This page lists some of the main events in the history of Fluminense Football Club, a Brazilian sports club founded in Laranjeiras, Rio de Janeiro, on July 21, 1902. Since its founding, the club has primarily focused on association football. Its most notable titles include the 2023 Copa Libertadores, the 2024 Recopa Sudamericana, four Brazilian championships (in 1970, 1984, 2010, and 2012), the 2007 Copa do Brasil, and 33 Rio de Janeiro state championships. The club also won the 1952 Copa Rio.
Chronology 1902: First steps Founding of Fluminense Football Club
The year was 1901, and the young Oscar Alfredo Cox was returning from Switzerland, where he had studied and developed a passion for football. Upon arriving in Brazil, he played a key role in introducing the sport to the country. On August 1, 1901, the first team assembled by Oscar Cox and his companions traveled to Niterói to face a squad of English players. His most significant achievement, however, came on July 21, 1902, when, together with twenty other individuals, he founded Fluminense Football Club during a meeting at Rua Marquês de Abrantes, 51, which was then the residence of Horácio da Costa Santos.Book Fluminense Football Club História, Conquistas e Glórias no Futebol, pages 5, 6 and 7, by Antônio Carlos Napoleão (2003).
The name Fluminense emerged naturally, without much debate, although the initial idea had been Rio Football Club. Fluminense ultimately prevailed, derived from the Latin flūmen, meaning "river". The term is also used to refer to natives of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Flūmen Januarii, in Latin).Book Fluminense Football Club História, Conquistas e Glórias no Futebol, page 7, by Antônio Carlos Napoleão (2003).
Oscar Cox introduced and promoted football in Brazil and was involved in the founding of Fluminense, one of the country's early football clubs. From that period onward, Fluminense played a role in the development of Brazilian football, including organizing matches and related activities.Book História do Fluminense by Paulo Coelho Netto (2003).
Oscar Cox, Mário Frias, and C. Robinson signed the invitation cards for those interested in the meeting of November 30, 1901, which would address the founding of Rio Football Club, the first club in the city dedicated exclusively to the sport brought from England. However, the idea failed.
The following year, after a match between combined teams from Rio and São Paulo in the state capital of São Paulo, in which Oscar Cox left an Englishman from Paissandu Atlético Clube off the team, the excluded Mr. Makintosh, alongside Brazilian João Ferreira, appropriated the name Rio FC and founded the club on July 12.
For this reason, Cox's invitation this time was more emphatic. The postcard sent by Álvaro Costa contained the following text: "The founding of this club will be discussed in a meeting that will take place on Monday, the 21st of the current month, at 8:30 p.m., at Rua Marquês de Abrantes No. 51. Signed: The Committee".
The 20 participants were considered founding members, "without entitlement to privileges," and elected Oscar Cox as president. They signed the attendance list in this order: Horácio Costa Santos (host), Mário Rocha, Walter Andreas Schuback, Félix Frias, Mário Frias, Heráclito de Vasconcellos, Oscar Alfredo Cox, João Carlos de Mello, Domingos Moitinho, Louis da Nóbrega Júnior, Arthur Gibbons, Virgílio Leite (then president of Clube de Regatas do Flamengo), Manoel Rios, Américo da Silva Couto, Eurico de Moraes, Victor Etchegaray, A. C. Mascarenhas, Álvaro Drolhe da Costa, Júlio de Moraes, and A. H. Roberts. Then, the mission became finding a playing field.
Fluminense Football Club was founded at the home of Horácio da Costa Santos, at Rua Marquês de Abrantes, number 51, in the Flamengo neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. The founding session, held on July 21, 1902, was chaired by Manoel Rios and recorded by Oscar Cox and Américo Couto. Oscar Cox was elected the first president of the club by vote among all founding members. At that meeting, Manoel Rios became the entity's first secretary. On October 17 of the same year, the club was already established in Laranjeiras, a prestigious neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro.
All of its founders were cariocas, except Víctor François Etchegaray, Argentine, and A. H. Roberts, English, considering only their places of birth and not other nationalities, as in the case of Oscar Cox, but in the early years, among its members, there were several foreigners, mostly British and German.BRANDÃO, Caio - Site Futebol Portenho - Todos os argentinos do Fluminense, fundado por um deles, page edited on December 20, 2015 and available on July 18, 2018. Walter Andreas Schuback was the son of Germans but was born in Rio de Janeiro.SANTORO, Carlos - site Almanaque do Fluminense, O cunhado, page edited on October 17, 2017 and available on December 24, 2018. In 1903, the Englishman Francis Henry Walter, member number 88 of the club, was the only person born outside Brazil to preside over Fluminense up to the present day.SANTORO, Carlos - site Almanaque do Fluminense, O inglês que amava o Brasil, page edited on September 26, 2017 and available on December 24, 2018.
Fluminense was the first prosperous club in Carioca football, as well as the oldest major Brazilian club in terms of football practice. Initially, the team wore white and gray uniforms.
Fluminense's first match was played on October 19, 1902, against Rio Football Club, at the Paysandu field in Laranjeiras, the first thrashing: Fluminense won 8–0. On September 6, 1903, the debut in interstate matches took place, with three games at the Velódromo field in São Paulo. The Carioca squad recorded one draw and two victories.Book Fluminense Football Club História, Conquistas e Glórias no Futebol, page 10, by Antônio Carlos Napoleão (2003).
On July 15, 1904, after an Extraordinary General Assembly, Fluminense replaced the previous shirt with the tricolor one. It adopted the three colors present in the anthem composed by Lamartine Babo: green, white, and garnet, which became the club's colors. The first tricolor shirt of Fluminense was created in 1905, with Flu playing its first match in its traditional tricolor shirt on May 7, 1905, in a friendly in which it defeated Rio Cricket by 7–1.
The public, ever growing, expressed its enthusiasm for football, which contributed to the emergence of new clubs, even leading to the start of matches between Carioca and Paulista combined teams in 1910. Years later, thanks to the pioneering of the Tricolor, the first Brazilian National Team was called up.
Club headquarters
Fluminense Football Club obtained its first headquarters on October 17, 1902. The club's initial location was at Rua Guanabara, now Pinheiro Machado, at the corner with Rua do Roso, now Coelho Netto, in the Carioca neighborhood of Laranjeiras. Fluminense rented the land from Banco da República for one hundred thousand réis. However, the founders' first choice was a plot on Rua Dona Mariana, but the proposal was rejected by the owner.Book História do Fluminense, by Paulo Coelho Netto (2003)
Only a year later was the land leveled. At the time, the leveling machine and the lawn mower were pulled by a donkey. To preserve the work already done, the animal was always fitted with velvet gloves on its four hooves. "Faísca" then became famous and known as the "most elegant donkey in Rio de Janeiro".
Later, the land was purchased by Eduardo Guinle, and construction work on the headquarters immediately began. Before that, it was a small white house that served as housing for the watchman. After installing water pipes and a bathroom, Flu was already paying double the rent.
On August 14, 1904, the first interstate match was held at the Rua Guanabara field, against Paulistano. This was the inaugural match of the new sports venue in Rio de Janeiro, and Fluminense's board had a small wooden stand built to accommodate the public, charging the first tickets for a football match. In addition to Fluminense members and invited guests, 806 cards were distributed by members, and 190 tickets were sold to non-members at the box office, with the ticket costing 2$000 and revenue of 1:992$000.
In 1905, Eduardo Guinle built, at his own expense, the first stand in Rio de Janeiro football fields. Upon completion of this improvement, the rent tripled again. In the same year, through a loan among members, the first headquarters was demolished, and the second was built.
The inauguration of the third headquarters, on July 27, 1915, was widely celebrated, culminating in a dance at the skating rink, when the first Fluminense anthem, authored by Paulo Coelho Netto, was sung.
Still in 1915, President Cunha Freire built a private stand for members and their families. The expansion plan was completed with the construction of a new rink, acquisition of furniture, electrical installation, enlargement of the stands, and construction of the general admission areas.
In 1918, work began on renovations that would result in the fourth headquarters of Fluminense. The works were completed in 1920, under the presidency of Arnaldo Guinle, who hired the Catalan architect Hipòlit Gustau Pujol Jr. to design the facilities. With French stained glass and crystal chandeliers, the Noble Hall became the stage for many shows, dances, parades, operas, and ballets. Even today, it is widely used for parties, meetings, and filming of movies and miniseries, such as "Anos Dourados", "Dona Flor e seus dois maridos", "Villa-Lobos - Uma Vida de Paixão", telenovelas, and commercials. The headquarters is owned by the club and is now listed as historical heritage.
In 1961, at the request of the city hall and the state government, part of its land was expropriated by the extinct Superintendence of Urbanization and Sanitation for the expansion of Rua Pinheiro Machado — an area of 1,084 square meters —, which culminated in the demolition of part of the stand. The government compensated the club for the loss of its assets, and Flu once again provided a significant service to the city, despite suffering a major sporting loss.
1902–1911: Pioneering and split
After introducing football to Rio de Janeiro in an organized manner, Oscar Cox and nineteen other enthusiasts founded Fluminense Football Club on July 21, 1902. The first official match took place at the field of Paysandu Cricket Club, when Fluminense defeated Rio Football Club 8–0 on October 19, 1902.Book História do Fluminense, by Paulo Coelho Netto (2003)
In September 1903, Fluminense made its debut in interstate matches, playing three games in São Paulo. After enduring fourteen hours of travel, it took the field to face Sport Club Internacional, drawing 0–0 on the 6th. Already rested, on the 8th of that month, it defeated Club Athletico Paulistano 2–1 on the 7th and São Paulo Athletic 3–0. At the end of the same year, Fluminense began efforts to found the Liga Carioca, which materialized on June 8, 1905, in a meeting held at the club, with representatives from five clubs besides Fluminense: America, Bangu, Botafogo, and Football Athletic, to which Rio Cricket and Paysandu joined in December as league members.
Fluminense promoted the visit of Club Athletico Paulistano in July 1905, playing two matches on the 14th and 16th, winning the first 2–0 and losing the second 3–2, with about 2,500 people attending each match, including the presence of the President of Brazil, Rodrigues Alves. Presidents of the Republic for decades attended major events at Fluminense, and some were members of the club.Book História do Fluminense, by Paulo Coelho Netto (2003)
On October 22, 1905, the first match between Fluminense and Botafogo took place, a date that marks the oldest football derby in Brazil, the Clássico Vovô. On that occasion, Fluminense won 6–0.