Uberabinha U20

A penalty box in Juiz de Fora settled a score that had run 0-0 through a first leg: Uberabinha beat Social 1-0 to take the second division of the Minas Gerais Under-20 championship, the Mineiro Sub-20 Módulo II. The result sent the club up into the elite tier of the state's youth competition for 2026.

The team traces itself back to 1974, when a loose group of players started turning out in the Cerâmica district of Juiz de Fora. It took until 1997 for that to become a formal youth football school, and until 2006 for the club to register properly as an association, with its own CNPJ and recognised public-benefit status. Maurício Alves, who founded the club and later served as its president, died in January 2026.

Wesley Moraes came through Uberabinha between 2010 and 2013, aged 13 to 17, coached by Sérgio Eduardo, known as Dudu, before amateur football took him on to Sport Juiz de Fora, Tupi and Itabuna, then abroad to Trenčín in Slovakia and Club Brugge. Aston Villa signed him in 2019 for around £22 million, a fee that, through FIFA's solidarity mechanism, sent a share of training compensation back to the club that first coached him — money that helped push Uberabinha toward professionalisation. Moraes went on to play for Brazil's national side and later for Fatih Karagümrük in Turkey.

Home matches are played at the Estádio Municipal Radialista Mário Helênio, known locally as Helenão, which holds 31,863. Social, the club Uberabinha had to see off twice, home and away, before the promotion was confirmed.