Criciúma

Criciúma has one truly national trophy, and it came without a single defeat: the 1991 Copa do Brasil, still the only time a club from Santa Catarina has won the competition. Two further climbs stand alongside it — the Série B title in 2002, sealed under Edson Gaúcho, and the Série C in 2006.

None of that would have carried the same weight without the state championship. Criciúma has won the Campeonato Catarinense twelve times, starting in 1968 under the name Comerciário — the club did not become Criciúma Esporte Clube until 1978 — and running through to back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024.

The name Paulinho Criciúma belongs to that history for a different reason: a forward from the club who carried its name into the United States and South Korea. Valdomiro's path ran the other way, from the city itself into the Brazil squad at the 1974 World Cup.

Home games are played at the Estádio Heriberto Hülse, known locally as the Majestoso, where capacity has been brought down to just over 19,000 after safety-driven changes reduced what was once a much bigger ground.

The most recent addition to the trophy cabinet is regional rather than national: the Recopa Catarinense, won in 2024 and again in 2025, extending a run of silverware that has kept Criciúma at the front of football in Santa Catarina.