Villa Nova

Only Atlético Mineiro, four years its senior, has been going longer in the state.

The 1930s were the club's own decade. Four Campeonato Mineiro titles in a row, from 1932 to 1935, and in the first of those years Villa Nova took two parallel competitions at once, the LMDT and the AMEG tournaments both ending with the same champion. The fifth state title came in 1951, and it is that side that left a mark beyond the trophy: Martim Francisco, in charge that season, set his team out in 4-2-4.

Two of the club's players went to the 1938 World Cup with Brazil, Zezé Procópio and José Perácio. Much later a boy came through the academy in Nova Lima and grew into the man who would manage the national team: Tite.

The Estádio Municipal Castor Cifuentes, known around Bonfim as the Alçapão, holds the red-and-white stripes on match days. The derby against Atlético Mineiro, the Clássico do Resiste, was first played on 14 July 1912.

The national title came in 1971, when Villa Nova won Série B. Since then the honours have been closer to home — the Taça Minas Gerais in 1977 and again in 2006, and promotion out of Módulo II in 1995, 2021 and 2026.