I would like to think that everyone who
knows football, will have heard of the Corinthian-Casuals Football
Club. They were pioneers of football in the 19th
Century, the Corinthian FC forming in 1882 and the Casuals in 1883,
they merged in 1939.
C-CFC took football to Brazil in 1910, enthusing
the locals to form the Corinthian Paulista FC in Sao Paulo and hence
sparked the development of football, the Brazilian way. Paulista
recently beat Chelsea to become World Club Champions.
Already used to touring, especially in
Europe and south Africa, the C-CFC sailed in August 1910 and took 15
days toget to Brazil. They played Flumineuse winning 10-1, a Rio XI
8-1 and then in Sao Paulo they won all three games.
The club went to Brazil in 1913-14 and
played several games with the intention of visiting again in 1915.
When the London based club returned to
Brazil, they had to leave before anything happened as the Great War
had broken out. Many of these young Corinthian footballers fought and
died within weeks of arriving at the front.
The tour in 2015 was to celebrate that
centenary and hundreds of home fans have greeted the tourists at the
airport, a thousand locals watched their training sessions and as
well as visiting the Maracana, Copacabana beach and a community
project founded by international footballer, Kleiber, they played
their “brother” club in front of 50,000 fans.
The C-CFC is still very much an amateur club playing in the Rymans South League.
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