Niteroiense

Arena Trops holds 1,541 people, and for Niteroiense that modest number matters more than it would elsewhere.

That something began in 1913, when Alberto Calado and Gastão Ramos founded the side as Nictheroyense Football Club. It stopped playing in 1981 and stayed silent until 2024, when the affiliation of Clube Atlético Carioca was transferred to the Rio de Janeiro state federation and Niteroiense took the field once more. Bruno Gallo , a midfielder who came through Vasco da Gama's youth ranks, arrived to captain that return.

The club's oldest title dates to 1918, when it won the Campeonato Fluminense — the main championship of an era before the states of Rio de Janeiro and Guanabara were merged into one. The 2024 side answered it with a title of its own, the Campeonato Carioca Série C, and added the Taça Waldir Amaral in the same year; two promotions followed within those twelve months, first into Série B2 and then straight on into Série B1.

Niteroiense's old rivalries — with Fonseca, Ypiranga, Canto do Rio — belong to a version of Niterói football that no longer plays them. What has replaced it, since the comeback, is a rivalry with Bonsucesso FC.