Juventude U17

Juventude won the Copa do Brasil in 1999, and the U17 side draws on that: it is the only club from a non-capital city in Rio Grande do Sul to have lifted the tournament, beating Botafogo in the final. That team's captain, Flávio Campos, later became the club's sporting director, and the goalkeeper from that run, Emerson de Souza Ferretti, is still remembered in Caxias do Sul alongside Capone, top scorer of that Copa do Brasil campaign with five goals. Lauro, midfielder and captain, played more than 500 matches for the club and was central to that title.

The Sub-17 squad plays under that same crest, out of the academy at Esporte Clube Juventude, founded on 29 June 1913 in Caxias do Sul. It competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Sub-17 and the Copa do Brasil U17, facing the youth sides of Flamengo, Palmeiras, Santos, Grêmio and Cruzeiro among others.

Paulo César Tinga started out in the academy before going on to win the 1994 World Cup with Brazil's senior side. The uruguaio Hugo de León played for the club in the late 1970s, and Mário Sérgio, a midfielder from that decade, went on to become a well-known commentator.

Home games are played at the Estádio Alfredo Jaconi, in white shirts with green vertical stripes, green shorts and green socks — the colours behind the nickname Alviverde. Juventude were Série B champions in 1994 and Campeonato Gaúcho winners in 1998, that one without a single defeat. Locally, the club has taken the Campeonato do Interior Gaúcho eighteen times, most recently in 2025 and 2026.

For the U17 group, the task stays the one set every season: hold their own against academies with far larger budgets and keep producing players who can follow Tinga's path into the first team.