Domingos da Guia

A skillful and authoritative defender,  Domingada has the distinction of having won major honours in 3 countries. Beginning his career at Bangu as a 17 year old he later joined Vasco da Gama. Having won the Uruguayan Championship with Nacional in 1933, he returned to Vasco, who won the 1934 (LCF) Campeonato Carioca. 1935 saw  Domingos helping Boca Juniors to the Argentinian championship. 

Domingos returned to Brazil in 1936 and had spells with Flamengo and Corinthians before returning to Bangu. His career lasted until 1950. 

He was capped 30 times for Brazil, his debut coming in 1931.

What a great little sport, what a nice little game.

 Miller

What a great little sport, what a nice little game... this was how Charles Miller remembered the views of his compatriots when he introduced them to Association Football - at the end of the 1894 São Paulo cricket season (how different the world of cricket might have been!).
Miller's associates in São Paulo were generally English ex-pats who since 1888 had been maintaining the São Paulo Athletic Club (SPAC). There was no Association Football played at the club until Miller's return to Brazil, in fact, several months later, in April 1895- what is recognized as the first organised football match in the country was played between São Paulo Railway and The Gas Company- both teams drawn from the ranks of the SPAC. 

Miller was in England from 1884 (when he was 10) until 1894. 
Descriptions of Miller as being a 'former Southampton player' (as in 'The Southampton player who introduced football to Brazil') are inaccurate. He turned out for St Mary's, the amateur team that evolved into Southampton (hence the nickname Saints). In fact St Mary's elevation to The Southern League (and the addition of Southampton to their name) coincided with Miller's return to Brazil.
Known as 'Nipper', Miller made his St Mary's debut as a 17 year old schoolboy on the 18th April 1892. It was  the last day of the season,a friendly against an Army XI from Aldershot. Miller scored the opener in a 3-1 win. 
During the 1892–93 season, St. Mary's (who now began to employ professional players) played 27 friendly matches. Miller's level of participation in these matches is not recorded. Saints played in 7 cup matches . Miller appeared in 1 of these. 
The following season St. Mary's played 23 friendlies. Again the details are not recorded. Of 11 cup matches played Miller appeared in 3. 
Miller'sconnection with Corinthian FC was even more casual (no pun intended). He made up the numbers when Corinth were a man short in a fixture against a Hampshire County XI. He was never a club member.

There is, of course, always a counter claim to any 'foundation myth'. It's hard to imagine that the ubiquitous 'English Sailors' who feature in the football foundation mythology of just about every country in the world were not having kick abouts in Rio or São Paulo in the 20 odd years before the São Paulo Railway v Gas Company fixture. 
One noteworthy challenge to Miller's status as the father of Brazilian football comes in the form of a  31 year old Scotsman called Thomas  Donohue. Donohue was an expert in the field of dyes, and worked at a textile factory in Bangu, Rio de Janeiro . He had played a lot of football back home in Busby, and was keen to get a game going in his new neighbourhood. He imported a ball and marked out a pitch next to the factory. 

Donohue

This was where the first football match in Brazil took place in April 1894, (six months before Miller started his team in São Paolo). One fly in the ointment as regards the Donohue claim is the fact that this match was a 5 a side, due to a lack of interested parties. 
10 years later the factory was the site of the foundation of  Bangu Atlético Clube. 
There is something about these two matches that sets the scene for the early decades of the Brazilian game in  that whereas Miller introduced the game in the context of an exclusive sporting club for well to do white immigrants, Donohue brought the game to poor black and working class people. 

As Meninas do Futebol

Came across these charmers on the internet whilst doing some research on Brazilian football. I'm not sure of the date but I'm guessing by the style and the teams represented that it would be the 1920s? It seems that the set is not complete as of the famous  Rio clubs Vasco and Fluminense are notably absent.

América

Formed in 1904, América were founder members of Liga de Football do Rio de Janeiro (1905)
Champions in 1913,1916,1922, 1928, and 1931.

Americano

Americano FC was founded  on June 1st, 1914 , and was not connected with an earlier participant in the Carioca league, Sport Club Americano.

Andarahy

Andarahy (based in the Andaraí area ) participated in the Liga de Football do Rio de Janeiro from 1916 until 1937. 

Bangu Athletic Club 

Bangu were founder members of Liga de Football do Rio de Janeiro (1905).

 

Botafogo

Botafogo were founder members of Liga de Football do Rio de Janeiro (1905).
They were champions in 1907 (joint), 1910, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935.

CR Flamengo

The football branch of Clube de Regatas do Flamengo was founded  in 1911 by dissatisfied Fluminense members. One of the biggest club teams in World football, they were Carioca Champions in 1914,1915,1920,1921,1925, and 1927.

Palmeiras

Not an error- this is not the great Paulista club Palmeiras, who at this time were known as Palestra Italia. This Palmeiras was a modest Rio club who competed in the lower divisions of the Campeonata Carioca.

Manguiera 

Founded in1906 by workers in a hosiery factory. In 1909 Manguiera were on the receiving end of the biggest defeat in Carioca history, losing 24-0 to Botafogo. Never excelling in the league, the club folded in 1927.

São Cristóvão Atlético Clube

São Cristóvão Atlético Clube was founded in 1909, The modern incarnation, São Cristóvão de Futebol e Regatas, did not come into being until 1943 via a merger. The original  São Cristóvão  AC were Champions of Rio in 1926.

Mackenzie

Mackenzie was founded in 1914 and competed in the Campeonato Carioca in the early 1920s. They won the title in 1923 and abandoned top football with the rise of professionalism.

Vila Isabel

Founded in 1912 the proletarian club Vila Isabel competed in the second tier of the Campeonato Cariocas from 1917 to 1923 and again from 1926 to1928.

Campeonato Carioca 1926, 1927

Jornal O Imparcial ran these pictorial features on Rio football teams during 1927...

Flamengo -1927 champions

Bangu A.C.

Vasco da Gama

São Cristóvão-1926 champions

Francisco Carregal

Bangu Atlético Clube was formed in 1904 by employees of the Companhia Progresso Industrial do Brasil Textiles Factory in Bangu,  Rio de Janeiro. Early sides featured a combination of Englishmen, Italians, Portuguese and Brazilians.
 Francisco Carregal, a weaver at the factory,is often cited as being the first black player in senior football in Brazil.

Campeonato Carioca - 1906

Fluminense 1906

Fluminense was founded in 1902. It was an upmarket club; their home suburb of  Laranjeiras was very exclusive and the club was aimed at well-off young men who had come into contact with football when studying in Europe. Club founder Oscar  Cox was typical. From a wealthy Anglo-Brazilian family he studied in Switzerland, and was responsible for introducing football to Rio. Cox led the Rio selection in their games against Sao Paulo.
By 1905 football had become hugely popular in Rio, and a league, the Liga Metropolitana de Football  was instituted. The first championship was contested by the following 6 teams:

Fluminense 
Paysandu Cricket Club, 
Rio Cricket and Athletic Association,
Bangu, 
Botafogo, 
Football and Athletic Club

America were conspicuous by their absence.





Horácio da Costa Santos- 18 goals in ten games

Fluminense were the first champions. They won 9 and lost 1, scoring 52 goals and conceding 6. Horácio da Costa was top scorer, with 18 goals.