Laranjeiras Stadium

On Rua Álvaro Chaves, in Laranjeiras, stand the headquarters of Fluminense Football Club and its historic stadium, one of the cradles of Brazilian football. It was here, in the same neighborhood as Mirante, that some of the first pages of the Brazilian national team’s story were written — along with those of one of Rio’s most famous derbies.

Fluminense was founded on July 21, 1902, by Oscar Cox, a young Rio native who had discovered football while studying in Switzerland, and it soon became one of the country’s most traditional clubs. Its maroon, green and white colors earned the team the nickname “Tricolor”.

It was on the Laranjeiras pitch that the Brazilian national team played its first match, on July 21, 1914, against English side Exeter City. In 1919 the enlarged stadium hosted the South American Championship, which gave Brazil its first international title, decided by a goal from Arthur Friedenreich, Brazilian football’s first great star.

The neighborhood is also where the Fla-Flu began: in 1911 a group of players left Fluminense to form Flamengo’s football team, and in 1912 the two clubs met for the first time. Next to the stadium is Palácio Guanabara, once the residence of Princess Isabel and now the seat of the state government.

The club’s headquarters houses a trophy room that tells the Tricolor’s story over more than a century — from the pioneering years to the 2023 Copa Libertadores title. For football lovers it is a visit full of memories, in a setting that keeps the feel of the sport’s early days in Brazil.