{"id":313010,"date":"2025-11-28T21:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T21:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/313010\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T21:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T21:02:08","slug":"how-palmeiras-and-flamengo-became-south-americas-football-superpowers-copa-libertadores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/313010\/","title":{"rendered":"How Palmeiras and Flamengo became South America\u2019s football superpowers | Copa Libertadores"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the surprise of few and the despair of many, it will be either Palmeiras or Flamengo lifting the Copa Libertadores<\/a> trophy on Saturday at Lima\u2019s Estadio Monumental. With this year\u2019s final, one of these two Brazilian giants will have won five of the last seven editions, a run that underlines how both clubs have transformed themselves into South American super clubs, reshaping the competitive landscape in the process.<\/p>\n

Yet this final is more than another chapter in Brazil\u2019s dominance, broken only by River Plate\u2019s 2018 triumph in the past nine years. It marks the latest peak in a decade-long evolution that has seen Palmeiras<\/a> and Flamengo grow into institutions with European-scale reach, resources and expectations. Their rise has altered the logic of the Libertadores itself, its transfer market, its competitive balance, even its sense of what is attainable for South American clubs.<\/p>\n

Whoever wins will become the Brazilian side with the most continental titles (four), and Brazil will draw level with Argentina on 25 Libertadores trophies \u2013 even if Independiente, with seven crowns, remains the competition\u2019s most-decorated club.<\/p>\n

The final also carries extra significance domestically: Flamengo<\/a> are five points clear of Palmeiras at the top of the league with two matches remaining, after the Verdao failed to win any of their last five \u2013 their worst spell this season. The Rio club also won both meetings between the sides, home and away, earlier this year.<\/p>\n

And while the football takes centre stage, the setting brings complications of its own. Conmebol, the continent\u2019s governing body, has kept the final in the Peruvian capital despite a 30-day state of emergency amid rising violent crime and youth-led protests. Since adopting Uefa-style neutral single-match finals in 2019, the cost for travelling fans has soared. With travel around South America far less straightforward or affordable than in Europe, flying to Peru is now cheaper from London than from S\u00e3o Paulo or Rio, raising doubts over whether the 80,000 seats will be filled.<\/p>\n

Palmeiras reached the final in miraculous fashion, overturning a 3-0 first leg thrashing at Quito\u2019s altitude to rout Ecuador\u2019s LDU 4-0 at home. That followed a commanding quarter-final win over River Plate, 5\u20132 on aggregate, a tie remembered for the first half in Buenos Aires where the Verd\u00e3o simply ran rings around the Argentinians.<\/p>\n

The forwards Vitor Roque and Flaco L\u00f3pez have become the mainstays of Palmeiras\u2019 second half of the season. Earlier in the year only one of them would start, with Est\u00eav\u00e3o \u2013 then bound for Chelsea \u2013 the team\u2019s standout attacking threat before his move to London after the Club World Cup. Since the teenager\u2019s departure<\/a>, Roque and L\u00f3pez have taken on that responsibility together, giving Abel Ferreira a far more direct and dynamic front line.<\/p>\n

Vitor Roque has flourished for Palmeiras in attack and been recalled by Brazil. Photograph: Sports Press Photo\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

They have 43 goals between them this season, and L\u00f3pez arrives in Lima as this year\u2019s Libertadores joint top scorer with seven goals. Their form has been recognised internationally: Roque has been recalled by Carlo Ancelotti for the Brazil national team, while L\u00f3pez has earned his first caps for Argentina, even though he has not scored in his past nine club games, his longest drought of the campaign.<\/p>\n

Roque himself epitomises Palmeiras\u2019 financial muscle. The 20-year-old\u2019s \u00a322.5m move in February \u2013 arriving from Barcelona after a frustrating spell at Camp Nou and a loan at Betis \u2013 became the highest fee paid by a Brazilian club. It was part of a wider spending drive: across 2025, Palmeiras invested \u00a3100m in 12 signings, the largest outlay in a single year by any club in the country.<\/p>\n

This has been driven by a virtuous cycle at a club enjoying the most successful era in its history. Abel Ferreira, now the longest-serving manager in Brazilian in three decades, has collected 10 trophies in five years, including back-to-back league titles, consecutive Libertadores, among them the 2021 victory over Flamengo in Montevideo, and one Copa do Brasil.<\/p>\n

Success has brought stronger commercial deals and, inevitably, interest from Europe. Palmeiras have also cashed in on a steady stream of academy talents \u2013 among them Est\u00eav\u00e3o to Chelsea, Endrick to Real Madrid, Vitor Reis to Manchester City, Luis Guilherme to West Ham, Danilo to Nottingham Forest, Gabriel Veron to Porto and Kevin, now at Fulham, to Shakhtar Donetsk \u2013 bringing in up to \u00a3194.6m with add-ons from these sales alone.<\/p>\n

Abel Ferreira\u2019s success in Brazil has attracted the interest of Premier League clubs. Photograph: Diego Vara\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Ferreira has been approached by Premier League clubs: Everton, Nottingham Forest and, most recently, Wolverhampton. But his situation at Palmeiras is unusually strong. The Portuguese works in an environment he trusts, backed by a professional and stable hierarchy, and earns \u00a36.2m a year, a figure that even some Premier League clubs cannot afford and comparable to what Ruben Amorim earns at Manchester United.<\/p>\n

Flamengo seek revenge on South America\u2019s biggest stage after edging Estudiantes on penalties in the quarter-finals and seeing off Racing in the semis, with both ties decided away from Rio. Filipe Lu\u00eds, the former Chelsea and Atl\u00e9tico Madrid left-back, is in his first full season as a coach, having taken charge midway through last year and guiding the Rubro-Negro to the Copa do Brasil title soon after.<\/p>\n

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As a starter for Flamengo, Filipe Lu\u00eds won the Libertadores in 2019 and 2022 and finished runner-up to Palmeiras in 2021. He now leads a star-studded squad shaped by a decade of increasingly professional management, which has allowed the club to sustain arguably the strongest team on the continent for years. Flamengo are at last fulfilling their commercial potential as Brazil\u2019s most popular club: last year they posted record revenue of \u00a3190m, with Palmeiras close behind on \u00a3180m.<\/p>\n

That stability has kept Flamengo consistently competitive at the top of South American football, yielding 14 trophies in seven years, including two Libertadores, two league titles and two Copas do Brasil.<\/p>\n

The Rubro-Negro spent almost \u00a350m on seven players in 2025, including the \u00a320.5m deal for Samuel Lino from Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, which made the 25-year-old winger the club\u2019s record signing. The list also features another former Atleti player, Sa\u00fal \u00d1\u00edguez, as well as former Premier League names Jorginho, Danilo and Emerson Royal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese players have played with and against the best in the world, and that experience only helps Flamengo sustain the success it has built within a well-established project,\u201d David Luiz, who won the 2022 Libertadores with the Rubro-Negro, tells the Guardian.<\/p>\n

Yet for all the investment, it is a player who has spent his entire career in South America who has become Flamengo\u2019s leading figure. Giorgian de Arrascaeta, the Uruguayan midfield orchestrator, has already produced 23 goals and 17 assists in the most prolific season of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Abel\u2019s Palmeiras are known for the collective and their mental strength as two of their main virtues, Flamengo feel almost like a national team, more technically refined because of the depth of their squad and their style of play,\u201d Marcos tells the Guardian. The former goalkeeper won the Copa Libertadores with Palmeiras in 1999 and the World Cup with Brazil in 2002, both under Luiz Felipe Scolari.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a career-defining final that can take players to another level. It was because of my performances in the Libertadores that I had the privilege of pulling on the Sele\u00e7\u00e3o shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the surprise of few and the despair of many, it will be either Palmeiras or Flamengo lifting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-313010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}