Anapolis U20

Grêmio Esportivo Anápolis put that right that year, fielding an U20 side for the first time in the club's history and entering it straight into the Copa Goiás Sub-20 2ª Divisão.

The team lost that first final on penalties, to Royal. It did not take long to put the record straight: in the 2024 Campeonato Goiano Sub-20 2ª Divisão, the side went unbeaten through 13 matches, winning 11, then beat Itauçu 4-2 on aggregate to take the title.

The senior club carries the nickname Azulão Anapolino and its blue-and-white colours, along with a fox as mascot, and the U20s play under the same badge at Estádio Municipal Jonas Duarte. Founded in Inhumas in 1999 as Grêmio Esportivo Inhumense, the club only became Grêmio Esportivo Anápolis in 2005, after the move to its current home; the senior team's own honours list — a Campeonato Goiano in 2021, an Acesso in 2017, a Terceira Divisão in 2011 — gives some sense of how recently the club has climbed into the state's first tier.

A first Copa Goiás Sub-20 crown, rather than a runners-up medal, is the obvious gap still to close.