RIO DE JANEIRO // Riding a wave of footballing nostalgia, the small English club Exeter City lifted silverware in Rio on Sunday following a rematch of Brazil’s first international encounter.
Before a crowd of 900, including 180 of their own fans enjoying the most unusual of pre-season tours for a lower-league outfit, the fourth-tier side held the Under 23 team of top-flight Fluminense to a goalless draw at a stadium almost twice as old as the Maracana.
The Laranjeiras Stadium may no longer host league action, but it was where, on July 21, 1914, a Brazil select beat an Exeter side who had been touring Argentina and who accepted a duel in Rio on the way home.
The Exeter captain Scot Bennett lifted the purple-ribboned Marcos Carneiro de Mendonca Cup, named after Brazil’s first goalkeeper, who played for Fluminense.
But it was the symbolism of the occasion which won the day, which for the travelling contingent was like winning the World Cup itself.
“It’s a shame this couldn’t have launched the World Cup,” said Gary Nelson, an Exeter fan, who wore a “Rebel Tour 14” shirt in Exeter red and white.
“I came the long way – via Texas, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Asuncion and Foz de Iguacu, getting to Rio yesterday. An adventure!”
Paul Garnham, 37, had been in Rio on World Cup final day a week earlier – but balked at ticket tout prices.
“One was going for US$500 (Dh1,837) – I know someone paid $1,000 – but it was a fake!”
Steve Conabeer, 48, insisted the Exeter game experience meant more to him than the World Cup itself.
“As soon as it was announced I thought, ‘I’ve got to go or I’ll go to my grave regretting it.’ But I do in a way wish we’d played this at the Maracana.”
Exeter approached the Brazilian football federation two years ago suggesting a rematch to coincide with the 100-year anniversary, but were greeted with disinterest.
Martin McGahey, the great-grandson of Michael John McGahey, Exeter’s general manager in 1914, was on the pitch before the match and said: “This is where it all began. A century ago, my great-grandfather brought a ball across.”
Touching that same ball, emerging from the club museum in the stadium bowels, McGahey said: “This is the direct link to that game.”
Fluminense official Ricardo Calcado was quick to explain that fears of hooliganism were not the reason for seating the Exeter support in the “away” end.
“We wanted to seat everybody together but we are worried about the security of the old stadium and fire regulations stipulated we can only have so many people on one side,” Calcado said. “We are proud to welcome back Exeter after 100 years because the history of the Brazil team started here. This is one of the most important games of the year for us.
“We first invited them for the club’s 12th birthday. It was something magical. It was not planned, it was natural. It just happened.”
Marcio Pernambuco, a Rio pensioner, said his grandfather Mario had been on that first Brazilian select XI, showing him in a picture of the side that went off to face and beat Argentina weeks later in Buenos Aires.
“I feel great emotion here today,” Pernambuco said. “The hairs are rising on my arms and the back of my neck.
“Sadly, my grandfather died early; I barely knew him. He was a defender, a left-back.”
Life expectancy was also painfully short for many of the Exeter team who lost the 1914 match 2-0.
Several of the team perished in the First World War, which started before they had returned home by boat.
As Exeter fans filed out, some clad in special-edition canary yellow shirts bearing the image of their 1914 team, Paula Walsh, the British consul, said the father of Fluminense’s Anglo-Brazilian founder, Oscar Cox, was the British consul in Ecuador.
Moreover, Fluminense had a royal seal of approval.
“Edward VIII and George VI were honorary president and vice president of Fluminense, and reputedly both attended a match there in 1931,” she said.
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