Flamengo RJ U20

Establishment of the club (1895–1912)

Flamengo was founded on 17 November 1895, by a group of rowers gathered at club member Nestor de Barros's manor on Flamengo Beach in Rio de Janeiro. In the late 19th century, rowing was the most played sport in the city. Previously, they could only afford a used boat named Pherusa, which had to be completely rebuilt before it could be used in competition. The team debuted on 6 October 1895, when they sailed off the Caju Point toward Flamengo Beach. However, strong winds turned over the boat and the rowers nearly drowned. They were rescued by a fishing boat named Leal (Loyal). Later as the Pherusa was undergoing repairs, it was stolen and never found again. The group saved money to buy a new boat, the Etoile, renamed Scyra.

On the night of 17 November, the group gathered at Nestor de Barros's manor on Flamengo beach and founded the Grupo de Regatas do Flamengo (English: Flamengo Rowing Group) and elected its first board and president (Domingos Marques de Azevedo). The name was changed a few weeks later to its current title of Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (Flamengo Rowing Club). The founders decided that the anniversary of the club's foundation should be commemorated on 15 November to coincide with Republic Proclamation Day, a national holiday.

Flamengo's football team was only established after a group of ten dissatisfied players from Fluminense broke away from that club following a board dispute. The players decided to join Flamengo because Alberto Borgerth, the team's captain, was also a rower for Flamengo. Also, establishing a land sports department at Flamengo was preferable to joining football rivals Botafogo or the all-English club Paissandu. The new members were admitted on 8 November 1911. A motion against the club taking part in football tournaments was put to a vote but was defeated, and as a result the members officially established the club's new football department on 24 December 1911.

Football in the amateur era (1912–1933)

The new team trained on Russel Beach and gradually gained the support of the locals, who closely watched their practice matches. The first official match was played on 3 May 1912, and marked, to this day, the largest margin of victory in the club's history, as they defeated Mangueira 16–2. Flamengo's first ever match against Fluminense, the start of the Fla-Flu rivalry, was played on 7 July of that year and was won by Fluminense by a score of 3–2. That same year, Flamengo finished as runners-up of the Campeonato Carioca, the Rio de Janeiro State Championship. The team's first uniform was nicknamed the "papagaio vintém", due to its similarity to a particular type of kite.

In 1914 the club won the Campeonato Carioca for the first time, dressed in a red, black, and white-striped shirt nicknamed the "cobra coral" (coral snake) was worn until 1916. Flamengo won the Campeonato Carioca again the following year, in 1915, and secured their first back-to-back championship; something they also did with their titles in 1920 and 1921.

In 1925, the team won the Campeonato Carioca and five other tournaments, a record at the time. In 1927 the prominent Rio newspaper Jornal do Brasil, in partnership with a mineral water company, held a mail-in contest to find "the most beloved club in Brazil." Though Flamengo enjoyed their largest increase in fan support after the club professionalized in the 1930s, they still defeated popular rivals Vasco da Gama in the vote. This was the first of many times that Flamengo would be voted as the nation's most popular club, inspiring the nickname "o mais querido do Brasil" ("the most beloved of Brazil"). In 1933 the team went on its first tour outside Brazil (to Montevideo and Buenos Aires) and on 14 May of the same year played its final match as an amateur team, defeating River Futebol Clube by a score of 16–2. After this, the club's football department became professional.