Caldense

In Minas Gerais, football has long been split between the capital and the interior, and Poços de Caldas sits firmly on the interior side. In 2002 the state federation made that split literal. It ran two parallel tournaments, the Supercampeonato for the capital clubs and a separate Campeonato Mineiro for the rest. Caldense, known as Veterana, won the interior one with 26 points. They finished ahead of Ipatinga and beat Nacional 2-0 in the last round. In the Supercampeonato, Cruzeiro won the title by beating them 4-0 in the final game of the season, with Caldense leading the table before kick-off. The ground, the Ronaldão, drew 14,200 for the 2002 final. It now holds 7,600.

The club's route into the national game came late. It made its Série D debut in 2015 and finished seventh. It returned in 2020, 2021 and 2022, then dropped into the state second division in 2023 because it could not afford to enter Série D. In 2022 it had won the Troféu do Interior.

The names attached to the club are mostly from earlier decades. Mirandinha scored 95 goals in 307 matches in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1981 Walter Casagrande arrived on loan at 17 and finished as the state championship's second-highest scorer. In one game that year he scored four against Atlético Mineiro. A 57-match unbeaten run between 1960 and 1961 is remembered locally, though the federation has never recognised it because the paperwork is incomplete.

Papers also decided the club's birthday. Caldense registered on 16 November 1925. The president, João Porfírio Bueno Brandão, moved the celebration to 7 September, Independence Day, and the Deliberative Council ratified that date in 1943. The green and white ball, the Baile Verde e Branco, has been held every year since 1981.