Clube Atlético Mineiro, usually known as Atlético Mineiro is a Brazilian football team from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, founded on March 25, 1908. Atlético is one of the most traditional teams of Brazil. The first official match was played on March 21, 1909, against Sport Club Futebol. The team plays in black and white vertical striped shirts, black shorts and white socks. The team is known nationwide as Galo, Portuguese for rooster, its mascot, and was the first official Brazilian champion, in 1971, besides having won two Copas Conmebol (South American Cups) in 1992 and 1997 and being the 2nd Division Brazilian Champions in 2006. Besides that, it's the most stable team in national competitions, participating in 14 finals or semifinals in Brazilian Championship.
Clube Atlético Mineiro was founded on March 25, 1908 by 22 middle-class boys from Belo Horizonte. The founding players were: Aleixanor Alves Pereira, Antônio Antunes Filho, Augusto Soares, Benjamin Moss Filho, Carlos Marciel, Eurico Catão, Horácio Machado, Hugo Francarolli, Humberto Moreira, João Barbosa Sobrinho, José Soares Alves, Júlio Menezes Melo, Leônidas Fulgêncio, Margival Mendes Leal, Mário Hermanson Lott, Mário Neves, Mário Toledo, Raul Fracarolli and Sinval Moreira. 3 other boys who were not in the founding meeting, but are considered as founders too are: Francisco Monteiro, Jorge Dias Pena and Mauro Brochado. The boys decided that the club's name would be Athletico Mineiro Foot Ball Club, and the kit would be a white shirt with a green horizontal strip on the chest. Soon after, they decided to change the kit to the black/white stripped shirt which is used nowadays. Atlético's first match was against Sport Club Foot Ball, the biggest and oldest club Belo Horizonte of the time. The match was played on March 21, 1909, and Atlético won 3-0. Furious, Sport's board demanded that Atlético play a rematch the following week to get revenge, to which Atlético agreed. Atlético won again, but this time the score was 4-0. From that day on, Atlético became a respected club in the city. In 1913, the club officially changed its name from 'Athletico Mineiro Foot Ball Club' to 'Clube Atlético Mineiro'. The following year, in 1914, Atlético won their first championship, the Taça Bueno Brandão, a tournament between Atlético, América and Yale. In 1915, the club won the first Minas Gerais State Championship in history, which was organized by the Liga Mineira de Esportes Terrestres. After 11 years without winning another championship, Atlético broke the record winning sequence of 10 State Championships won by América (from 1916 to 1925). From then on, Atlético's team consisted of 3 of the club's best players in history: Said, Jairo and Mário de Castro. They scored a combined total of 459 goals: 122 from Jairo, 142 from Said and 195 from Mário de Castro. In the 1930s, the club won the state championships of 1931, 1932, 1936, 1938 and 1939. In 1937, Atlético won the first national championship of its history: the Brazilian Champions Tournament. Atlético dominated the football scene of Minas Gerais State in the 1940s and 1950s, winning no less than 12 state championships between 1940 and 1960, including 5 championships in a row sequence, from 1952 to 1956. In 1950, Atlético accomplished one of the club's best achievements in its history by winning the symbolic title of Ice Champion, after a successful tour in Europe, where the team played against top clubs of the continent, winning most of the matches. The 1960s was known as the decade in which the Mineirão Stadium was built, but they were difficult times for the club. During this period, they only managed to win the state champions of 1962 and 1963. It was in the mid 1960s that the rivalry with Cruzeiro became strong, after the blue club won 5 state championships in a row (the first 5 championships of Mineirão era). In October 1969, Atlético beat the Brazilian National Team 2-1 at Mineirão Stadium. It was only in 1970 that Atlético won its first championship in Mineirão Stadium, breaking Cruzeiro's 5 titles sequence. In 1971, the club won the first Brazilian Championship in history; the club's biggest title ever. In 1976, Atlético won the State Championship again and also finished in third place in the 1976 Brazilian Championship. They also finished runners-up in the 1977 championship, despite not being defeated for the entire season. The following decade, the 1980s, would be one of the best in Atlético's history. The club won the state championship 6 times in a row, from 1978 to 1983, winning also in 1985, 1986, 1988 and 1989. Atlético also had good performances in the Brazilian Championship, finishing runner-up in 1980 (when a consistent streak of defeats to Flamengo began), third placed in 1983, 1986 and in 1987 (after being defeated again by Flamengo on semifinals). It was in this decade too that the club saw some of the best players in history, like Reinaldo, Toninho Cerezo, Éder and João Leite. In the 1990s, Atlético won the state championships in 1991, 1995 and in 1999 and had some good performances in Brazilian Championships, finishing runner-up in 1999, third placed in 1996 and fourth placed in 1994 and 1997. In 1992, Atlético won the CONMEBOL Cup, the club's first official international title; one which they won again in 1997. Financial situation turned worse in late 90's, with a scandal envolving the then Atlético's president Paulo Curi. The 2000s did not start well for Atlético, and the club has suffered serious crisis. Atlético won only the state champioship in 2000, and was runner-up in 2001 and in 2004. In 2000, it reached the Copa libertadores quarter final, and was fourth placed in the Brazilian Championship in 2001. In 2004, Atlético almost got relegation to Série B. 2005 started disastrously, and was the worst year in its history; the club was relegated to Brazilian Second Division. In 2006 the club won the Brazilian League Série B after a good campaign, qualifying to play the Brazilian League Série A in 2007. Atlético currently has ties to D.C. United in the Major League Soccer.
Titles
International titles
1950 - "Ice Champion" (symbolical title given by local press to the club due to a successful tour in Europe after II World War)
1976 - Torneo Esconde de Fenosa (La Coruña, Spain)
1977 - Trofeo Ciudad del Figo (Spain)
1980 - Trofeo Costa del Sol (Málaga, Spain)
1982 - Tournoi International Villa de Paris
1982 - Trofeo Villa del Bilbao (Spain)
1983 - Philips Cup Tournament of Berna (Switzerland)
Reinaldo - Average 1.55 goal per match in 1977 (The best average in Brazilian League ever). 28 goals in 18 matches. 255 goals (best scorer for Atlético ever). Played in World Cup 78 (one goal, against Sweden). And scored the goal that put the Brazilian Team through World Cup 82. Nicknamed the king, Reinaldo is still remembered by the club supporters and received significant support from both the club and the fans when he faced prosecution for taking drugs in 1998.
Dario - also known as "Dadá Maravilha" (Marvel Dadá) . World Champion in 1970, Brazilian's League Scorer in 71 (Brazilian Champion, 15 goals), 72 (17 goals) and 76 (16 goals, Brazilian Champion playing in Internacional/RS).
Cicinho - Former Atlético youth, played for Atlético until 2003. Now at A.S. Roma.
Mancini - Midfielder from Atlético's youth system. Played for the club from 1999 to 2003. His best season was in 2002, when he scored 15 goals in the Brazilian League. He was sold to A.S. Roma in 2003.
Eder - World Cup 1982, nicknamed O Canhão ("The Cannon") supposedly had one of the mightiest shots in the world and scored a goal against Soviet Union in the World Cup.
Edivaldo - World Cup 1986, died tragically at the age of 30.
Atlético's fan base is known in Brazil to be very passionate . The team's fan base is proudly known as the biggest in the state of Minas Gerais, ahead of América and Cruzeiro. The average attendance to the team's matches is among the biggest ones in the country.
* Atletico played Serie B in 2006. Atlético is also the club which brought more people to Mineirão; as of 2002, 20,887,391 people in 1,011 matches. Even with 51 less games than the second placed Cruzeiro, Atlético brought 1,542,884 people more. These stats do not include derbies. Some ultra groups are:
Atlético plays two derbies in Belo Horizonte City: Atlético vs. América and Atlético vs. Cruzeiro. Until the 1950s and early 1960s, the biggest derby of Minas Gerais State was Atlético vs. América, but from the mid 1960s on, Atlético vs. Cruzeiro became the biggest. The Atlético vs. Cruzeiro derby has been played 450 times, with 185 wins for Atlético, 144 wins for Cruzeiro and 121 draws. Atlético vs. América has been played 376 times, with 186 wins for Atlético, 100 wins for América and 90 draws.
The Rooster (Galo)
The team's mascot, the rooster, is one of the most well-known mascots in the country. It was created in the 1940s by Fernando Pierucetti, a cartoonist for "A Folha de Minas" newspaper. He was designated to design a mascot for each of the three greatest clubs in Belo Horizonte. According to Pierucetti, the symbol of Atlético was the rooster because the team used to play with plenty of passion, and would never give up until the end of each match, just like roosters used in cockfights. Another reason is that the most popular hen breed raised in Brazil has mostly black-and-white feathers, thus making the rooster suitable.
Presidents
1908 to 1910 - Margival Mendes Leal
1911 to 1911 - Aleixanor Alves Pereira
1912 to 1913 - Jair Pinto dos Reis
1914 to 1914 - João Luiz Morethzon
1915 to 1916 - Roberto Xavier Azevedo
1917 to 1917 - Nilo Rosemburg
1918 (6 months) - Jorge Dias Pena
1919 (6 months) - Antônio Antunes
1920 to 1920 - Alvaro Felicíssimo
1921 to 1922 - Alfredo Felicíssimo de Paula Furtado
1923 to 1923 - Roberto Xavier de Azevedo
1924 to 1925 - Alfredo Furtado
1926 to 1930 - Leandro Castilho de Moura Costa
1931 to 1931 - Anibal Matos
1932 to 1932 - Afonso Ferreira Paulino
1933 to 1938 - Tomáz Naves
1939 to 1939 - Casildo Quintino dos Santos
1940 (5 months) - Sálvio Noronha
1940 to 1941 (2 months) - Hélio Soares de Moura
1942 to 1942 - Olímpyo Mourão de Miranda
1943 to 1944 - Alberto Pinheiro
1945 to 1945 - Edward Nogueira
1946 to 1949 - Gregoriano Canedo
1949 (3 months) - Geraldo Vasconcelos
1949 (6 months) - Osvaldo Silva
1950 to 1951 - José Cabral
1952 to 1953 - José Francisco de Paula Júnior
1954 to 1955 - Mário de Andrade Gomes
1956 to 1957 - José Francisco de Paula Júnior
1958 to 1959 - Nelson Campos
1960 to 1960 - Antônio Álvares da Silva
1961 - Edgard Neves
1962 to 1963 - Fábio Fonseca e Silva
1964 (4 months) - José Ramos Filho
1964 (8 months) - Lauro Pires de Carvalho
1966 to 1967 (8 months) - Eduardo Catão Magalhães Pinto
1967 (4 months) - Fábio Fonseca e Silva
1968 to 1969 - Carlos Alberto de Vasconcellos Naves
1970 to 1973 - Nelson Campos
1973 (6 months) - Rubens Silveira
1974 to 1975 - Nelson Campos
1976 to 1979 - Walmir Pereira da Silva
1980 to 1985 - Elias Kalil
1986 - Marum
1986 to 1988 - Nelson Campos
1989 to 1994 - Afonso Araújo Paulino (Aníbal Goulart for sometime)
1995 to 1998 - Paulo Curi
1999 to 2001 - Nélio Brant
2001 to 2003 - Ricardo Annes Guimarães (during the license of Nélio Brant)
