Clube Atlético Mineiro
The Clube Atlético Mineiro, commonly known as Atlético Mineiro and colloquially as Galo, is a professional association football club in Belo Horizonte, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. They compete in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the first level of Brazilian football.
The Clube Atlético Mineiro was founded on 25 March 1908 by twenty-two students from Belo Horizonte. Despite having upper-class founders, the club immediately opened its doors to players of every social class. The club's mascot, the rooster, has been strongly associated with Atlético since its introduction in the 1930s. Over the years, the word Galo became a common nickname for the club itself. The team's regular home kit comprises black-and-white striped shirts, black shorts and white socks.
Atlético has won the Campeonato Mineiro a record 50 times. At the national level, the club has won the Campeonato Brasileiro three times, in 1937, 1971 and 2021 and finished second on five occasions. It has also won Copa do Brasil twice and the Supercopa do Brasil and the Copa dos Campeões Brasileiros once each. In international club football, Atlético has won the Copa Libertadores and the Recopa Sudamericana once each, and a record two Copa CONMEBOL; the team has also reached three other continental finals. The club has also competed in other sports throughout its history, with the futsal department becoming especially notable.
The club plays its home games at the Arena MRV, which has an operational capacity of over 46,000 spectators. Arena MRV's construction began on 20 April 2020, its inauguration was on 15 April 2023, and its first official match took place on 27 August 2023.
Atlético holds a strong local rivalry with Cruzeiro, called the Clássico Mineiro. The club also holds a local rivalry with América Mineiro and an interstate one with Flamengo. Atlético has the fourth most valuable brand in Brazil, worth billion as of 2025, the 8th largest football crowd in Brazil and ranks seventh in the country in terms of turnover, generating R$657 million in 2024.
On 1 November 2023, it was announced that Galo Holding completed the purchase of controlling interest of the club's SAF. Of a total of 913 million reais paid by new investors, a third of the amount was used to pay debts.
History
Early years and achievements (1908–1949)
Clube Atlético Mineiro was formed on 25 March 1908, by a group of twenty-two students from Belo Horizonte, who decided the club's name would be Athletico Mineiro Foot Ball Club. The club's first match was played against Sport Club Futebol on 21 March 1909; Atlético won 3–0, with the first goal scored by Aníbal Machado. In 1913, the club's name was officially changed to Clube Atlético Mineiro, and in the following year Atlético won the Taça Bueno Brandão, the first competition ever held in the state of Minas Gerais. In 1915, the club won the inaugural edition of the Campeonato Mineiro, the state league of Minas Gerais. The competition was then organised by the Liga Mineira de Sports Athléticos, which would later become the Federação Mineira de Futebol.Atlético won the league again in 1926, led by striker Mário de Castro. In 1927, forwards Said and Jairo joined Castro to form an attacking partnership nicknamed the Trio Maldito, which guided Atlético to another state league triumph. In 1929, the club played its first international encounter, against Portuguese club Vitória de Setúbal, winning 3–1 in a match played at the Presidente Antônio Carlos Stadium. The ground had opened earlier that year and would become the club's home for the following two decades.
Atlético won the state league in 1931 and 1932, before becoming a professional club in 1933. After another Campeonato Mineiro triumph in 1936, Atlético won the 1937 Campeonato Brasileiro, the inaugural edition of the national league. The competition was organised by the Federação Brasileira de Foot-Ball, a federation for professional clubs that would later merge into the Brazilian Sports Confederation. The Copa dos Campeões Estaduais was contested by the 1936 state league champions from Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Espírito Santo. Atlético defeated the latter 5–1 in the final match, played at the Antônio Carlos stadium. Guará rose as the club's top player during that period, and the interstate title was followed by two more Campeonato Mineiro victories, in 1938 and 1939.
Success continued in the 1940s, with a squad that included Carlyle, Lucas Miranda, Nívio and goalkeeper Kafunga. The club was dominant in the state as it won the league in 1941, 1942, 1946, 1947 and 1949. Although América had been Atlético's long-standing adversary, a new rivalry started to develop with Cruzeiro in the 1940s, as it became Galo's main challenger during this period.
European tour and the Mineirão era (1950–1969)
In 1950, the club's home moved from the Antônio Carlos to the newer and larger Estádio Independência. The season saw another Campeonato Mineiro triumph and the club's first European tour, in which it played ten games in five countries. The excursion happened at a time when there were neither regular national competitions in Brazil nor continental ones in South America, and followed soon after the traumatic Maracanazo. The tour and Atlético's results, many of which achieved under adverse weather conditions and snow, were seen by national sports media as a historic achievement for Brazilian football itself. The team, captained by Zé do Monte, was dubbed the Campeões do Gelo, a title that is remembered in the club's official anthem. The club's success in the state competition continued in the 1950s, a decade that saw the rise of forward Ubaldo and five consecutive Campeonato Mineiro victories from 1952 to 1956. After another state league title in 1958, Atlético took part in the inaugural edition of the Taça Brasil in the following year, reaching the third round. The tournament, the country's first annual nationwide competition, was a cup contested between state league champions, originally created by the CBD to select Brazil's entrants in the newly formed Copa Libertadores.In the 1960s, Atlético won the Campeonato Mineiro twice, in 1962 and 1963, but failed to advance to the later stages of the Taça Brasil. Mineirão, Belo Horizonte's new stadium, opened in 1965 and immediately became the club's home. It was in the mid-1960s when the rivalry with Cruzeiro became the main one in the state. In 1967, another national-level competition was created by the CBD, the Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa. It included more clubs than the Taça Brasil, but Atlético did not finish in the top-four in any of its editions in the decade. In the second half of the 1960s, highlights came in the form of friendlies against national sides. In 1968, Atlético, representing the Brazilian national team, defeated European Championship runners-up Yugoslavia 3–2 at the Mineirão; the following year, the Seleção itself, which would become champions of the 1970 FIFA World Cup, was defeated 2–1.
National success and state dominance (1970–1989)
With the arrival of Telê Santana as the club's head coach in 1970, Galo broke Cruzeiro's sequence and won its first state league title in the Mineirão, also finishing third in the last Roberto Gomes Pedrosa. In 1971, captained by midfielder Oldair and with World Cup-winning forward Dario as the league's top goalscorer, Atlético won the Campeonato Brasileiro. It was the first edition of the competition, also known as the Brasileirão, which replaced both the Taça Brasil and the Roberto Gomes Pedrosa as the new national championship. Atlético played a final group stage against São Paulo and Botafogo, defeating the former 1–0 at the Mineirão and the latter 1–0 at the Maracanã. The victory also secured the club's first participation in an official continental competition, the 1972 Copa Libertadores, in which it did not advance past the first group stage.After four trophyless years, Atlético won the state league again in 1976 and finished third in the Campeonato Brasileiro. That season saw the emergence of a golden generation of players, formed in the club's youth academies under coach Barbatana. Reinaldo, Toninho Cerezo, Éder, Luizinho, Paulo Isidoro and João Leite, players who represented Brazil at international level, were central to the team that took Atlético to six consecutive state league victories between 1978 and 1983, and to good results in the Série A. Atlético came second in the 1977 Brasileirão, losing the final to São Paulo in a penalty shootout at the Mineirão, despite remaining undefeated for the entire season. Reinaldo, the league's top scorer in that season with an average of 1.56 goals per match, was banned from the final. By his account, this was because of his insistence on celebrating his goals by raising his fist, a political symbol that opposed the Brazilian military government of the time. In 1978, Atlético reached the Copa Libertadores semi-finals and won the Copa dos Campeões Brasileiros, a tournament organised by the CBD between past winners of the Brasileirão. In a repetition of the previous year's Brasileiro decisive match, the opponent in the final of this competition was São Paulo, with Atlético this time winning a penalty shootout.
In 1980, after having the best record in the first stages of the Brasileirão, Atlético lost to Flamengo in a controversial final of the competition. Three Galo players were bizarrely sent off, among them Reinaldo, who received a straight red card after scoring twice. The team was then eliminated from the following year's Copa Libertadores undefeated, in another decisive match marked by controversy: a play-off against Flamengo that ended after 37 minutes, following the sendings-off of five Atlético players. During the 1980s, the club participated in and won international friendly competitions, such as the Amsterdam Tournament and the Tournoi de Paris. Atlético had the best statistic league records of the 1980, 1983, 1985, 1986 and 1987 Brasileirão seasons, but did not win the title, falling in the finals or semi-finals of those editions. In the second half of the decade, the club continued its success in the state, winning the Campeonato Mineiro in 1985, 1986, 1988 and 1989. Atlético was one of Brazil's top sides of the 1980s, providing many players to the Brazilian national team, being dominant at state level and having good performances in the Brasileiro, but a tendency to lose in its final knockout stages prevented a new title in this competition.