Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras - History

Foundation and name

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.

Champion of The Century

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.

First World Champion Club?

Palmeiras asked FIFA to consider them as the first Club World Champion due to their victory in1951 Copa Rio.[2]

Ups and downs

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.

Libertadores Cup Winners

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 three times (1961, 1968 and 2000).

Current Years

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.

Palmeiras's ScreenSaver

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