Novo Esporte Clube

When Ipatinga Futebol Clube pulled up its roots and moved south to Betim, the city of Ipatinga was left without a senior side carrying its name into the Vale do Aço football scene. The businessman João Chico (João Francisco Silva) filled that gap, setting up Novo Esporte Clube Ipatinga on 12 December 2012 to keep the city represented on the pitch.

The club wore that name and played its home games in Ipatinga before shifting its base in 2024 to Itabirinha, where it now carries the legal name Novo Esporte Clube Itabirinha Ltda while still competing simply as Novo Esporte. Its matches are staged at the Estádio Municipal Dr. Adilson Machado de Farias, in green and white, under the nickname Quero-Quero de Minas.

Squads have passed through without a settled rivalry attaching itself to the club, though the shared Vale do Aço ground with Ipatinga FC gives the two clubs an obvious point of comparison whenever their paths cross. Among the players who have worn the shirt, Juninho arrived on loan from Cruzeiro.

Novo Esporte has yet to add a state or national title to its shelf. Its high-water mark to date came in 2025, a fourth-place finish in the Campeonato Mineiro Segunda Divisão, and the club still runs its public presence through an Instagram page rather than a website of its own.