Full name | Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nickname(s) | Verdão (Big Green); Alvi-Verde (The Green Whites) Porco (Pig) Academia (The Football Academy) |
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Founded | August 26, 1914 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ground | Palestra Itália (Parque Antártica), São Paulo, Brazil (Capacity: 32,436[1]) |
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Chairman | Afonso Della Monica | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manager | Vanderlei Luxemburgo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
League | Campeonato Brasileiro Série A | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2007 | Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, 7th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras, usually called Palmeiras, is a Brazilian football team from São Paulo. The team was founded on August 26, 1914, as Società Sportiva Palestra Italia but changed to the current name on September 14, 1942. It is one of the most popular and traditional Brazilian clubs.
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Palmeiras was founded by Luigi Cervo, Vicenzo Ragognetti, Luigi Emanuele Marzo and Ezequiel Simone, four Italian men who were members of the Italian-speaking community of São Paulo and was initially named Società Sportiva Palestra Italia. Its original colors were red, white and green (those of Italy). The name change occurred during World War II. Brazil entered the war supporting the allies and its dictatorship forced Palestra Italia to change its name because of the reference to Italy. The original badge (a white ornamental "P" in a shield) is still present in the current one and the club has used red as a third colour (mostly in friendship games during the club's 75th anniversary).
Several other clubs whose names alluded to enemy foreign countries either disappeared (like Germania) or were renamed during the same period. Another Brazilian club that was once also called Palestra Italia is Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. However Palmeiras was the original Palestra Italia, since it was founded about a decade before Cruzeiro.
In its history, the club has won 22 championships of the State of São Paulo and 5 Rio-São Paulo Tournament, but the most important titles have been 6 national league titles ( 4 Campeonato Brasileiros and 2 Torneios Roberto Gomes Pedrosa), 4 national cups (1 Brazil Cup, 2 Taças Brasil and 1 Brazilian Champion's Cup), 1 Libertadores Cup, 1 Mercosur Cup and the 1951 Copa Rio . Palmeiras is recognised as one of Brazil's most victorious clubs. In 1999, the Club was claimed by Federação Paulista de Futebol 'Champion of The 20th Century' in Brazil.
Palmeiras asked FIFA to consider them as the first Club World Champion due to their victory in 1951 Copa Rio.Which is absolutely unnecessary, as this competition was organized under FIFA's supervision, ordered by its former president, Mr. Jules Rimet. The competition was held in Rio de Janeiro with only major south-american and european clubs.[2]
The club has had a rather irregular history alternating between periods of intense success and failure. In the 1960s and early 1970s for instance, the club collected trophies, having played several times the Libertadores Cup and won the Brazilian Championship (Campeonato Brasileiro) twice (1972/73). Then the club found itself in a fifteen-year hiatus without any significant trophies until 1992 when the club signed a sponsorship deal with Italian dairy giant Parmalat; the deal lasted for eight years and quickly turned Palmeiras into Brazil's richest club, allowing the club to purchase many valuable assets for their squad such as Edmundo, Zinho and Edilson. During the Parmalat era (which started in 1992) Palmeiras won the Brazilian Championship twice (1993/94), the Brazilian Cup (1998), the Mercosur Cup (1998) and the Libertadores Cup (1999). Palmeiras went to Division 2 in 2003 but came back to Division 1 the following year as the Division 2 champions.
Famous coach Luiz Felipe Scolari led the team to one of the club's most important titles: The 1999 Libertadores Cup. The final match was against Deportivo Cali from Colombia. Important players from that team were World Cup winner goalkeeper Marcos, as well as Alex de Souza, Evair, Paulo Nunes and Cesar Sampaio.
Palmeiras is the Brazilian club with the most participations in Copa Libertadores (13), winning it once (1999) and reaching the finals in other three times (1961, 1968 and 2000).
Parmalat sponsorship ended in 2000 and left the club in dire straits. After a mildly irregular season in 2001 — the biggest achievement was a Libertadores Cup semifinal against Boca Juniors— the club faced its worst year ever in 2002 and was relegated to the Second Division, which it won in the following year, returning to the First Division in 2004. Ever since its comeback, the club has been on the rise. The 2004 and 2005 seasons were rather successful when the team qualified for the Libertadores Cup. The 2006 season was not good since the team finished the Campeonato Brasileiro in the 16th position, followed by a 7th position in 2007 season.
In 2008 Palmeiras made a partership contract with Traffic, a Sports Marketing Agency. Besides that, the club made some big investments on some big name players and also on coach Vanderley Luxemburgo. This new strategy paid up, since the club won for the 22nd time the Paulista Championship.
'*Kirin Cup was shared with Borussia Mönchengladbach
Palmeiras plays home games at the Palestra Itália Stadium. In the past its capacity was listed as 35,000 spectators. However, even though its grandstands have been extended in the late 1990s, currently it seats 29,173 people [3] due to regulations enforcing improved safety and comfort. The venue is also known as Parque Antártica because the area was a park built by Antarctica Paulista Company in the beginning of the last century, being acquired by Palmeiras in 1920.
Local derbies against São Paulo or Corinthians, however, are usually played in São Paulo's Morumbi stadium. The club has recently signed a deal with a local electricity company, AES Eletropaulo, to improve its lighting system. There is planned for 2008 a substitution in the grass used at the stadium, as it has been a constant complaint by the club's players. The reform will force Palmeiras to play in foreign ground on the mean time. Directors have hinted that the team will probably play at stadiums that are not in the city of São Paulo. The club has recently announced a reformulation on the stadium, that will improve its capacity (max number of seats and more). The outlook are the Palestra Itália will be the most modern stadium of South America.
Palmeiras first kit is of green jerseys, white shorts and green socks. Palmeiras first jersey was green with a horizontal white band across, with a red and white Savoy cross as crest [4]. Palmeiras have played in blue shirts twice as a tribute to the Italian National Team.
Since 2007 Palmeiras has also been using a third jersey, which is a light yellow shirt with a dark green shorts and socks.
Palmeiras' biggest rival is Corinthians. The rivalry between the two clubs is considered one of the most intense in the world, and their matches are known as The Paulista Derby. São Paulo FC is another direct rival; the games between the two clubs are called Choque Rei (King Clash).
Palmeiras has a "second" team that plays the third division of the Paulista Championship (Série A3).
Palmeiras was featured heavily in the film O Casamento de Romeu e Julieta where the rivalry between Palmeiras and Corinthians plays a major role in the plot.
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Position | Name |
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Head Coach | Vanderlei Luxemburgo |
Assistant Coach | Nei Pandolfo |
Observer | Valdir Joaquim de Moraes |
Goalkeeping Coach | Antonio Carlos Pracidelli |
Fitness Coaches | José Omar Alves Feitosa, Antônio Mello |
Club Doctors | Rubens Sampaio, Vinícius Martins and Otávio Vilhena |
Physiotherapists | Nilton "Filé" Petrone and José Rosan Júnior |
Masseurs | Sérgio Luz, Miguel de Oliveira and Luiz Carlos |
The club associates congregate in a general assembly every four years to elect the seventy-six members of the Conselho Deliberativo (Deliberating Council)[7] who in their turn chose amongst them a president for a two-year mandate [8]. As of 2006 the president can only be re-elected once [9].
These are all Palmeiras presidents since the club's foundation [10], [11]:
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Palmeiras anthem was composed in 1949 by conductor Antonio Sergi. Sergi also wrote the lyrics for the anthem, but did that under the pseudonym Gennaro Rodrigues.
These are Palmeiras's top scorers since its foundation (data as of May 12th 2006):
# | Name | Goals | Years |
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1 | Heitor | 284 | 1916-1931 |
2 | César Maluco | 180 | 1967-1974 |
3 | Ademir da Guia | 153 | 1962-1977 |
4 | Lima | 149 | 1938-1954 |
5 | Servílio | 140 | 1963-1968 |
6 | Evair | 127 | 1991-1994 and 1999 |
7 | Humberto | 126 | 1953-1958 and 1960-1961 |
8 | Rodrigues | 125 | 1950-1955 |
9 | Luizinho | 123 | 1935-1941 |
10 | Tupãzinho | 122 | 1963-1968 |
Palmeiras has a victorious tradition in various sports, such as rink hockey and basketball. Leandro Barbosa and Oscar Schmidt, two of the best Brazilian basketball players of all time, started their careers at Palmeiras.
Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras
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Preceded by Atlético Mineiro 1971 |
Champions 1972 (first title) – 1973 (second title) |
Succeeded by Vasco 1974 |
Preceded by Flamengo 1992 |
Champions 1993 (third title) – 1994 (fourth title) |
Succeeded by Botafogo 1995 |
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