Fluminense U17

Every player who comes through here starts in the same place: Xerém, the academy Fluminense built outside Rio de Janeiro to grow its own footballers rather than buy them. The Sub-17 side carries no separate registration — it is a department of the senior club, drawing from the same pipeline that has sent players on to Olympiacos, Porto, Roma and Real Betis over the years. Marcelo left it for the first team back in 2005; Thiago Silva passed through the same system before being sold on to RS Futebol without ever making his debut in the senior shirt, though the club still lists him among its own.

This generation has been the strongest the academy has produced. Fluminense won the Campeonato Brasileiro Sub-17 in 2020, then again in 2024. That second final finished 2-0 against Palmeiras, and the same group went on to take the Copa do Brasil Sub-17 without losing a match. Felipe Canavan, who coached that double-winning side, stepped away afterwards and has since come back to the bench, working again alongside assistants Philipe Saboya and Lindolfo Melo. Thiago Macedo, who had the job in between, moved up to take charge of the Sub-20s.

Now the side plays out the same fixtures that fill the calendar further up the club, against Flamengo, Corinthians, Palmeiras and the rest, each match another test of what Xerém was built to produce in the first place.