America Football Club, usually abbreviated to America-RJ or simply America, is a Brazilian football team based in the city of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, in the northern neighborhood of

Tijuca Tijuca () (meaning marsh or swamp in the Tupi language, from ''ty'' ("water") and ''îuk'' ("rotten")) is a neighbourhood of the Rio de Janeiro#North Zone, Northern Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It comprises the region of Saens P ...

. The team competes in Campeonato Carioca Série A2, the second tier of the

state football league. Founded on 18 September 1904, the club competed in the

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian" or "Great Brazilian"), the Série A or the Brazilian Série A (to distinguish it from the I ...

several times, winning the state championship seven times. The club's home stadium is the

Estádio Giulite Coutinho Estádio Giulite Coutinho, also known as Estádio Édson Passos, is a multi-use stadium located in the city of Mesquita, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. It is used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and hosts the home matches of Flumine ...

, which has a capacity of 16,000. They play in red shirts, white shorts and red socks. The football anthem composer Lamartine Babo was a supporter of America. America's mascot is a devil. America also sponsors a beach American football team, the

America Red Lions The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

History

On 18 September 1904, Alberto Koltzbucher, Alfredo Guilherme Koehler, Alfredo Mohrsted, Gustavo Bruno Mohrsted, Henrique Mohrsted, Jayme Faria Machado and Oswaldo Mohrsted founded America Football Club. In 1905, America, together with Bangu,

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

Petrópolis Petrópolis (), also known as the Imperial City, is a municipality in the Southeast Region of Brazil. It is located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, northeast of the city of Rio de Janeiro. According to the 2022 Brazilian census, Petrópolis mun ...

, Fluminense and Futebol Atlético Clube founded Liga de Football do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro Football League), which was the first football federation of Rio de Janeiro. In 1913, the club won the state championship for the first time. For the 1971 season, the club competed in the

national Championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition is all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a book pr ...

, finishing in 11th place. The yellow star just above their emblem represents their win in the Tournament of the Champions (Torneio dos Campeões) in 1982, which was a tournament organized by CBF to serve as a preview to the

tournament.

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 ...

declined the invitation so America, the team with the best record after the selected teams, was invited to fill the spot. America won the tournament by beating Guarani in overtime at

Maracanã stadium Maracanã Stadium (, ; named after the Maracanã River), officially known as Jornalista Mário Filho Stadium (, ; , named after Mário Filho), is an association football stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Located in the Maracanã neighbor ...

. In 2006, America was the runner-up of

Taça Guanabara The Taça Guanabara ( English: Guanabara Cup) is an annual football tournament attached to the Campeonato Carioca, the state football league in the Rio de Janeiro state. It has been organized since 1965 by the Rio de Janeiro State Football Fe ...

. America played the final against

. In 2008, America suffered a major blow by being relegated to the Second Division of the

Campeonato Carioca The Campeonato Carioca (Carioca Championship), officially known as Campeonato Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro State Championship), also commonly known as the Cariocão, is the top-flight professional state football league in the Br ...

. However, they won the Second Division in 2009, thus being promoted to the first level in 2010. However, the club was relegated again in 2011 and wouldn't return to the top flight until 2015. The team has since been a

yo-yo club A yo-yo club is a sporting side that is regularly promoted and relegated. The phrase is most typically used in association football in the United Kingdom, especially in reference to promotion to and relegation from the Premier League. The name ...

and, as of 2024, is in the second tier of Rio de Janeiro football.

Honours

Official tournaments

Others tournaments

International

*Peruvian Press (1): 1955 *Bogotá Quadrangular (1): 1961 *Medellin Quadrangular (1): 1961 *

International Soccer League The International Soccer League was a U.S.-based soccer league which was formed in 1960 and collapsed in 1965. The League, affiliated with the American Soccer League, featured guest teams primarily from Europe and some from South America, Canada ...

(1): 1962 *Torneio Internacional Negrão de Lima (1): 1967 *TAP Cup (1): 1973 *Costa Dorada–Terragona Tournament (1): 1983 *Haiti Triangular (1): 1998

National

*Torneio Quadrangular Presidente Costa e Silva (1): 1968 *Torneio Luís Viana Filho (1): 1968

Inter-state

* Taça Ioduran (1): 1917 * Taça dos Campeões Estaduais Rio–São Paulo (1): 1935

State

(1): 1974 *

Taça Rio Taça Rio ( English: Rio Cup) is an annual football tournament attached to Campeonato Carioca, the state football league in the Rio de Janeiro state. It has been organized since 1982 by the Rio de Janeiro State Football Federation. It has had ...

(1): 1982 * Third Round of the Campeonato Carioca (1): 1955 * Torneio Extra (2): 1938,

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

* Torneio Relâmpago (1): 1945 * Taça Jayme de Carvalho (1):

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

* Troféu João Ellis Filho (1):

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

* Torneio Início (1): 1949 *Taça Santos Dumont (1): 2019 *Taça Corcovado (1): 2017 *Torneio Extra Capital (1): 2013

Runners-up

(8): 1911, 1914, 1917, 1921, 1929, 1950, 1954, 1955 * Campeonato Carioca Série A2 (3): 1906, 2017, 2019

Current squad

According to the CBF registe

Camisa do America 2020

Top goalscorers

# Luisinho Lemos : 311 # Edu : 212 #Maneco : 187 #Plácido: 167 #Carola : 158 #Chiquinho : 102

Highest attendances

#America 1–4 Flamengo, 147.661(139,599 people seated), April 4, 1956 #America 0–2 Fluminense, 141,689 (120,178 people seated), June 9, 1968 #America 1–2 Vasco, 121,765 (104,775 people seated), January 28, 1951 #America 1–0 Flamengo, 104,532, April 25, 1976 #America 5–1 Flamengo, 102,002 (94,516 people seated), April 1, 1956 #America 2–1 Bonsucesso, 101.363, July 25, 1973 #America 2–0 Fluminense, 100,635 (92,516 people seated), March 17, 1956 #America 2–1 Fluminense, 98,099, December 18, 1960 #America 1–0 Fluminense, 97,681, September 22, 1974 #America 0–1 Fluminense, 96,035, April 27, 1975 #America 4–2 Benfica (POR), 94,642 (87,686 people seated), July 3, 1955 #America 1–1 Flamengo, 93,393, May 19, 1969

Mascot

One controversial aspect of the club is the official mascot: the Diabo (

devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

), depicted as a red demon complete with horns, pointy beard, curled moustache, a long fat arrow-pointed tail, hooved feet and a black cape. The club's old stadium was nicknamed ''Caldeirão do Diabo'' ("Devil's Cauldron"). In 2006 some of the club's fans, supported by then-manager Jorginho who is an

Evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

, attempted to replace the diabo with a

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

, claiming that the devil was "unlucky". However, as the "diabo" is a traditional part of the club's story and with the original mascot the club conquered its greatest achievements and there was no change in the club's fortunes with the new mascot, the replacement was abandoned and it was considered that Jorginho's opinion was motivated by "religious fanaticism".

Clubs named after America

America is the Brazilian club with the largest number of other clubs named after it. It has homonyms in Natal,

São José do Rio Preto São José do Rio Preto () is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, Brazil. It is located in the northwestern region of the state, approximately from the city of São Paulo and from Brasília ...

, Três Rios,

Manaus Manaus () is the List of capitals of subdivisions of Brazil, capital and largest city of the States of Brazil, Brazilian state of Amazonas (Brazilian state), Amazonas. It is the List of largest cities in Brazil, seventh-largest city in Brazil, w ...

Teófilo Otoni Teófilo Otoni is a municipality in northeast Minas Gerais, Brazil. The population of the municipality was 140,937 in 2020 and the area is 3,242.818 km2. Origin of the name The city is named after (Vila do Príncipe, 27 January 1807 - Rio d ...

and

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 ...

References

External links

Official site
(archived 3 April 2005)
History, news and fans
(archived 30 August 2006)

– RSSSF Brazil

– RSSSF Brazil {{DEFAULTSORT:America Football Club Association football clubs established in 1904 Football clubs in Rio de Janeiro (state) Football clubs in Rio de Janeiro (city) 1904 establishments in Brazil