Boston City U20

The pitch at the Centro de Treinamento Boston City FC in Manhuaçu was laid to FIFA specification, and the ground sits inside a wider complex — training facilities and a stadium on the same site, sometimes referred to simply as the Complexo Boston City. For a side whose entire purpose is bringing players through, the arrangement matters more than the seating: squads train and play in the same place, in Minas Gerais rather than in any of Brazil's football capitals.

The club exists because of a decision taken 6,000 kilometres away. Boston City FC was founded in Boston in 2015, and the group opened a Brazilian arm, formally launched on 2 October 2018. Behind it were the businessman Renato Valentim and Jorge Ferreira — better known in Brazil as Palhinha, and a former international. The Brazilian operation feeds the same organisation, the Boston City Football Group, and its brief is development: young players, a competitive under-20 side, and a route onward.

Palhinha's involvement is the part that gives the project weight locally. A former Brazil player attaching his name to a foreign-owned academy in Manhuaçu is not a routine appointment, and it shaped how the club was received when it began entering youth competition.

The crest carries a lion standing over a football with the Boston skyline behind it — an American club's identity, transplanted whole, and worn in red, blue and white by teenagers in Minas Gerais. No under-20 state title has come yet.