América Football Club, is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club based in

Fortaleza Fortaleza ( ; ; ) is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeastern Brazil. It is Brazil's 4th largest city—Fortaleza surpassed Salvador, Bahia, Salvador in 2022 census with a population of slightly over 2.4 mi ...

, the capital of the north-east

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian state of

Ceará Ceará (, ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It is the List of Brazilian states by population, eighth-largest Brazilian State by ...

. The club was founded on November 11, 1920, and plays home games at Estádio Presidente Vargas, which has a maximum capacity of 23,000 people. América's mascot used to be a devil, but it was replaced with an eagle in the early 1990s. The club is primarily of historic importance in its home state. Greatest achievements were the Championships of the State of Ceará of 1935 and 1966. In the years 1933, 1934, 1940, 1943, 1948 and 1954 América was runner up of the competition. In 1967 América qualified as state champion of 1966 for participation in the

Taça Brasil The Taça Brasil () was the Brazilian national football championship contested from 1959 to 1968. Bahia, Cruzeiro and Botafogo were the only champions to have played all phases of the tournament, because until the 1968 edition teams from Rio de ...

, the national championship competition of those days. América won there the ''Grupo Norte da Zona Norte da Taça Brasil'', winning both finals against the Champion of Pará,

Paysandu SC Paysandu Sport Club, commonly referred to as Paysandu, is a Brazilian professional club based in Belém, Pará founded on 2 February 1914. It competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série B, the second tier of Brazilian football league system, Br ...

from

Belém Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará), often called Belém of Pará, is the capital and largest city of the state of Pará in the north of B ...

, 1–0. In October 1967 a crowd of 40,000 witnessed when América was eliminated from the competition after a 0–1 home defeat against Náutico from

Recife Recife ( , ) is the Federative units of Brazil, state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil, on the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of South America. It is the largest urban area within both the North Region, Brazil, North and the Northeast R ...

. After the state championship in 1935 América, alongside

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; ), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian multi sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea. It was founded and named after the Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo n ...

, SC Argentino and Duque de Caxias, broke away from the league to establish, without lasting success, an alternative association. América returned to the fold in 1938. Between 1921 and 1997 América played 64 seasons in the first state division. After 1997 the club played for seven years in the second division before being relegated to the third level where it also suffered a few relegations. A first place in 2013 afforded it a return to the second division in 2014. A formative figure in the history of the club was the journalist and

radio broadcaster Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

Alberto Damasceno, who was president of the club for 23 years before he passed on the office to his son Gian Paolo Damasceno in the mid of the first decade of the 2000s. The most remarkable player in the history of the club was José Ribamar de Oliveira "Canhoteiro", sometimes considered the left wing pendant to

Garrincha Manuel Francisco dos Santos (28 October 1933 – 20 January 1983), nicknamed Mané Garrincha, best known as simply Garrincha (, "little bird"), was a Brazilian professional association football, footballer who played as a Midfielder#Winger, righ ...

. He played for América from 1949 until his move to

São Paulo FC São Paulo Futebol Clube () is a professional Association football, football club in the Morumbi, São Paulo, Morumbi district of São Paulo, Brazil. It plays in Campeonato Paulista, São Paulo (state), São Paulo's premier State football lea ...

in 1953.

Honours

Campeonato Cearense The Campeonato Cearense is the professional state football league in the Brazilian state of Ceará. It is run by the Ceará Football Federation (FCF). In over a hundred years of competition, only 11 clubs have won the title. List of champio ...

** Winners (2): 1935, 1966 ** Runners-up (4): 1923, 1934, 1948, 1954 *

Campeonato Cearense Série C The Campeonato Cearense Série C is the third tier of the professional State football leagues in Brazil, state football league in the Brazilian States of Brazil, state of Ceará. It is run by the Federação Cearense de Futebol, Ceará Football F ...

** Winners (1): 2013 * Torneio Início do Ceará ** Winners (6): 1924, 1950, 1956, 1957, 1963, 1970

Other modalities

The

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team of the club dominated in Ceará during the 1960s and won the state championships of 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966 and 1967. The

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

team was similarly dominant and won altogether eight state championships in the years 1957, 1958, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969.

References

*
América
'', Futebol Nacional, 19 June 2011.
AFC – América Football Club
sole version – of 2006 – of the official club website in the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. * Totonho Laprovitera:
América FootBall Club
', Blog do Laprovitera, 26 February 2012. * Marcos Augusto:

',

Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

and RSSSF Brazil, 24 March 2008. * Ricardo Pontes, Julio Bovi Diogo:
Brazil Cup 1967
', Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation and RSSSF Brazil, 21 November 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:America Football Club CE Association football clubs established in 1920 Football clubs in Ceará 1920 establishments in Brazil Inactive football clubs in Brazil