Weekend of the Hurricane: Athletico Chase the Title

On Saturday in Curitiba, the red and black of Club Athletico Paranaense will feel just a little heavier.

Athletico go into the weekend knowing exactly what’s on the line: win their game and, if Coritiba — their biggest rivals, eternal neighbours, and co-authors of a century of football grudges — slip up, they could be champions. A whole season, a whole history, funnelled into one tense, electric afternoon.

For a club that has built its identity on being the Furacão — the hurricane swirling just outside Brazil’s traditional “Big 12” — it feels perfectly on-brand. Always close enough to shake the structure. Often good enough to blow it down.

A club born from a merger – and a city’s ambition

Athletico’s story starts long before packed stands at Arena da Baixada and continental nights. It stretches back to early 20th-century Curitiba, when football was still carving out its place between chimarrão, cold winters and European-influenced streets.

The club traces its roots to International Football Club (founded in 1912) and América Futebol Clube (1914), two traditional clubs in the city. On 26 March 1924, they merged to create something bigger, something new: Club Athletico Paranaense. Their first friendly came a few days later, on 6 April — a 4–2 win over Universal FC — and by 1925 they already had their first Campeonato Paranaense title.

You can feel that origin story in the way Athletico think about themselves now. Not just another club from the South, but the one that refused to stay in anyone’s shadow.

From striped shirts to hurricanes

Back in 1924, Athletico ran out in horizontally striped red and black shirts, white shorts, red-and-black socks — a classic Brazilian look. As the decades went by, the club’s leaders kept tweaking the identity, trying to stand out in a country where red and black is a crowded colourway (hi, Flamengo, Sport, Vitória).

In 1989, the stripes went vertical. In 1996, the shorts and socks turned black. And then came the big break:

In December 2018, Athletico ripped things up again. The crest became four sharp diagonal red and black stripes, shrinking from top to bottom, designed to look like a hurricane — a visual nod to the club’s nickname. The name reverted to its original 1924 spelling: Club Athletico Paranaense with an “h”, a subtle but deliberate move to separate themselves from Atlético Mineiro and the clutter of Atléticos in the Brazilian game.

The kit shifted too:

Home: predominantly red shirt, black collar, those four diagonal black “hurricane” bars slashing across the lower third, black shorts, black socks.
Away: a clean white shirt with a black collar and fine diagonal lines echoing the crest, plus white shorts and socks.

It’s modern, aggressive, and unmistakably theirs. Like everything at this club, it’s not done quietly.

Building a home for big nights

Athletico’s home is the Estádio Joaquim Américo Guimarães — better known, simply, as Arena da Baixada, or Ligga Arena for sponsorship reasons. Built in 1914 and renovated multiple times, it’s not just another Brazilian stadium; it’s a statement.

It’s the only stadium in South America with a retractable roof, and the first on the continent to use artificial turf with FIFA approval. It’s hosted 2014 World Cup games, big concerts, UFC events, volleyball finals — the kind of eclectic calendar that tells you this is more than a ground. It’s a stage.

On a night game, roof closed, red and black everywhere, it feels less like a bowl and more like a pressure cooker. Exactly the kind of place where a title could be sealed and a rival could be quietly haunted for years to come.

Ups, downs and the making of a contender

The Athletico story isn’t a straight climb. It’s messy, dramatic, and very Brazilian.

In the 1980s, they flirted with greatness, then fell hard. A brilliant 4th-place finish in the 1983 Série A was followed by struggles in 1986 and 1988, and by 1989 they’d been relegated to Série B for the first time.

What followed was a decade of grind:

1990: reach the Série B final, lose to Sport Recif,e but still go up.
Early 90s: yo-yo performances and another relegation.
1995: a turning point — Athletico win Série B, finally landing a major national title and promotion back to the top flight.
1999: the club inaugurates the modern Arena da Baixada and wins a special Pre-Libertadores tournament, beating Internacional, São Paulo and Cruzeiro to book their first ever Copa Libertadores ticket.

The ’90s shaped their personality: a club that doesn’t stay down for long, and one that sees opportunity where others see chaos.

The 2000s: league title, Libertadores and heartbreak

Then came the years that turned Athletico from a regional force into something continental.

In the 2000 Copa Libertadores, they started on fire — unbeaten in the group, a 3–0 win away to Alianza Lima, the second-best record in the tournament. Then out on penalties to Atlético Mineiro in the knockouts. A warning shot, if anything.

2001 was the explosion: Athletico won their first Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, beating São Caetano 5–2 on aggregate in the final. The hurricane had gone national.

They came close again in 2004, finishing second in Série A and punching another Libertadores ticket. The 2005 Libertadores campaign became the stuff of club folklore:

Out of the group behind Independiente Medellín.
Beating Cerro Porteño on away goals.
Knocking out Santos, the reigning Brazilian champions, home and away.
Swatting aside Chivas Guadalajara in the semis after Chivas had destroyed Boca Juniors.

Then the final: São Paulo. The first leg in Curitiba finished 1–1. The second at Morumbi was brutal: a 4–0 loss and a Libertadores title slipping away with every goal. Athletico had arrived… but also discovered how cruel the elite stage could be.

The same decade saw a deep Copa Sudamericana run in 2006 — wins over River Plate and Nacional, then collapse to Pachuca in the semi-finals. Again: promise, drama, and pain in equal measure.

Decline, partnerships and the rebuild

The near-misses caught up. From 2006 to 2009, Athletico drifted outside the top ten, collecting early exits: Vasco in the Sudamericana, Corinthians Alagoano in the Copa do Brasil, Guadalajara again.

Relegation came in 2011, but it didn’t last: they bounced straight back in 2012.

In the meantime, the club went global in its thinking, forging partnerships with:

FC Dallas in Major League Soccer,
Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands,
Orlando City SC,
The All India Football Federation, with the explicit aim of helping India prepare for the 2017 U-17 World Cup,
and clubs in Japan (Cerezo Osaka) and Indonesia (Bali United).

One emblematic moment: in 2015, Athletico signed Indian winger Romeo Fernandes on loan from Dempo, making him the first Indian footballer to play in a South American top-flight league. Zico, then coaching FC Goa, helped make it happen. It was a small deal in global terms, but a perfect snapshot of Athletico’s outward-looking, slightly adventurous mindset.

New heights: Sudamericana, Copa do Brasil, Libertadores finals

From 2013 onward, things started clicking again. Athletico rebuilt as a serious force:

2013: third in Série A, runners-up in the Copa do Brasil to Flamengo.
2018: their first major continental title, winning the Copa Sudamericana, beating Junior Barranquilla on penalties in the final.
2019: they beat River Plate 1–0 in the first leg of the Recopa Sudamericana, only to lose the return 3–0 in Buenos Aires. Later that year, they lifted the Copa do Brasil for the first time, beating Internacional in both legs of the final.
2021: a second Copa Sudamericana, this time defeating Red Bull Bragantino.
2022: back to the Copa Libertadores final, navigating past Libertad, Estudiantes and Palmeiras before falling 1–0 to Flamengo.

They’ve become serial competitors in South America: 150 continental games played, more wins than losses, a positive goal difference, regular deep runs in both the Libertadores and Sudamericana. For a club from Curitiba, for a long time peripheral in Brazil’s traditional media axis, that matters.

And all the while, the trophy cabinet kept filling with everything from Levain Cup–Sudamericana, to state titles, to youth cups, to women’s Campeonato Paranaense dominance in recent years. From Taça Caio Júnior to Marbella Cup, this is a club that collects silverware of every shape and size.

No wonder they’re often described as the strongest team in Brazil outside the Big 12 — and, on their day, better than plenty of those inside it.

Today’s Furacão

Fast-forward to now:

The squad is deep and eclectic — Mycael in goal; Léo, Fernando, Carlos Terán, and Lucas Esquivel at the back; Giuliano, Felipinho, Bruno Zapelli threading passes in midfield; Kevin Viveros, Kevin Velasco, Alan Kardec, Isaac, Julimar and a carousel of Brazilian and South American forwards up front.
Young prospects bubble up from the academy, while others are out on loan at Botafogo, Cruzeiro, Olimpia, Universidad de Chile and beyond, learning the trade.
On the touchline and upstairs, a long line of coaches and presidents — from Lothar Matthäus to Luiz Felipe Scolari, from Paulo Autuori to Odair Hellmann, under the long-term influence of president Mario Celso Petraglia — have shaped Athletico into a modern, sometimes volatile, but always ambitious club.

Off the pitch, their shirts are backed by big betting brands, and in the stands, surveys show they have the largest fanbase in Curitiba. It feels less like a provincial club and more like a project: global, restless, always reaching for the next level.

A huge weekend in Curitiba

And now, this weekend.

Athletico walk into Ligga Arena with all of that behind them — the 1924 merger, the 2001 title, the Libertadores heartbreaks, the Sudamericana triumphs, the experiments, the rebrands, the foreign partnerships, the packed trophy list and the sense that they’re always one big result away from upsetting the established order again.

Win their match, and if Coritiba drop points, the championship is theirs. Not just another trophy, but another line in a history that refuses to sit politely behind anyone else’s.

For the fans in red and black, for the players and staff who wear the hurricane on their chest, for a club that has spent a century proving it belongs among Brazil’s heavyweights, it’s simple.

This isn’t just another weekend.

It’s one of those days when the Furacão can change the weather again.