Vasco da Gama - RJ

The Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama, popularly known as Vasco da Gama or simply Vasco, is a Brazilian multi-sport association from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, considered one of the most important football institutions in its country, and regarded by its supporters as a symbol of anti-racism and multiculturalism because of its history. It currently plays in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A.

It was founded on 21 August 1898 by a group of rowers who, inspired by the celebrations of the fourth centenary of the discovery of the sea route to India in 1498, decided to give the club the name of the Portuguese man who led that feat: the navigator Vasco da Gama. Its crest and kit are black with a white diagonal stripe and a red cross. The combination of black and white symbolises the racial and ethnic integration of the institution. Since 1927 it has played at the Estadio São Januário.

Although its initial foundation had an emphasis on football and rowing (an area in which it ended up being one of the biggest champions in the country), Vasco da Gama also covers other sports, such as athletics, beach volleyball, beach soccer, basketball, jiu-jitsu, bodyboarding and weightlifting, among others.

Vasco da Gama is one of the most influential clubs in Brazil in football terms. It is one of the four big clubs of Rio de Janeiro and maintains great rivalries with the other three big clubs of Rio: with Flamengo it plays the Clássico dos Milhões, a fixture rated by various polls as the biggest rivalry in the country; it likewise plays the Clássico dos Gigantes against Fluminense and the Clássico da Amizade against Botafogo.

Its international honours include the 1948 Campeonato Sudamericano de Campeones — being the "first club champion of America" — the 1998 Copa Libertadores (the first won in the club's fiftieth anniversary year and the second in its centenary), and the 2000 Copa Mercosur. Nationally it won four editions of the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, in 1974, 1989, 1997 and 2000, the 2011 Copa do Brasil and three editions of the Torneo Río-São Paulo. At state level, Vasco da Gama won the Campeonato Carioca 24 times, which places it third behind Flamengo and Fluminense.