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Clube Atletico Mineiro

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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, due to its mascot, a rooster. It was the first official Brazilian champion and is noteworthy as the team finishing more times as the runner-up (1977, 1980 and 1999). The 17 times it finished among the first four (included the three runner-ups) without being champion again has marked this team with a sort of a "tragic" trait and earned it a lot of sympathy nationwide.

Atlético Mineiro is also remembered as the club who suffered the two greatest injustices of the Brazilian championship, in 1977 and 1980. In 1977 it had the best overall league campaign, but the league rules stated it had to play a final against São Paulo, which they lost on penalties after a 0-0 draw. Most Atlético fans felt outraged, specially because the club ended the league technically unbeaten (which did not happen to São Paulo).

In 1980 the club lost the final match for Flamengo, but fans still protest that a "friendly" referee overlooked the excess of violence used by Flamengo to stop Atletico's most important player, Reinaldo.

Since 2003, however, the club seems to be downhill. This seems most to be triggered by the economic crisis and large debt of Atlético and the corruption scandal in late 90s, envolving Paulo Cury, which was Atlético's president that time, and an acquatic park that never finished the construction. In the 2005 league, it has finished the national league in the 20th position (our of 22 teams) and was relegated to 2nd division. This unsuccess is frequently associated to the Ricardo Guimarães administration (2001 until now), when the club faces the deepest crisis of his history.

It should not be confused with Atlético-PR, a team with a similar name, but from a different state and wearing different symbols.

Contents

Titles

  • Futsal - Brazilian Champions in 1997 & 1999
    • World Champions in 1998 (InterContinental Cup)

"International Competitions"


    Famous players
    


    Football
    


    

Best scorers:
    

Reinaldo (255 gols);
    

Dario (211);
    

Mario de Castro (195).
    


    Futsal
    


    

    Coaches
    


    

    Fans
    
Atlético´s fan base is known nationwide as one of the most passionate of the country.The nick name of the fan base is "Massa Atleticana" or simply " Massa",which is known all over the country,because of the club´s high popularity in Minas Gerais State.Massa means masses of people and lower class.
    

Atlético usually has the best average attendances of the country.Since Brazilian Championship began,in 1971,Atlético was the first team to bring more than 10 million people to its matches.Since 1971,11.743.767 people watched Atlético´s matches.The team holds the second best average attendance overall since 1971:24.743 per game.Only Flamengo is ahead Atlético,with 26.501 per match.Atlético is also the club which brought more people to Mineirão:until 2002,20.887.391 people in 1.011 matches.Even with 51 less games than the second placed,Atlético brought 1.542.884 people more.
    

Nowadays,Atlético´s fan base has about 8 million people,and it´s the biggest of Minas Gerais State and the 5th of Brazil.
    

Some ultra groups are:
    


    

    Derbies
    

Atlético plays 2 two derbies in Belo Horizonte City:Atlético x América and Atlético Cruzeiro.Until the 50´s and begginings 60´s,the biggest derby of Minas Gerais State was Atlético x América,but from mid 60´s on,Atlético x Cruzeiro became the biggest.
    

Atlético x Cruzeiro derby has been played 447 times,with 184 wins for Atlético,143 wins for Cruzeiro and 120 draws.
    

Atlético x 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 knwon in the conutry.It was created in the 40´s by Fernando Pierucetti,cartoonist of "A Folha de Minas" newspaper.He was designed to create a mascot for each 3 big teams of Belo Horizonte.According to him,Atlético is the rooster because the team used to play with much passion and never gave up until the end of the match,just like a fighting rooster.
    


    External links
    



    


    


    


    


    


    


    




     



    

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