Minas Boca U20

A group in Sete Lagoas wanted a team that looked like Boca Juniors, and built one from the ground up.

The U20 side is the visible end of that academy work, playing every year in the Campeonato Mineiro Sub-20. It has come close without winning it: in 2019 the team reached the final and lost to Atlético Mineiro 0-13 on aggregate. In 2024 they went out in the quarter-finals, beaten by América Mineiro.

Titles have come lower down the age groups — an IMEF Sub-15 championship, an Interior FMF Sub-14 crown — but the clearer measure of the academy is who left it. Fernando went through the ranks and on to Palmeiras, Shakhtar Donetsk and RB Salzburg. João Pedro, known at the club as Joãozinho, is remembered for something narrower and stranger: a goal scored 2.36 seconds into a match in 2022.

Home games are played at the Arena do Jacaré, officially the Estádio Joaquim Henrique Nogueira, which holds close to 20,000.