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.

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.  

Excursão do Vasco da Gama a Europa em 1931

Vasco sail to Europe

In the northern hemisphere summer of 1931, Vasco da Gama became the first Rio club (and the second from 

Brazil) to travel to Europe. Under the management of former  Liverpool player Harry Welfare,  Vasco recruited the assistance of players from Botafogo (Nilo, Carvalho Leite and Benedito) and Fluminense (Fernando) for the 12 match tour of Portugal and Spain.

26.06.31	Barcelona	3	2	Vasco da Gama
28.06.31	Barcelona	1	2	Vasco da Gama
05.07.31	Celta	2	1	Vasco da Gama
07.07.31	Celta	1	7	Vasco da Gama
10.07.31	Benfica	0	5	Vasco da Gama
15.07.31	Lisbon Select	2	4	Vasco da Gama
19.07.31	Porto	1	3	Vasco da Gama
22.07.31	Varzim/ Boavista	2	9	Vasco da Gama
24.07.31	Ovarense	2	6	Vasco da Gama
26.07.31	Porto	2	1	Vasco da Gama
30.07.31	Vitória C Lisboa	1	1	Vasco da Gama
02.08.31	Sporting	1	4	Vasco da Gama

P	W	D	L	F	A
12	8	1	3	45	18

Squad:

Jaguaré, Valdemar, Brilhante, Nesi, Italia, Tinoco, Fausto, Mola, Bahianinho, Nilo, Carvalho Leite, Russinho, Mário Matos, Benedicto, Santana, Fernando, Rainha, Ghizone

Manager/coach: Harry Welfare.

Goals:
13	Russinho
8	Nilo
7	Carvalho Leite
3	Bahianinho, Mário Matos, Benedito ,Tinoco
2	Santana
1	Ghizone,  Fernando, og

Aside from Harry Welfare and Russinho there were a few other figures of note involved on the tour:

Jaguaré Bezerra de Vasconcelos 

Jaguaré was stevedore at the port of Rio. A typically eccentric goalkeeper, he delighted crowds but angered opponents and officials with his antics- throwing the ball at the heads of opponents, shouting 'chuta!' to strikers as they bore down on him, catching the ball acrobatically, and even using a bicycle kick to clear his lines. He was known as Dengoso or Araña Negra (The Black Spider). 

Jaguaré was offered a lucrative contract (and Spanish citizenship) by Barcelona. Jaguaré declined the offer and returned to Brazil, joining Corinthians. In 1935 however he set out for Italy with Fernando (see below). They decided to avoid Italy due to that country's invasion of Abyssinia, and Jaguaré joined Sporting Lisbon. In 1936 he joined Olympique Marseille, with whom he enjoyed success and cult status. 

Having returned to Brazil Jaguaré met a sad end. He died aged 41 after getting into a scrape with the cops (he hit his head).

Fernando Rubens Pasi Giudicelli

Fluminense's Fernando, who wore a sailor's cap on the pitch, played in the 1930 World Cup . After the tour he stayed in Europe, joining Torino. In Italy he was considered an oriundo. In 1933 Fernando returned to Rio and was actively involved in recruiting South American players to join European clubs. 
Fernando himself returned to Europe and played for Sportclub Young Fellows Juventus Zurich (1933-34),  Bordeaux (1934-35), Sporting Lisbon (1935), Real Madrid (1935) and Antibes (1935-37).

Fausto dos Santos 

Fausto  was another veteran of the 1930 World Cup who tried his luck in Europe. He also declined an offer from Barcelona, but later played with Sportclub Young Fellows Juventus Zurich (1933).  He was a halfback who delighted in the nickname Maravilha Negra.
Fausto died of Tubercerlosis aged 34.

When thinking of the lucrative professional contracts that these men were offered in Europe it is worth remembering that at the time football in Brazil was an amateur sport.

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.

Taça dos Campeões Estaduais Rio-São Paulo

Brazilian championships were run by city or state. It was not possible to have a national championship. However, in 1910 a competition was introduced in which the reigning champions of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo played each other for a trophy. The 1910 fixture is seen as a forerunner of the later matches, and Botafogo's victory is generally not considered 'official'. In 1911 the  Taça Salutaris was insituted. During the competition's history a succession of trophies were contested.

Taça Salutaris 1911-16
Taça Ioduran 1917-19
Torneio dos Campeões 1920-31
Torneio Rio-São Paulo 1933-

The matches tended to take place in the following season (so that, for example, the 1910 championship was decided in 1911. 1937 was an exception to this rule).

	Rio			São Paulo	Venue
1910	Botafogo	7	2	Palmeiras	Velódromo Paulistano(São Paulo)
1910	Botafogo	2	4	Palmeiras	Rua Voluntários da Pátria (Rio)
		6	1		Rua Voluntários da Pátria (Rio)
		0	2		Parque Antarctica (SP)
1912	Botafogo	0	3	SC Americano	Campo Público de São Cristóvão (Rio)
1913	América	2	3	Paulistano	Velódromo Paulistano
		-	-		Second leg not played
1914	Flamengo	0	1	AA São Bento	Velódromo Paulistano  (São Paulo)
1916	América Walk over	-	-	Paulistano	Campos Salles (Rio)
1917	Fluminense	2	3	Paulistano	General Severiano (Rio)
1918	Fluminense Walk over	-	-	Paulistano	Velódromo Paulistano (SP)
1919	Fluminense	1	4	Paulistano	Laranjeiras (Rio)
1922	América	0	2	Corinthians	N.K (SP)	No decider played
		4	2		Campos Salles (Rio)
1923	Vasco da Gama	0	2	Palestra Italia	N.K (SP)
		1	1		N.K (Rio)
1926	São Cristóvão	0	2	Palestra Italia	Palestra Italia (SP)	Aggregate win
		3	2		Laranjeiras (Rio)
1928	América	2	2	Corinthians	N.K (SP)
		-	-		Second leg not played
1929	Vasco da Gama	2	4	Corinthians	Parque São Jorge(SP)
		2	3		São Januário (Rio)
1930	Botafogo	0	2	Corinthians	Floresta (SP)
		7	1		General Severiano (Rio)
1931	América	1	3	São Paulo	Floresta (SP)
1934	Vasco da Gama	1	1	Palestra Italia	N.K Shared
1935	Botafogo	9	2	Santos	General Severiano (Rio)		Best of 3 decided on goal difference
		1	2		Vila Belmiro (Santos)
		2	2		Vila Belmiro (Santos)
1937	Vasco da Gama	0	0	Palestra Italia	Pacaembu (SP)
		3	1		São Januário (Rio)

Rio de Janeiro	5
São Paulo	10
Shared	1
Not completed	2

Palmeiras 1910

Paulistano 1917

Botafogo 1930

Vasco da Gama 1934