Canada - Flamengo was featured in a two-page feature in the January issue of Canadian magazine Soccer, featuring fellow Brazilian Kakà (sic). Interestingly, this time, the Rio de Janeiro team didn't make headlines in Canada or the United States because of its performance on the field. The subject of the article "Flamengo, the people's club" is its fans.

The feat of the red-blacks in the last Brazilian Championship, maintaining an average of 39.221 paying spectators per team match and breaking the attendance record for a single game (82.044 against Atlético Paranaense) caught the attention of editor Eddie Kehoue: "The passion shown at Maracanã is unique in the world. We don't even see that in Italy", he told Blog do Boleiro.

The text tells the club's history, its early achievements, and how a team with few resources captured the passion of Rio de Janeiro's poorest classes. In the report, Kehoue ​​recalls the "Afro-Brazilian stars" who wore the Flamengo jersey: Domingos da Guia, Leônidas da Silva, and Zizinho.

Zico is cited as the leader of the generation of athletes who "took Santos from being the most famous Brazilian club in the world." "The success of Zico and his teammates catapulted Flamengo to the status of the team that embodies Brazilian football," the editor states.

The reason Flamengo is so prominent is the presence of its fans at the stadium in late 2007: "The players and fans celebrate each match as if it were one." The magazine also suggests that readers find the time and money to participate in the Maracanã "celebration of a team with 40 million fans across the country."

This time, the crowd not only pushed the team into the 2008 Libertadores, but also caught the attention of a country where football has become - in the last ten years - the sport with the largest number of players.

The information is from Luciano Borges, for Terra