Record for most Campeonato Gaúcho titles (43)

Lore & Background

Gremio was founded in 1903 by a group of young men in Porto Alegre, and from its earliest seasons it threw itself into the state competition with a ferocity that would become its hallmark. In the first decades of the 20th century, when football in southern Brazil was still finding its shape, Gremio and Internacional were the two forces around which the Gaúcho tournament coalesced. The club's early titles were won on muddy pitches and in modest stands, but the habit of winning in the state was established before the professional era even began. Players who would become legends in the broader Brazilian game first learned their craft in those Gaúcho campaigns, and the state championship became the nursery from which Gremio's national and continental ambitions grew. The mid-20th century saw Gremio consolidate its position as the state's most decorated club. The rivalry with Internacional intensified, and the Gre-Nal matches in the Gaúcho finals became the events of the footballing year in Porto Alegre. The club's identity—blue, black, and white, the tricolor that fans call 'o tricolor gaúcho'—became synonymous with state football. Titles were added steadily, and the record climbed year by year, each one a further assertion that Gremio was the standard-bearer of Rio Grande do Sul. In the modern era, the Gaúcho record has continued to grow even as Gremio's attention has turned to the Brasileirão, the Copa Libertadores, and the world. The 1983 season, in which Gremio won the Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup, was preceded by a Gaúcho title that fed the confidence and squad depth for the continental run. The 1996 Brasileirão triumph and the 2017 Libertadores victory both had roots in the state competition, where the club sharpened its form. The 43-title record is a living document, a thread connecting the 1903 founders to every generation of blue-and-black fans who still gather in Porto Alegre to watch their club defend the state crown.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at the Olímpico hummed to life over a sea of blue and black. It was a Gaúcho final, and the air in Porto Alegre tasted of rain on hot asphalt and the sharp tang of cheap beer from the kiosks along the avenue. The stand behind Gremio's goal was a single, breathing organism—thirty thousand voices locked in the same rhythm, the same chant, the same refusal to sit still. On the pitch, a young midfielder in the tricolor kit received the ball in the middle third, felt the weight of a century of Gaúcho titles pressing on his shoulders, and drove forward. The Internacional defenders closed in, but he saw the gap, the same gap his grandfather had seen in a different era, a different stadium, the same impossible city. He threaded the pass. The net rippled. And the stand behind him detonated, a sound that was less a cheer than a physical force, a wave of noise that rolled out over the rooftops of Porto Alegre and carried, they said, all the way to the hills. Forty-three. The number on the banner they would unfurl the next morning. The number that meant Gremio had done it again, had taken the state, had kept the blue-and-black thread unbroken from 1903 to this rain-soaked night.

Reader's Guide

The Campeonato Gaúcho, contested since the early 1900s, is the premier state-level competition in Rio Grande do Sul. Gremio's 43 titles make them the most successful club in the tournament's history, a record built across more than a century of competition. The record spans every era of the tournament's evolution, from the amateur and semi-professional seasons of the 1910s and 1920s through the fully professional modern format. Gremio's dominance in the state has been consistent, with titles accumulated in clusters during periods of particular squad strength and in steady drips during others. The competition has always been the crucible in which the Gre-Nal rivalry is tested, and Gremio's record is inextricable from their head-to-head battles with Internacional. Each Gaúcho title carries significance beyond the state. Historically, the state championship has served as a form and confidence-builder for the Brasileirão and continental campaigns. The 1983 Gaúcho title, for example, fed directly into the squad that went on to win the Copa Libertadores and the Intercontinental Cup that year. The 1996 and 2017 campaigns similarly drew on the depth and rhythm built in the state competition. The record of 43 titles is not a single-season achievement but a cumulative legacy. It reflects the club's institutional stability, its ability to develop and retain talent in the state, and its role as the dominant force in Rio Grande do Sul football for over a century. For Gremio supporters, the Gaúcho title is the first and most sacred prize, the one that belongs to the city before it belongs to the nation or the continent.

Did You Know?

• Gremio's 1983 season is one of the most complete in Brazilian football history: the club won the Campeonato Gaúcho, the Copa Libertadores, and the Intercontinental Cup (World Club Championship) in the same year.
• The Gre-Nal, the rivalry between Gremio and Internacional, is one of the oldest and most intense in Brazilian football, with state championship finals between the two clubs stretching back to the early 20th century.
• Gremio was founded on 15 March 1903 in Porto Alegre, making it one of the oldest football clubs in southern Brazil and a contemporary of the sport's arrival in Rio Grande do Sul.
• The club's home ground, now known as Arena do Grêmio, was previously called the Estádio Olímpico Monumental and has hosted the majority of Gremio's Gaúcho title celebrations over the decades.