Volta Redonda U20

In April 2026, a 5-4 penalty shoot-out defeat to Botafogo cost Volta Redonda's Sub-20 side the Taça Rio youth title, after the young side had won the second leg 1-0 to force the decider.

What the Sub-20 side is really judged on is who leaves it. Donizete came up the same way and went on to become a fixture at Botafogo and Vasco, winning a Brazilian championship and a Copa Libertadores. Neither trophy belongs to the youth team; both belong to what it produced.

Results at first-team level have given the academy more reason to matter. Volta Redonda won the Campeonato Brasileiro Série C in 2024 and the Série D in 2016, and the club has taken the regional Copa Rio five times, more than any other side in that competition. When Volta Redonda meets Resende, the fixture is known locally as the Clássico do Sul Fluminense.

A Carioca or Copa Rio title at Sub-20 level, though, has not followed. The 2020 final remains the closest the age group has got, and the graduates who made their names elsewhere have yet to be matched by a trophy won in yellow and black at youth level itself.