Mineiros

Mineiros sits in the south-west of Goiás state, and for the best part of five decades its one senior club has carried the city's name into competitions few of its neighbours reach. Mineiros Esporte Clube started out on 20 January 1977 as Palmeiros Esporte Clube, taking its present name only afterwards, and has played in blue and white ever since under the nickname Águia do Vale, the eagle of the valley.

Its best season in the Goiás state top flight was 1990, when it finished second. The club spent 2003 and 2004 working back up through the lower state divisions, winning the Terceira Divisão and then the Segunda Divisão in successive years, and that effort paid off in 2005: a third-place finish in the state championship came alongside the club's first appearances in Série C, Brazil's national third tier, and in the Copa do Brasil.

Few players who passed through Mineiros went on to wider recognition, but Diego Pituca started his career there before moving on to a much bigger stage, and locals still mention Rafael Bergê, Paulinho Kobayashi and Gaúchinho alongside him. The club has never run its own website, working instead off a page hosted by the Goiás Football Federation and an Instagram account.

Home matches are played at the Estádio Odilon Flores, which holds 7,000 — enough, in a town the size of Mineiros, to gather most of the people likely to turn out.