Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, commonly known as Corinthians, are a Brazilian football team from São Paulo in Brazil.

History

Foundation

The Corinthians was founded September 1, 1910, by a group of labourers in the neighbourhood of Bom Retiro , under the lights of a oil lamp, in the Rua dos Imigrantes (Immigrants Street). Their idea was to found a football team in which anyone could display his abilities in the sport, since back then, in the beginning of the 20th century, football in Brazil was played mainly by British descendants and people who worked for British companies, like the São Paulo Railway. In other words, Corinthians, like club Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro, was one of the first "popular" football clubs in Brazil.

The origin of the name

Among the founders, the first ideas for the name of the club were full of Brazilian national spirit: Carlos Gomes Football Club and Futebol Clube Santos Dumont. However, these prominent Brazilian names were put aside after the English amateur team Corinthians, that wear pink and brown shirts, won all six games in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro during an exhibitional tour of Brazil. The name Sport Club Corinthians Paulista was agreed upon, as an homage to the great British club of the beginning of the past century. The name was suggested by Charlie Miller to the first President of the club.

Becoming great

In the first few years after its foundation, Corinthians Paulista played first in local tournaments, and then in the São Paulo State Championships. Its first winning season was in 1914, as they became State Champions of that year. Other triumphs followed. As a popular team, the number of Corinthians supporters is huge. In Brazil, the club is in the 2nd position in number of supporters, behind Flamengo [1], [2].

The Great Rival

In 1914, inspired by the visit of two Italian clubs, some Italian immigrants, members of Corinthians, decided to form a club (football and basketball) of their own, the Palestra Italia (now known as Palmeiras). They were instantly labeled as betrayers and the teams became rivals, not only because of the "betrayal", but also because Corinthians had many immigrant supporters in its beginning and the new club quickly divided the suport among them. The two teams remain the two bitterest and fiercest rivals in Sao Paulo to this day.

The Centennial Champion

Corinthians are known in Brazil as the "Centennial Champion", because of the coincidence featured in the years of some of its conquests:

1922 - State Champions; Brazil's independence from Portugal was in 1822

1954 - State Champions; Foundation of the city of São Paulo was in 1554

The Club in 2004-2005

Corinthians has gone through many crises during its almost one hundred years of history. In the 1960's, a dearth of winning campaigns and an eleven-year winless streak against Pelé's Santos earned the team the nickname "Laughable".

However, the club's situation in 2004 was one the most difficult in its history. Bad administration, lack of money and ridiculous campaigns both in the 2003 Brazilian Championship and in the 2004 São Paulo State Championship were worrying its millions of supporters. Fortunately some young players like forward Jô (17 years old) and defenders Betão and Wendel (both 20) and a new manager Tite helped the team to improve from their terrible start. At the end of the championship, Corinthians finished in the 5th place and won entry to the Copa Sudamericana (Continental championship).

More recently, Corinthins have signed a controversial deal with MSI that grants the company pretty much control of the club for 10 years, in exchange for large invesments for the club in hiring new players. This has brought many new players, such as striker Teves, mid-fielders Roger and Carlos Alberto and defender Seba. Whilest off to a slow start, the team has improved it's position in the state championship considerably, looking likely to finish in 3rd, and is held as one of the favourites for the 2005 national championship.

FIFA World Champions

In Brazil there is much discussion if Corinthians should be called "World Champions" after winning the FIFA Club World Championship in 2000. Practily only the club fans, consider that Corinthians is a legitimate champion, taking in consideration that their club has never won the official and traditional America's title, the "Copa Libertadores de América".

Corinthians fans in general have a strong feeling towards the annual Intercontinental Cup, in which the UEFA champion plays one single game against the Libertadores Cup winners in Japan (as opposed to Europe, where winning the UEFA Champions League is considered the highest possible achievement for a football club). In South America, the winner of this game is considered that year's "World Champion".

In the year 2000, FIFA created the Club World Championship, a competition that should have been played every two years, but has had a single tournament so far because of lack of interest from UEFA clubs. Corinthians entered the competition as the host country's (Brazil) previous champions.

In the group stage, the results were as follows:

Corinthians - Raja Casablanca (MAR): 2:0

Corinthians - Real Madrid (SPA): 2:2 (in this game, the forward Edílson scores a historical goal when he passed the ball between the legs of Real Madrid defender Karembeu);(A match with referre problems, with 7 yellow cards (though no red), with a "legitimate" goal by the Brazilian club disallowed).

Corinthians - Al Nassr (KSA): 2:0 (in this game, Corinthians scored an contraversial goal, that brought the Brazilian team in the final game, due to the advantage in goals scored compared to Real Madrid).

The seven points won in the group stage enabled Corinthians to play the grand final of the tournament against Brazil's Vasco da Gama, in the Maracanã Stadium. The final match ended in a 0:0 draw, and in the penalty shootout Corinthians won 4:3 after Vasco player Edmundo missed his penalty.

Corinthians supporters like to say their team are World Champions because of this conquest. São Paulo, Santos, Flamengo and Grêmio supporters say that their teams are the real World Champions (respectively in the years '92 and '93, '62 and '63, '81 and '83 - years that these clubs have won the Libertadores Cup and the Intercontinental Game) and, furthermore, tend to consider FIFA's Club World Championship as a discontinued event. However, FIFA has announced a new Club World Championship, scheduled to take place in 2005. It should be noted that FIFA officialy recognises Corinthians as World Champions.

Staff

Goalkepear's: Fábio Costa and Júlio Cesar

Defender's: Anderson, Sebastián Domínguez, Betão and Marinho

Left Defender's: Gustavo Nery and Fininho

Right Defender's: Coelho and Edson

Midfielder's: Roger, Fabrício, Carlos Alberto, Rosinei, Hugo, Dinélson and Marcelo Mattos

Forward's: Carlos Tévez, Gil, Bobô and Jô

Honours

• Brazilian Champions: 1990, 1998, 1999
• Brazilian Champions Sub-23: 1969, 1970, 1995, 1999, 2004, 2005
• Brazil Cup: 1995 2002
• FIFA Club World Championship: 2000
• State championships: 1914, 16, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 37, 38, 39, 41, 51, 52, 54, 77, 79, 82, 83, 88, 95, 97, 99, 2001, 2003 - 25 times, more than any other Paulista club.

Historic Players

• Sócrates - 1982 World Cup player
• Rivelino - 1970 World Cup champion
• Gilmar - 1958 and 1962 World Cup champion
• Neto - 1990 Brazilian Série A champion
• Marcelinho Carioca - Champion of 1998 and 1999 Brazilian Série A, 1995 Copa do Brasil, 2000 FIFA Club World Championship, currently in Brasiliense
• Ronaldo (goalkeeper) - 1990 Brazilian Série A champion, currently in Portuguesa Santista
• Viola - 1994 World Cup champion, currently in Bahia
• Dida - 2002 World Cup champion, currently in Milan
• Edu - 1998 Brazilian Série A champion, currently at Arsenal
• Ricardinho - 2002 World Cup champion, currently in Santos
• Vampeta - 2002 World Cup champion, currently in Vitória
• Freddy Rincón - 2000 FIFA Club World Championship champion
• Carlos Gamarra - 1999 Brazilian Série A, currently in Internazionale
• Luizinho - 1954 IV Centenary champion
• Baltazar - 1954 IV Centenary champion
• Neco - 1922 Centenery of Independence champion
• Casagrande - 1982-1983 Sao Paulo state champion, currently a famous comentator.

External links

Corinthians' official site

RSSSF's page about the FIFA Club World Championship

P Gasston's page about the FIFA Club World Championship

Page describing the rivalery between Corinthins and Palmeiras