Fluminense

Fluminense Football Club, known simply as Fluminense, is a Brazilian sports club best known for its professional football team that competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the first tier of Brazilian football and the Campeonato Carioca, the state league of Rio de Janeiro. The club is based in the neighbourhood of Laranjeiras, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The club was founded on 21 July 1902 and Oscar Cox was its first elected president. Fluminense have since been crowned national champions four times, most recently in the 2012 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the team have also won the 2007 Copa do Brasil, the 1999 Campeonato Brasileiro Série C and the 1952 Intercontinental Cup. Its best international performances are finishing runner-up in the 2008 Copa Libertadores and 2009 Copa Sudamericana. In 1949, Fluminense became the first football club to receive the Olympic Cup, awarded annually by the International Olympic Committee to an institution or association with a record of merit and integrity in actively developing the Olympic Movement. Fluminense is a demonym for people indigenous to the state of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. Although football was its original endeavour, the club is today an umbrella organisation for several teams in more than 16 different sport activities. Fluminense's traditional home kit consists of garnet, white and green vertical striped shirts, white shorts and white socks, an outfit which has been in use since 1920. Umbro is the current kit manufacturer. The club holds several long-standing rivalries with other clubs, most notably with Flamengo (Clássico Fla-Flu), as well as with Botafogo (Clássico Vovô) and Vasco da Gama (Clássico dos Gigantes). The club was the birthplace of the Brazil national football team, where the canarinhos played their first ever match, scored their first ever goal and lifted their first ever trophy. It has contributed the fifth-most players to the national team among all Brazilian clubs.