Cuiabá

Rival supporters across Mato Grosso have a nickname for Cuiabá that isn't meant kindly: Cuiabayern.

None of that was assumed at the outset. The club grew out of a youth academy, Escolinha do Gaúcho, set up by Luís Carlos Toffoli, known simply as Gaúcho, before Cuiabá Esporte Clube turned professional in 2003, two years after its founding on 12 December 2001. Between 2006 and 2008 the club lost its licence and stopped competing altogether, returning only in 2009 after the Dresch family bought in.

That rebuild eventually reached the Arena Pantanal, the 42,788-seat stadium on the edge of the wetland that gives the region its name, and gives the club its own totem.

Fernando remains the name attached to the club's biggest years on the pitch, 54 goals in 109 appearances and the man in the side for the state titles of 2011 and 2013. A decade later, in 2021, Cuiabá had grown enough to sign Zé Roberto , a World Cup winner with Brazil in 1994, by then playing for a club in Série A.