RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Flamengo released its 2019 annual report on Thursday. Last year, the club had record operating revenues of almost R$939 million. In the previous year, the revenue had amounted to R$543 million.
According to the report, the main revenue source was the sale of economic rights of players. The club raised R$337 million with negotiations in the period.
Another peculiarity was the disclosure of the amounts collected from the sale of athletes. With Pablo Mari, for instance, Flamengo collected R$40 million from Arsenal and R$125 million with the negotiation of Reinier for Real Madrid. Both sales occurred at the start of the year.
A good part of that money was invested in the acquisition of players. Last year, Flamengo spent R$209 million on the arrival of eight players, all of them regulars. In 2020, the club invested R$62.1 million in six extra players. The amount does not include the purchase of Gabriel Barbosa, for €16.5 million.
Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (English: Flamengo Rowing Club), commonly referred to as Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro best known for their professional football (soccer) team.
Flamengo is the most popular football club in Brazil, with over 30 million supporters as of 2018. As of 2017, it is also Brazil’s richest football club.
Flamengo established themselves as one of Brazil’s most successful sports clubs in the 20th century during of the era of state leagues in Brazil when they captured several Rio de Janeiro state titles prior to the establishment of the first Brazilian national football league in 1959.
Since then, they have remained successful in Brazilian football, having won 7 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, 3 Copa do Brasil, and a record 35 Campeonato Carioca. They are one of three clubs to have never been relegated from the national league, called Brasileirão.
In South American and worldwide competitions, the club’s highest achievements are their conquests of the 1981 and 2019 Copa Libertadores, and 1981 Intercontinental Cup against Liverpool, led by the club’s most iconic player Zico. Flamengo’s fiercest and longest-standing rivalries are with the other “Big Four” of Rio de Janeiro: Fluminense, Botafogo and Vasco da Gama.