Vasco U17

Vasco da Gama's Under-17s are the newest holders of the Campeonato Carioca Sub-17, adding 2026 to a list of state titles that stretches back to 1944 and counts fourteen entries in between. The age group sits inside the club's youth structure rather than as a separate outfit, feeding players toward the Brasileiro Sub-17 and toward Rio's state competition, where it has been champion more often than any of its results elsewhere would suggest.

The record abroad is thinner but sharper. In 2021 the side reached the national final and lost to Flamengo. In 2025 it went further, winning the Copa do Brasil Sub-17 with a final victory over Bahia — and getting there by eliminating Flamengo in the semi-final, 7-2 on aggregate after a 3-0 home leg followed a 2-4 defeat in the away fixture. That rivalry, the Clássico dos Milhões, ran through the rest of the year unevenly: Flamengo took the first leg of the Copa Rio final 2-1, then beat Vasco 3-0 in the Brasileiro in August.

Home games are played at Estádio São Januário, the senior club's ground since 1898, known locally as the Colina — the Hill — for the rise it sits on above the city.

What gives the age group its weight in Rio is less the trophies than who has come through it. Roberto Dinamite, the club's all-time top scorer, debuted through this pathway in 1971. Romário arrived at 15 from Olaria and went on to the 1994 World Cup, alongside academy products Mazinho and Carlos Germano from the same squad. Philippe Coutinho left the youth ranks in 2009 for a path that ran through Liverpool and Barcelona; Douglas Luiz debuted in 2016 before Aston Villa. Jorginho Pernambucano, despite being closely tied to the club in the public mind, arrived only as an adult and does not belong on that list.