00:00These images were recorded this week.
00:02In Rio de Janeiro, Fluminense fans are painting banners and posters in support of PSG.
00:08And it's not just anywhere, you know?
00:10It's in Rocinha, the largest favela in Latin America.
00:13It's hard to imagine a more improbable scenario for a tribute to a French club.
00:19Yes, even more so coming from a Brazilian club,
00:22historically associated with the elites of Rio de Janeiro society.
00:26There is nothing at stake for Brazilian football.
00:28And yet they were there.
00:30Paints, posters, a flag. Why?
00:33Because there's the Champions League final, PSG against Arsenal.
00:36And for a portion of the Fluminense fans, it was like a final for them.
00:41Today I'm going to tell you the origin of this story.
00:44How did this brotherhood come about?
00:46Because this is one of the most improbable stories.
00:49and also more beautiful than anything football has ever produced.
00:52But first, for those of you who don't follow the Champions League,
00:54Let me give you some context about the magnitude of what's at stake.
00:56PSG are the current champions.
00:58They won in 2025, the club's first Champions League title.
01:02Against Arsenal, they are looking for their second consecutive championship.
01:06And only one club has achieved this in the modern era of the Champions League.
01:09Real Madrid, who won three in a row between 2016 and 2018.
01:13Now we can understand why.
01:15And if you're already enjoying this video, I ask that you give it a like.
01:19Share this with your friends and take the opportunity to subscribe to our channel here.
01:22A psychoanalyst, professor at UERJ (Rio de Janeiro State University), and member of one of Fluminense's main organized fan groups.
01:28In 2012, he went to Paris to further his research on marginalized youth cultures.
01:34Look at the thesis right there.
01:35And he realizes that football stands are a perfect laboratory.
01:40Paris was an intentional choice.
01:42At that time, PSG had a clear political division within its own fanbase.
01:46On one side, more conservative groups.
01:49On the other side, there are fan groups made up of immigrants, Arabs, Muslims, and Black people from African families.
01:55Fan groups from the outskirts of the city that didn't have much space in the club's official narrative.
01:59The psychoanalyst identified with this second group.
02:02And perhaps it's not just a coincidence.
02:05Fluminense still carries this stigma of being the club of playboys, of orange trees,
02:10connected to the elites here in Rio de Janeiro football.
02:12But within the Fluminense fanbase, just like within the PSG fanbase, this tension also exists.
02:18There are a lot of people who don't identify with that label.
02:20People from the periphery, diverse, who have been fighting against this image for decades.
02:26And that's when what started as research turned into a friendship.
02:29They went to games together, in France and at the Maracanã.
02:33They exchanged shirts, they learned the songs.
02:36A partnership that didn't originate in the marketing department,
02:39But it's about a true friendship, in the most organic way possible.
02:44The kind of experience only a stadium grandstand can provide.
02:48For years, this story existed in silence.
02:51Small circle.
02:52Those who knew, knew.
02:54But then came November 2023.
02:57Fluminense in the Libertadores final.
03:00Maracanã against Boca Juniors.
03:03Days before the final, PSG plays at the Parc des Princes.
03:06And the French unfurl a banner in the middle of the stands.
03:10Come on, tricolores!
03:12The time has come.
03:13Fluminense won the Libertadores Cup.
03:15And in 2025, when PSG reached its first Champions League final,
03:19The tricolors reciprocated.
03:21The banner at Maracanã said
03:23Le Paris.
03:25Go, Paris!
03:26A Brazilian crowd at the Maracanã,
03:28Rooting for PSG.
03:30And now, a year later, in 2026,
03:33The tricolor fans waking up early to hang banners and posters.
03:37in the Rocinha favela,
03:38before the final of yet another Champions League.
03:41Nowadays it's easy to think that football is just a business.
03:43Million-dollar transfers,
03:45contracts, broadcasting rights.
03:47Yes, but sometimes a story like that comes along.
03:49It started with a teacher getting on a plane,
03:52with a thesis that turned into a friendship.
03:54PSG and Arsenal face off in Budapest.
03:57And on the other side of the ocean, here in Rio de Janeiro,
04:00Fluminense fans will be glued to their televisions.
04:03heart racing,
04:05Cheering as if it were their own team.
04:07And now I ask you,
04:08Did you already know this story?
04:10Your team, your beloved club,
04:12Do you have a friendship like that, similar to this?
04:14Or is this thing really that unusual?
04:17Like our video, share it with your friends.
04:19And subscribe here to Lanço TV.
04:21It cost!
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