Caxias

Tite stood on the touchline in 2000 when Caxias won the Campeonato Gaúcho. The team plays in grená, a deep garnet the crowd calls itself after — Grená do Povo — and the shirt has barely changed colour since a 1935 merger of Ruy Barbosa and Rio Branco created Grêmio Esportivo Flamengo, the side that would eventually take the city's name.

That name came late. A 1971 merger with Juventude produced Associação Caxias de Futebol, and only in 1975 did the club settle on Sociedade Esportiva e Recreativa Caxias do Sul.

Caxias built its reputation on the Interior rather than the capital: ten titles in the Campeonato do Interior between 1969 and 2010. The Estádio Centenário, known locally as Estádio Francisco Stédile, holds 22,132 now, well down from the 30,000-plus it once packed in for state finals.

The last decade has been rougher than the one that produced Tite's title. Relegated in both state and national divisions in 2015, the club worked its way back to Série A Gaúcho by 2017, dropped again, and returned to Série C at national level in 2023. It is from Série C that Caxias now tries to rebuild, closer to the club it was in the Interior years than to the side that lifted the state title at the turn of the century.