Football team
Fortaleza U20
Club · Brazil · CBF Brasileiro U20
«Lion»
Fortaleza's Sub-20 side plays through the club's usual mix of state and national youth competitions, and this year gave it something to point to: the 2025 Campeonato Cearense Sub-20 title, won again in a competition the club treats as its own. No other side in the state has taken the age-group championship as often, and the run stretches back to the 1970s, through the 1980s and into recent seasons — 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2024 and now 2025 among them.
Home games are played at the Estádio Presidente Vargas, known locally as the PV, which holds a little over 20,000 and sits apart from the noise of Fortaleza's larger grounds. Regional silverware has come from there and from the Copa do Nordeste Sub-20, taken twice, in 2005 against Náutico and in 2018 against Bahia, both settled on penalties. A single Copa Unita Sub-20 followed in 2019.
National competitions have been harder to crack. The furthest the side has gone in the Brasileirão Sub-20 is a semi-final, reached in 2024, and in the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior — the Copinha — a run to the last eight in 2017.
That shop window has done its job. Bruno Melo came through the academy and spent seven seasons in Fortaleza's first team, 210 appearances, before a move to Corinthians. Oswaldo went the other way through the ranks and into the senior side before spells at Vitória and elsewhere, and goalkeeper Max Walef followed his own path out through Dnipro-1 in Ukraine. The current crop — among them Guilherme Cristovam, Lucas Emanuel, Bruninho and Caíque Wesley — are still working out which of them follows the same road.
Latest results
Fixtures and results| 1 Oct | Cearense U20 |
Ceará U20
H
|
2:2 | D |
| 9 Sep | Copa do Brasil U20 |
Piauí U20
H
|
1:2 | L |
| 4 Sep | Cearense U20 |
Ceará U20
A
|
0:0 | D |
| 19 Aug | Cearense U20 |
Quixadá U20
H
|
2:1 | W |
| 12 Aug | Cearense U20 |
Quixadá U20
A
|
0:1 | L |
| 1 Aug | Cearense U20 |
Ferroviario U20
H
|
3:0 | W |
Standing
Cearense U20Group stage · U20 Cearense 2026, Group A
| # | Team | M | W | D | L | Goals | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Quixadá U20
|
5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8:3 | 13 |
| 2 |
Ferroviario U20
|
6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 4:6 | 9 |
| 3 |
 Atlético Cearense U20
|
5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4:3 | 8 |
| 4 |
Fortaleza U20
|
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8:0 | 7 |
| 5 |
 Floresta CE U20
|
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3:3 | 4 |
| 6 |
 Alianca U20
|
3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4:5 | 2 |
| 7 |
 Juazeiro Ec U20
|
4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3:18 | 0 |
Team statistics
matches counted in total: 170| Metric | Total | Home | Away |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matches | 170 | 86 | 84 |
| Scored | 276 | 149 | 127 |
| Conceded | 194 | 77 | 117 |
| Scored per game | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.5 |
| Conceded per game | 1.1 | 0.9 | 1.4 |
| Difference | +82 | +72 | +10 |
Fixtures of Fortaleza U20
-
1 Oct
Ceará U20
H
2:2
D
-
9 Sep
Piauí U20
H
1:2
L
-
4 Sep
Ceará U20
A
0:0
D
-
19 Aug
Quixadá U20
H
2:1
W
-
12 Aug
Quixadá U20
A
0:1
L
-
1 Aug
Ferroviario U20
H
3:0
W
-
25 Jul
Ferroviario U20
A
1:0
W
-
18 Jul
Pague Menos U20
H
1:1
D
Honours of Fortaleza U20
- Campeonato Cearense 1920, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1933, 1934, 1937, 1938, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1953, 1954, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1991, 1992, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2026 47
- Campeonato Cearense Sub-20 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2024, 2025 20
- Copa do Nordeste 2019, 2022, 2024 3
- Copa do Nordeste Sub-20 2005, 2018 2
- Campeonato Brasileiro Série B 2018 1
- Copa Unita Sub-20 2019 1
Transfers
TransfersArrivals
- Michael Fashanu Madureira 26/27
- Fabinho Fluminense U20 25/26
- Jeilson Souza Ferroviário 24/25
- Iarley Paysandu U20 24/25
- Jefferson Medina Houston 2 24/25
- Alexandre Amorim Athletic 24/25
Departures
- Jeilson Souza Maracanã 25/26
- Iarley Paysandu U20 25/26
- Michael Fashanu Madureira 25/26
- Lucas Emanuel Fortaleza 25/26
- Edwin Cabezas Real C. 25/26
- Landerson Moreirense 25/26 €1.00M