Flamengo U20

Estádio da Gávea sits on the grounds of Flamengo's own training complex, a compact ground built for four thousand people rather than for the crowds the first team draws a few miles away. It is where the Sub-20 side plays its home fixtures, close enough to the academy dormitories that the team's Portuguese nickname, Garotos do Ninho, translates as boys of the nest.

That proximity to the club's youth structure is the point of the side: it exists as the last age group before a player is either promoted or moved on, and its results are read as much for what they say about the pipeline as for the trophies themselves. Both readings have been kind to it lately. Flamengo won the CONMEBOL Libertadores Sub-20 in 2024 and again in 2025, then reached the final once more in 2026, losing it. In the Campeonato Brasileiro Sub-20 the side beat Palmeirense opposition for both of its titles, drawing 0-0 in 2023 before winning on penalties.

The clearest evidence of what the Gávea pipeline produces, though, is not a trophy but a departure. Vinícius Júnior made his first-team debut out of this age group in 2017 and left for Real Madrid for €45 million; Lucas Paquetá followed a similar path from 2016 before his move to West Ham and a later return to the club. Neither man is remembered at Sub-20 level for a goal or a save — they are remembered as the ones who moved through the Gávea and out the other side, which is what the ground was built to produce.