Naviraiense U20

Clube Esportivo Naviraiense is the name the town puts forward whenever football turns competitive. The senior side carries that weight in the state championship; the under-20 group carries it into a different kind of test, the one meant to filter out which towns get to send their names further up the football pyramid.

That test went well in 2025. Naviraiense's under-20s reached the final of the Campeonato Sul-Mato-Grossense Sub-20 and lost it to Grêmio Santo Antônio, but a final defeat still opened two doors: the Copa do Brasil Sub-20 and the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior, both set for 2026.

The senior team, founded in 2005 and nicknamed the Alligator of the South Cone for its orange, green and white colours, has given the state championship some of its history along the way — three Série A titles and three Série B titles between 2007 and 2024. One name threads through that record: Cristiano Lopes came up through Naviraiense before going on to finish as the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Mato Grosso do Sul championship, 64 goals across a career the club can point to as its own.

What the under-20 side has not yet done is turn a runners-up finish into a title of its own. The final against Grêmio Santo Antônio is still the closest it has come, and the trip to São Paulo in 2026 will be the next chance to change that.