I am Gremio

The relationship of soccer fans and their chosen club in Brazil is something hard to explain. When we refer to our preferred soccer club, we don’t use the expression “I support this team” we say “I am this team”. It is a family tradition! Besides few rebels, the sons cheer for the same teams as their fathers and their grandfathers. With me it is not different. When I talk to my father at the phone, we talk more about “our” team than anything else. We “are” Gremio! A tricolor team, characterized for putting a good fight in every game, a team that never gives up.

- A team born from a ball

This history starts with Cândido Dias da Silva, who moved from São Paulo to work in Porto Alegre, bringing with him his soccer ball.

The Sport Club Rio Grande, first Brazilian soccer team, formed by English and Germans had been invited for a showdown in Porto Alegre, the capital of the Rio Grande do Sul state. On the appointed day, September 7th 1903, the Várzea pitch was crowded. Cândido, with his ball, was among them, greatly concentrate in the game.
The Englishmen's ball developed a puncture, to general dismay, and Cândido quickly loaned his own ball to ensure the showdown reached its end. In exchange, the players gave him his first football (soccer) lessons at the end of the match and told him how to found a club.
On September 15th 1903, 32 young men gathered at Grau Room, a hotel and restaurant in downtown Porto Alegre, to begin Gremio’s victorious history, a club always willing to overcome all challenges. Carlos Luiz Bohrer the first President, never really imagined the world fame the newly born club would eventually attain.

- A champion team

Gremio in its more than 100 years have as its main tittles 4 Brazilian Cups (1989,1994, 1997, 2001), 2 Brazilian Championships (1981-1996), 1 Recopa Sudamericana (1996), 2 Libertadores da America (American Continental Championship) (1983-1995) and 1 Club World Cup (1983). Gremio was 2º place in the last Brazilian Championship.

The most famous Gremio former players are Renato Portaluppi, Tesourinha, Baltazar and Danrlei. Between the players who started playing soccer at Gremio’s Academy and today play in European clubs we will find: Ronaldinho (Millan), Emerson (Juventus), Lucas (Liverpool), Anderson (Manchester United) and others.

A little of Gremio's fans...