Marcos Carneiro de Mendonça

Marcos Carneiro de Mendonça was Brazil's first goalkeeper.
Marcos had featured in 3 games during the pre Seleção era, playing against Argentina (1912), Portugal (1913) and Corinthians (England) 1913. He also appeared in the match with Exeter City in 1914. At the time he was playing for América, winning the Campeonato Carioca in 1913. His first club had been the splendidly named Haddock Lobo.

When Brazil played their first official international (versus Argentina, 20.09.14) the elegant Marcos was again the goalkeeper of choice. By this time he had joined Fluminense. He played in 10 of Brazil's first 24 official matches (and another 5 unofficial games) retiring at the conclusion of the 1922 South American Championship. 

Marcos was a 4 time Campeonato Carioca winner and won the South American Championship with Brazil in 1919 and 1922.
Outside football he was an eminent historian specialising in Brazil in the 18th century, publishing works right up until his death, aged 93, in 1988. 

Two sides to every story...

1923. 

Vasco da Gama were champions of Serie B of the Rio de Janeiro Championship in 1922. The following season they won the top league at the first attempt.On March 1st 1924, a split occurred in the Rio league.

 A new governing body, the Associação Metropolitana de Esportes Athleticos (AMEA) was founded. 
The Confederação Brasileira de Desportos (CBD - Brazilian Sports Confederation) backed this new organization, and withdrew their backing for the  Liga Metropolitana de Desportos Terrestres.
The AMEA was endorsed by  Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo and America , in fact Vasco da Gama were the only leading club that remained on the old league. They won this league with a 100% record.
There was a reconciliation in 1925. Vasco joined the AMEA. The LMDT remained as a league for minor clubs.


History-version one:
The version of events surrounding this rift which is enshrined in the history of Vasco is that the AMEA
imposed discriminatory rules that excluded blacks and lower class citizens.  Vasco da Gama were the only club to really be affected by these new rules, as they were the peoples' club and did not regulate their membership in the way that some of the other Rio clubs did - poor people and black people saw Vasco  as being their club.  There had been previous legislation that had affected Vasco- regulations had been introduced that meant that players had to be able to sign in- again, perceived as being discriminatory against the illiterate poor . 
In response to this situation Vasco resigned from the league and their president, Dr. José Augusto Prestes, wrote the letter famously known as the resposta histórica . In 1925 AMEA relented and Vasco returned to the fold. They finished 3rd, behind  Flamengo and  Fluminense. 

History-version two:
Brazilian football was amateur.
Professionalism was not openly adopted by most clubs until 1933, when the clubs split into two leagues, one professional, and the other amateur. The Brazilian Confederation did not endorse the professional leagues until 1937, when it finally recognized professionalism and the rival leagues were then reconciled.
However, in the early 1920s Vasco were openly practicing professionalism. The other clubs were incensed by the fact that Vasco flagrantly paid their players, offered large signing on fees and bonuses.

The rival clubs launched an investigation into Vasco's players, and identified 12 who were 'of dubious profession'. Based on this AMEA asked Vasco to exclude 12 of its players from the league. These players were black.
 Denied the backbone of their squad Vasco were forced to stand down. 

So, were Vasco chastised for professionalism? or shunned by racists? Or were the elitist elements that had modeled Rio's clubs as exclusive organizations for the well to do simply resentful of Vasco's success?
Modern histories tend to view the stand they took, articulated in the resposta histórica , as being central to the development of football in Brazil as a game of equal opportunity, and indeed to the notion of civil rights in Brazil.  

Russinho - Concurso Monroe 1930

Russinho

In 1930 the  Veado tobacco company sponsored a poll in Brazil to determine who was the nation's favourite footballer. The contest was known as the Concurso Monroe and the prize was a Chrysler sports car. This is pretty impressive  as theoretically the game in Brazil was an amateur affair. More aristocratic clubs such as Fluminense kept up this pretense with more vigour than their proletarian neighbours such as Botafogo and Vasco. However, professionalism was not openly accepted until 1933. The results of the poll (and the number of votes is quite staggering) was:


1.Russinho (Vasco da Gama) 2,900,649

2. Agostinho Fortes Filho (Fluminense) 2,048,483

3. Filó (Paulistano) 722,563

So, Russinho got the car.

These were halcyon days for Russinho. as he had been top scorer in Vasco's championship winning side of 1929, and just a month after receiving the car he was off to Uruguay to play for Brazil in the World Cup.

I'm guessing that Moacyr Siqueira de Queirós, who was born in Rio, got the name Russinho because of his appearance? He was also known as  Demônio Louro (The Blonde Demon). He joined Vasco from Andrahdy in 1924 as a 22 year old. In 10 years with Vasco he won 3 championships (1924, 1929 and 1934) and was artilheiro (top scorer) in 1929 and 1931. In total he scored 225 goals for the club. He later joined Botafogo and won a further championship with them (1935).
Russinho only got 2 international caps. He played in the 4-0 win over Bolivia in the 1930 World Cup, and in a 1930 friendly against Yugoslavia , in which he scored. 

Russinho, in his playing kit, is awarded the car at Estádio São Januário.

Botafogo

Botafogo 1907

15 year old Flávio Ramos founded a football club in August 1904. He called it Electro Club. The following month, at the suggestion of his grandmother, the name was changed to Botafogo Football Club. Founder member Itamar Tavares suggested they adopt the colours of Juventus.  

The modern day Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas didn't come into being until 1942 when Botafogo Football Club merged with Club de Regatas Botafogo (founded 1894).

Botafogo won the following honours:

Campeonato Carioca: 1907, 1910, 1912, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935

Taça dos Campeões Estaduais Rio-São Paulo*:  1930,1935 

Flávio Ramos

1907: The 1907 championship was decided in 1996, when the Federação de Futebol do Estado do Rio de Janeiro declared that the official result was that Botafogo and Fluminense were joint champions for that year. There was no pre arranged means of settling a tie- Fluminense claimed the title on goal average and Botafogo demanded a play-off. The league had already encountered problems and disputes that season. Internacional had been suspended from the competition for failing to turn up for their game with Botafogo. In support of Internacional the other 2 teams in the league (Fluminense and Paysandu Cricket Club) were threatening to boycott the league.

 Flávio Ramos (6 goals) was top scorer in the league.  

Abelardo de Lamare

1910: Botafogo scored 66 goals and conceded just 9 in the 10 games of the regular season. America were the next highest scorers with 31. The title was decided by a play-off between the teams that finished first and second in the league, and Botafogo maintained their 6 goal a game average by smashing Fluminense 6-1 in this decider. 

Notable goalscorers for Botafogo that season were: Abelardo de Lamare (22), Décio Viccari (14) and Mimi Sodré (11)

Abelardo de Lamare's haul included 7 in the 15-1 defeat of Riachuelo.

1912: A split in the league- Botafogo won the league promoted by Associação de Football do Rio de Janeiro. They were banned from competing in the Liga Metropolitana de Sports Athleticos having abandoned their 1911 campaign in controversial fashion .

Carvalho Leite

1930: Following a barren spell of 18 years Botafogo beat  Vasco da Gama to the championship by 1 point. Carvalho Leite was top scorer with 14 goals and Botafogo's goal record was for 60, against 30. 

1932: Carvalho Leite got 20 goals as Botafogo eased to the championship 5 points ahead of Flamengo.

Nilo

1933: There was another rift in Rio football with the advent of professionalism. The official championship was sanctioned by Associação Metropolitana de Esportes Athleticos. Botafogo won this league.

 Nilo Murtinho Braga was top scorer in the league with 19 goals, ahead of Carvalho Leite (13).

1934: The political disputes and chopping and changing of governing bodies in Rio football during this era can become quite confusing. In 1934 professionalism was officially accepted in Brazilian football and  Botafogo was amongst the founders of Federação Metropolitana de Desportos.

1935: Botafogo won their third championship in as many years...

*(this was a play-off between the champions of Rio and São Paulo that we will look at in a later post)

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

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.