Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama (; English: Vasco da Gama Club of Rowing), commonly referred to as Vasco da Gama or simply Vasco, is a sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mostly known for its men's football team, which currently competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top tier of the Brazilian football league system, and in the Campeonato Carioca, the state of Rio de Janeiro's premier state league.Unzelte, Celso – O Livro de Ouro do Futebol; page 689 (Editora Ediouro, 2002) –
Named after Vasco da Gama 400 years after his European–Indian sea route in 1498, the club was founded in 1898 as a rowing club by Brazilian workers, Portuguese Brazilians and newly arrived Portuguese immigrants.Porto Editora – Vasco da Gama (futebol) na Infopédia [em linha]. Porto: Porto Editora. [consult. 2023-08-28 01:04:51]. Disponível em https://www.infopedia.pt/$vasco-da-gama-(futebol) Vasco created its football department in 1915, with professionalism officially adopted in 1933 – pioneer in Brazil. In addition to its main departments of football and rowing, Vasco has other sports departments since the 1910s. Its youth academy, which has brought up international footballers such as Romário, Philippe Coutinho, Hilderaldo Bellini, Roberto Dinamite and Edmundo, is well known for its socio-educational methodology.
The club is recognized as the first continental champion of the world, having won the South American Championship of Champions in 1948, on its 50th anniversary. They defeated Real Madrid, then European champions, in the 1957 Tournoi de Paris, considered by FIFA as "the most notable encounter between teams from two continents before 1960". They won the Copa Libertadores in 1998, on their 100th anniversary. At the national level, Vasco da Gama has won four Campeonato Brasileiro Série A titles, one Copa do Brasil title and three Torneio Rio–São Paulo titles. At the state level, the club has also won 24 Campeonato Carioca titles. The golden generation of Vasco da Gama is dubbed the Expresso da Vitória, and is considered by many to be one of the best football teams in the world in the 1940s and 50s, which included Moacir Barbosa, Ademir de Menezes, Albino Friaça, Danilo Alvim, Augusto da Costa, Chico, among others.
With fans worldwide, Vasco da Gama is one of the most widely supported clubs in Brazil, the state of Rio de Janeiro and the Americas. Vasco plays its home matches in São Januário since its inauguration in 1927. Occasionally, the club has also played their home matches in Maracanã since its inauguration in 1950. Vasco holds long-standings rivalries with Flamengo, Fluminense and Botafogo. The Vasco–Flamengo rivalry, known as Clássico dos Milhões (Derby of the Millions), is considered one of the main rivalries of Brazilian sports and one of the most prominent football rivalries in the world.
History
The foundation of Vasco da Gama took place in the context of the popularization of rowing at the end of the 19th century. The idea to create a rowing club originated with four young Brazilians—Henrique M. Ferreira Monteiro, Luiz Antonio Rodrigues, José Alexandre d'Avellar Rodrigues, and Manoel Teixeira de Sousa Junior—all clerks working in downtown Rio de Janeiro. During their free time, the young men rented a rowboat named "Iracema" from the Grupo de Regatas Gragoatá in the city of Niterói. The distance between Rio de Janeiro and Niterói inspired the idea to establish a rowing club in the Saúde neighborhood, where they worked. A fifth member, Lopes de Freitas, was invited, and the initial meetings took place in January 1898. The idea of a new rowing club in the neighborhood was promoted in commercial circles, and the four founders quickly attracted new interested parties. Among those invited to the future institution were the Couto brothers, Portuguese merchants in the steam-powered sawmill business, who had the necessary capital to establish the club in its early stages. After several preliminary meetings, the club was founded on August 21, 1898, at Rua da Saúde, No. 293 (now No. 345, Rua Sacadura Cabral), with 62 founding members of the institution. The name chosen for the club — Vasco da Gama — was in honor of the IV centenary of the discovery of the maritime route to India by Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, as many of the founders were Portuguese. Vasco da Gama incorporated the Lusitânia Sport Club football team in 1915 and officially entered football competition the following year, embracing an inclusive identity that welcomed players regardless of race, social class or origin. Competing initially in the third division of Rio de Janeiro, the club steadily strengthened its squad with Black, mixed-race, Portuguese and working-class white players, in contrast to the exclusivity seen in many elite clubs of the period. After winning the second division title in 1922 with an impressive campaign, Vasco secured promotion to the top tier of Campeonato Carioca. In 1923, defying expectations, the team won the first-division championship in its debut season, defeating leading clubs such as America, Fluminense and Flamengo. This historic achievement — led by the legendary Camisas Negras (Black Shirts) — represented a major social milestone in Brazilian sport, marking the first time a team composed largely of Afro-descendant and poor players conquered a major title against the city’s traditional elite. The significance of this moment continues to resonate today, with the Camisas Negras recognized nationally, including their place in Livro dos Heróis da Pátria (Book of Heroes of the Fatherland) of Tancredo Neves Pantheon of the Fatherland and Freedom.
After attempts to prevent Vasco da Gama from entering the competition, clubs from the south zone (elite area of the city of Rio de Janeiro), America, Bangu, Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense and a few others joined, abandoned the Liga Metropolitana de Desportos Terrestres (LMDT) and founded the Associação Metropolitana de Esportes Atléticos (AMEA), leaving out Vasco, which could only join the new entity if it dismissed twelve of its athletes (all black) on the grounds that they had a "dubious profession". Faced with the imposed situation, in 1924, the president of the CR Vasco da Gama, José Augusto Prestes, envied a letter to AMEA, which came to be known as the "Resposta Histórica" (Historical Response), refusing to submit to the imposed condition and withdrawing from membership in the AMEA. The letter went down in history as a milestone in the fight against racism in football. In this way, in 1924, two championships were played in parallel, the LMDT being won undefeated by Vasco, thus winning the second state championship. The following year, the club overcame the resistance of the AMEA, managed to join the entity and again competed in the championship against the great teams under the condition of playing their games in the Andarahy Athletico Club field. Despite this, Vasco decided to build its own stadium, to end any demand. The place chosen for the construction was the São Januário farm, which had been a gift from Dom Pedro I to the Marchioness of Santos. On April 21, 1927, Vasco da Gama inaugurated the São Januário stadium, the largest stadium in the Americas until 1930, when the Estadio Centenario was inaugurated in Montevideo (for the first World Cup). Until 1940, when Pacaembu was inaugurated in São Paulo, the stadium was the largest in Brazil, and until 1950, when Maracanã was inaugurated, it was the largest in Rio de Janeiro. The stadium was built in ten months and with money raised through the "Campanha dos dez mil sócios" (Campaign of the Ten Thousand members) which received donations from fans across the city. Two years later, its lighting would be inaugurated, becoming the only club in the country with a stadium capable of hosting night games.
In 1942, the club lived an uncomfortable fast of 5 years without any title in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Trying to reverse this situation, the Vasco da Gama's president Cyro Aranha adopted a long-term policy based on hiring young players. The team, which would later become known as Expresso da Vitória (Victory Express), was composed of the goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa, forwards Ademir de Menezes and Chico, midfielder Danilo Alvim, defender Augusto da Costa, among others. This generation of players, commanded mainly by Uruguayan coach Ondino Viera, was one of the first Brazilian teams to use the 4–2–4 tactical scheme, which strongly influenced Brazilian and Uruguayan football in the 1950s. The Expresso da Vitória won eighteen titles in ten years, including five state championships (three undefeated) and the South American Championship of Champions over River Plate in 1948, making Vasco the first Brazilian team (either club or national team) to win an international title outside Brazil. Later, Vasco was recognized by CONMEBOL as the 1948 continental champion and this competition was recognized as a precursor to the Copa Libertadores. This caused Vasco to be invited to the 1997 Supercopa Libertadores, a tournament only for clubs that had already been champions of the Copa Libertadores (Vasco would only win its first Copa Libertadores the following year, in 1998).
In the early 50s, many players from Expresso da Vitória had already left, and the team had new players, including the defenders Hilderaldo Bellini and Orlando Peçanha, forward Vavá, and the midfielders Sabará and Pinga. At the beginning of 1953, Vasco won the Quadrangular Internacional do Rio de Janeiro, a tournament it played against its rival Flamengo and Argentine teams Boca Juniors and Racing. Months later, won the Torneo Internacional de Chile against Colombian Millonarios and Chilean Colo-Colo. In July, the team won the Torneio Octogonal Rivadavia Corrêa Meyer, a tournament between Brazilian and European clubs. In 1956, Ademir de Menezes left Vasco. After winning the 1956 Campeonato Carioca, Vasco went on a tour of South America and Europe, and was called "the best South American team" by European newspapers. Vasco was chosen to participate in the 1957 Tournoi de Paris, in which they beat European champions Real Madrid in the final 4–3 in front of more than 65,000 spectators. This was the first time that a South American champion and a European champion faced each other (Vasco for the 1948 South American Championship and Real Madrid for the 1955–56 European Cup). The newspaper France-Soir stated after the tournament: "Real Madrid is not the greatest team in the world. Talk to Vasco da Gama about that", and the Jornal dos Sports cited Vasco as "world champions". In 2023, FIFA recognized as "the most notable meeting between teams from two continents meeting before 1960".
In 1971, young Roberto Dinamite rose from Vasco's academy to the professional team. Roberto Dinamite would be instrumental in leading the team in winning the 1974 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Vasco da Gama's first national title, in which he finished as the tournament's top scorer with 16 goals. This achievement qualified Vasco to compete in their first Copa Libertadores in 1975, in which they did not have a good campaign. Roberto also helped Vasco win the 1977 Campeonato Carioca, beating Zico's Flamengo in a final playoff match. There a rivalry between Roberto and Zico would begin on the field, although off the field they were very friends. In 1978, Vasco fell in the semi-finals of the 1978 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, but Paulinho would have finished as the tournament's top scorer with 19 goals. That year, the famous song by the Vasco fans emerged that "Vasco é o time da virada, Vasco é o time do amor" (Vasco is the team of the turnaround, Vasco is the team of love), inspired by a Beija-Flor samba. The song would be copied by other fans, such as Santos, Palmeiras and Atlético Mineiro.