Athletico 100 years: Manoel Aranha

The three-year period in which Manoel Aranha presided over Athletico was the most eventful of the club’s first 25 years. Under his management, the club accepted the inevitable professionalization of football and hired great players from other places, such as the stars Lupércio and Lilo, and foreigners such as midfielder Aveiros, from the Paraguay national team.

Added to the base of local stars, the team was state champion in 1943, beating Coritiba for the first time in a decision. Title celebrated with style at parties where a song was created in his honor, which would serve as inspiration for the official anthem.

The following year, Rubro-Negro was one point away from the title and Maneco Aranha got into a physical fight with Major Couto Pereira, president of Coxa, due to the lack of definition of the location of a youth Atletiba, an episode that intensified the Atletiba rivalry to the level permanent civil war that we still have today.

With the base of the super team that years later would be called Furacão, they won the title again in 1945, beating Coritiba again in games skinned. Surprisingly, the president resigned from his position, citing outrage at the scenes of violence seen in the final games.

A man of high society, the gaucho headed the Paraná Football Federation between 1946 and 1948 and was a candidate for mayor of the city that welcomed him. Maneco was the younger brother of Oswaldo Aranha, leader of Brazilian diplomacy, one of those responsible for the creation of the state of Israel and who gives its name to a classic of national cuisine: the steak with lots of garlic, potatoes and egg farofa created at the Cosmopolita restaurant, in River.

Therefore, the challenge remains for Atletico chefs to create a dish that lives up to the historical importance of the greatest name of the famous family, the unforgettable president Maneco Aranha.