Inter De Limeira

José Francisco de Oliveira, Pepe, once wore the shirt of Santos and the Brazil national side; by 1986 he was on the touchline at Limeira, coaching a squad the town still calls the Esquadrão Imortal. That year Inter de Limeira beat Palmeiras 2-1 in the deciding match and took the Campeonato Paulista, the first time a club from outside the state capital had done it. The run to the title came without a single defeat in the competition, 17 matches unbeaten, and the squad's top scorer that season, Kita, put in 24 goals on his way to a place on Brazil's 1984 Olympic roster. At the back, Bolívar Guedes captained the side; he had been to the Olympics himself, in 1972, and by the time he was done he had played 294 matches in red and white.

The club, Associação Atlética Internacional, was founded in Limeira in 1913. Two years after the 1986 title it went further, winning the Campeonato Brasileiro Série B in 1988. The Série A2, the state's second tier, has come round three times since, in 1978, 1996 and 2004 — the first of those handed down after a court ruling rather than settled on the pitch.

The rivalry that matters most runs west to Campinas, against Guarani; locally it needs no other name than o clássico. Ponte Preta, Ituano and Linense fill out the regional calendar without carrying the same weight.

Home games are played at the Estádio Major José Levy Sobrinho, known to everyone in Limeira as the Limeirão, which holds 18,000.