Santa Cruz (Football Club, Recife)

Santa Cruz Football Club was founded on February 3, 1914 by 11 young Recife residents. The team got its name in honor of the Church of the Holy Cross, located on the street of the same name.

In the first years of its existence, the club was very closed to outsiders, however, during the time of the flourishing of racism , it was Santa Cruz that soon became the first club in its state to accept Afro-Brazilians.

In 1915, one of the most amazing matches in the history of the team took place. Losing the team “America” (Recife) with a score of 1: 5, “Santa Cruz” scored six goals in the last 15 minutes and won the match with a score of 7: 5. Since 1917, the team became a member of the state league championship.

January 30, 1919 "Santa Cruz" was the first team that managed to beat the great club of southeast Brazil. With a score of 3: 2, “ Botafogo ” from Rio de Janeiro was beaten.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the team was a regular participant in national tournaments, the Cup of Brazil, and since 1971, Serie A. In 1972, Pele held his 1000th match against Santos Cruz as part of Santos . In 1975, Santa Cruz took the highest fourth place in its history in the Brazilian championship, in 1979 the team was fifth.

In the 1980s, the team’s results became more modest. In 1982 and 1989, Santa Cruz flew to Serie B and in the 1990s, the team stayed mainly in the second tier of Brazilian football.

In 2005, Santa Cruz qualified for Serie A and spent the next season with the elite. However, the team failed to stay in Serie A and, taking the last, 20th place in the championship in 2006, “Santa Cruz” was forced to return to Serie B. It is noteworthy that both traditional rivals of “Coral Cobras”, “Sport Recife” and “ Nautiko ”in the same year achieved an increase just in Series A.

In 2007, the club flew to Serie C, and in 2008 it took 30th place, thereby not being able to stay in this division when organizing Serie D. It was in this tournament that the club took part in 2009 and took only 28th place. In 2011, the team reached the final of the championship and guaranteed a return to the third tier of Brazilian football. The following year, the “tricolor” managed to gain a foothold in Serie C, taking 14th place. In 2013, Santa Cruz became the winner of Series C, returning to the second tier of Brazilian football.

According to two research institutes (Ibope and Datafolha ^[1] ), which published the results of their research in 2004 and 2006, respectively, 900 thousand people are sick of Santa Cruz (19th in Brazil, the second in the state after Sport "- 1.8 million).

• The main form of the team: black T-shirts with a white front side, which depicts horizontal black and red stripes, black underpants and leggings.
• Spare form: white T-shirts with two wide horizontal stripes on the chest - black and red, separated from each other by a narrow white gap, white underpants and leggings.

•   Pernambuco State Championship (29): 1931, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1940, 1946, 1947, 1957, 1959, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1993 , 1995, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016
•   Pernambuccano Super Champion Winners (3): 1957, 1976, 1983 ^[2]
•   Pernambuco State Cup Winners (4): 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012
•   Nordeste Cup Winner (1): 2016
•   Brazil Champions in Series C (1): 2013

•   The Bomfim
•   Tara (scorer in the 1930s and 1940s)
•   Zhivanildo (1970s)
•   Fumanshu (1970s)
•   Levir Culpi (1970s)
•   Nunes (1970s)
•   Ramon (Brazil's top scorer in 1973) (1970s)
•   Birigui - the best goalkeeper in history (1980s)
•   The do Carmo (1980s and 1990s)
•   Rivaldo - began his professional career in 1989 at Santa Cruz
•   Ricardo Rocha (1983-1984)
•   Nilson - goalkeeper, 1990s

• Club official website (port.)
• RSSSF Brazil - Pernambuccano Championship Stats