Botafogo fans celebrate their team’s victory in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Two of Brazil’s oldest and most venerable football clubs met at the Mâs Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the final match of the Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL) Libertadores cup. Botafogo, a team that has never won the cup, defeated its rivals Atlético Mineiro 3-1. Thousands of Botafogo fans, watching the match on screens at the Nilton Santos Stadium, the team’s home stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, gather together to experience not only collective joy in victory, but relief and redemption.
The Copa Libertadores is about more than just determining the best football club in any given year in South America; the cup transcends sport, symbolizing national pride, identity, and a country’s history. Despite Botafogo’s storied past, the club has never won the Copa. Many of its fans viewed the match with a sense of dread mixed with excitement, which is why the final victory was met with a wave of cathartic emotion captured at its peak in this image. “These two guys didn’t know each other until this match,” says the photographer. “But if you see this hug, this photo, you could think it was two brothers or a father and son or childhood friends. But it’s not.”
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