca. Flamengo initially competed in the AMEA championship, but only four weeks after the tournament's start, they left AMEA and were accepted in the LCF championship, although they couldn't join the Torneio Rio–São Paulo like the other participants. The results of their matches in the AMEA championship were disregarded.
^Nelson was the Campeonato Carioca top scorer, with 10 goals.
^The Torneio Aberto was a tournament organized by the Liga Carioca de Football (LCF), the then professional football league in Rio de Janeiro, with the main goal of attracting amateur clubs to professionalism in the national capital, as well as measuring forces with them and with teams from other states. In 1937, though, when Fluminense were leading the competition, it was suddenly terminated, due to the union of the two rival leagues at the time, sealing the pacification and the professionalism in the Federal District.
^The 1940 Torneio Rio–São Paulo did not reach its end. It was interrupted with only one round of matches, with each team playing eight matches. Although there was no official champion, the Diário da Noite newspaper, of 7 April 1959, reports that the disputing clubs considered the result definitive and declared Fluminense and Flamengo — who were both leading the competition — the champions.
^ abcdBetween 1975 and 1977, each victory by 2 or more goals difference gave the winner an extra point. In 1978 the extra point rule was maintained, but only for wins by 3 goals or more difference.
^Zico was tied with teammate Cláudio Adão and Roberto Dinamite, of Vasco, as the Campeonato Carioca top scorer, with 19 goals.
^The first division of the 1987 edition of the Campeonato Brasileiro were disputed in two modules, Green and Yellow. The Green Module included the country's top clubs (the so-called Clube dos 13) and was widely considered the true Campeonato Brasileiro. The Yellow Module, on the other hand, featured teams that had been left out of the elitist Green Module, and did not have the same visibility as its competitor. Flamengo beat Internacional in the Green Module's decision, while in the Yellow Module, finalists Sport and Guarani, after extra time, drew 11-11 on penalties and agreed to share the title between them. However, at risk of being punished by the CBF for going against the regulations, Guarani gave up the Yellow Module title, as reported by the Diário de Pernambuco newspaper on 22 January 1988. The CBF had planned a cross-over between the finalists of each module to decide the true 1987 Brazilian champion, but Flamengo and Internacional refused, understanding that the championship had already ended with the final of the Green Module. As a result, both were disqualified and Sport and Guarani advanced to a new final, where Sport won and became champion. Sport and Guarani qualificated to the 1988 Copa Libertadores. After decades of court battles, in 2018 the Brazilian Supreme Court decreed that Sport is the true and only 1987 Brazilian champion.[8] Still, CBF, "by way of opinion" also considers Flamengo as champions of that year.[9]
^In the 1988 Brasileirão, all matches that ended in a draw were decided by a penalty shootout; a win in normal time gave 3 points to the winner and zero points to the loser; a win in the penalty shootout gave 2 points to the winner and 1 point to the loser.
^ abIn the early Copa do Brasil editions, only the state champions and runners-up of the previous year qualified. Thus, Flamengo did not qualify to the 1991 (even though they were the cup's current champions) and 1994 editions.
^Despite having qualified for the 1992 Copa do Brasil by winning not only the 1991 Campeonato Carioca, but also the first edition of the Copa Rio, a state competition that gave the winner a place in the Copa do Brasil the following year, Flamengo didn't take part in the tournament due to a full calendar.
^Flamengo earned 3 bonus points during the campaign.
^Flamengo withdrew from the competition in the middle of it, alleging scheduling difficulties and that they had already qualified for the 1996 Copa do Brasil as Campeonato Carioca runners-up in 1995, so their matches were canceled.
^ abcdeBetween 2001 and 2012, clubs qualifying for the Copa Libertadores, either through the Copa do Brasil or the Campeonato Brasileiro, could not take part in the Copa do Brasil in the same year they took part in the continental competition, as the two competitions had many simultaneous dates.
^Flamengo was punished by the STJD with the loss of four points due to the irregular fielding of the player André Santos in the match against Cruzeiro, in the last round of the championship.
^Bruno Henrique was the Campeonato Carioca top scorer, with 8 goals.
^Gabriel was the Campeonato Carioca top scorer, with 9 goals.
