While the Brazilian National Team projects its future towards the 2026 World Cup, a trip to the past reveals that the "first kick" taken towards the modernization of national football happened in a notary's office in downtown Rio de Janeiro.
NeoFeed gained access to the public deed, drawn up on April 19, 1978, which records the moment when Granja Comary, in Teresópolis, ceased to be a subdivision for the Rio de Janeiro elite and became the cradle of the dream of the sixth World Cup title.
The document, recovered by the Brazilian Notarial College (CNB) project, details the sale of an area of 53,900 square meters (m²) for 20 million cruzeiros, paid by the then Brazilian Sports Confederation (CBD) to the Guinle family. At present value, this would be approximately R$ 29 million.
“Often it is traditional families who end up selling these areas,” says Andrey Guimarães Duarte, vice-president of the CNB in São Paulo. “And it is not uncommon for there to be a passion component in these transactions as well.”
The land sale negotiation was complex. The area, located in the Carlos Guinle neighborhood, belonged to the condominium of heirs of the Guinle family, who amassed one of the largest fortunes in the country between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The group, created by the family of French origin, had a strong presence in port infrastructure and urban investments, in addition to participating in the construction and management of emblematic projects in Rio de Janeiro.
In total, the deed involved 24 heirs of the family that built the Copacabana Palace, each ceding their share of the land so that the national team could have a training center.
The deed for Granja Comary also captures a moment of institutional transition. The buyer of the land was Admiral Heleno de Barros Nunes, then president of the CBD (Brazilian Football Confederation).
Just one year later, in 1979, the entity would be dissolved to make way for the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), which inherited the assets in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro state.
Before this land was acquired, the national team's training was itinerant, depending on favors from clubs or stays in hotels. Today, the complex occupies 150,000 m².
Ball treasure map
The discovery of Granja Comary is part of a larger effort to "restore" Brazilian clubs' own identities. Often, even the institutions themselves do not possess these original records.
Duarte is one of the creators of the project called Notarial Memories , which seeks to transform bureaucracy into memory and tell the story of the formation of urban architecture.
So far, the documents unearthed by CNB reveal, for example, that the land for the Morumbi stadium was acquired from the Matarazzo and Saad families. São Paulo FC bought half of the area, while the other half was donated by a real estate developer linked to Ademar de Barros as part of an urban development plan for the region.
The more well-known history of SE Palmeiras' stadium shows that Palestra Itália, then known as Parque Antártica, acquired the land directly from the Companhia Antártica, which gave rise to the stadium's historic name, Parque Antártica, now Allianz Parque.
At Vila Belmiro, Santos' stadium, the 1915 inscription impresses with its aesthetics, handwritten in the impeccable calligraphy of the time.
Although this archaeological work on registry office documents originated in São Paulo's archives, the project seeks to expand its reach to map the "birth certificate" of the major stages of Brazilian football.
After uncovering the origins of the major clubs in São Paulo, the investigation crossed state borders to document their history in other states. In Paraná, the team has already succeeded in locating the deeds of the two biggest clubs in the state — Coritiba and Athletico.
The search is now focused on Rio Grande do Sul, where researchers are working to recover the historical records of Grêmio and Internacional.
In Rio de Janeiro, the challenge has been greater: since the Maracanã is public property, it doesn't have a conventional deed of sale, which led researchers to focus on historical venues and training centers. Besides Granja Comary, the project identified the registration of São Januário, Vasco da Gama's stadium.
"Brazil may have many stories, but when a football stadium appears, everyone wants to see it," says the vice-president of CNB/SP. "We realize that there is a gigantic history stored in the registry offices. A large part of Brazil's history passes through them."
Starting next week, amidst the Brazilian national team's preparations for the 2026 World Cup, the CNB will deliver a copy of the document to the CBF to complete the history of Brazilian football and make it available at the Brazilian National Team Museum.
