Fortaleza - CE

Fortaleza Esporte Clube (translated into Spanish as Club Deportivo Fortaleza) is a Brazilian football club from the city of Fortaleza, capital of the state of Ceará. It was founded on 18 October 1918 and plays in the Campeonato Brasileño de Serie A.

Fortaleza is one of the great clubs of northeastern Brazil and one of the first clubs in the country to play a final of the Campeonato Brasileño. It played the final of the Campeonato Brasileño de Serie A in 1960 and also in 1968, finishing as runner-up in both. In 1982, Fortaleza played in the Torneio dos Campeões, a national tournament contested by the biggest clubs in Brazil, in which the champions and runners-up of the official national competitions played in Brazil (the Campeonato Brasileiro and the Torneo Río-São Paulo) were taking part.

The club was Brazilian Serie B champion in 2018. Fortaleza also has many regional titles of the North and Northeast of Brazil, the main ones being the Torneo Norte-Nordeste of 1970 and the Copa del Noreste of 2019 and 2022. It also has many state titles, being the biggest champion with 46 titles of the Campeonato Cearense.

At the international level, it was the second team from the Northeast Region of Brazil to reach a final of a Conmebol tournament in history (CSA was a finalist and runner-up of the Copa Conmebol 1999). It achieved this important record in 2023, after a historic campaign that led it to play the final of the Copa Sudamericana, where it lost on penalties to Liga de Quito. It is also the only team from outside the South and Southeast regions of Brazil to have been in the Copa Libertadores de América for two consecutive years (it competed in 2022 and 2023).

It was named the sixth best club in the world and the second best in South America by the IFFHS for the period from November 2022 to October 2023.

Fortaleza fans are known for their love of the club, making large mosaics to welcome their team at matches in the stadium. The club has good average attendances in the competitions in which it plays. In 2020, in the first phase of the Copa Sudamericana, Fortaleza fans made history and filled the away section of the Estadio Libertadores de América in the match against Independiente. In 2021 it qualified for the Copa Libertadores for the first time in its history.

Its most traditional rivals also come from Fortaleza, namely Ceará Sporting Club and Ferroviário Atlético Clube.