Cidade do Galo ("Rooster City") is

Clube Atlético Mineiro The Clube Atlético Mineiro (), commonly known as Atlético Mineiro and colloquially as the Galo (, "Rooster"), is a professional association football club in Belo Horizonte, the capital city of the States of Brazil, Brazilian state of Minas ...

's training ground, located in Vespasiano, a municipality adjacent to

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte is the List of largest cities in Brazil, sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population of around 2.3 million, and the third largest metropolitan area, containing a population of 6 million. It is the List of cities in Sout ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Construction of the first training pitch started in 1982, but for almost three decades the facility was gradually improved, with Clube Atlético Mineiro's first squad training in the grounds for the first time in 2001, and the official inauguration happening in 2006. Cidade do Galo has been selected as the best training facility in Brazil and one of the best in the world.

History

Acquisition of the land where the ground is located started in 1980, with purchase of an adjacent area and celebration of a partnership with company Precon for the construction of the main buildings happening in 1984. The first training pitch was completed in 1982, but from 1985 to 1998 construction for the then named "Centro de Treinamento do Galo" remained largely stalled. In 2001, the club's first-squad moved from Vila Olímpica, the club's old training grounds, to the Centro de Treinamento, despite construction being unfinished. From 2001 onwards construction restarted, and in 2005 the youth squads moved to the grounds, with the first-squad hotel being finished in 2006, the same year in which the facility was officially inaugurated by club president Ricardo Annes Guimarães. The name "Cidade do Galo" was unofficially adopted in 2005, being registered in the Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial in 2007. In 2008, Cidade do Galo hosted the

Brazil national football team The Brazil national football team (), nicknamed ''Seleção Canarinho'' ("Canary Squad", after their bright yellow jersey), represents Brazil in men's international Association football, football and is administered by the Brazilian Football Co ...

in preparation for a match against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

in Belo Horizonte, and in May 2010, a research conducted by Universidade Federal de Viçosa and SporTV, which evaluated human resources, material resources, physical facilities and logistics, elected Cidade do Galo as the best training facility in Brazil. In 2014, the facility hosted the Argentina national team that finished second place in the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

, and in the same year

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

selected Cidade do Galo as one of the five best football training grounds in the world, the only one outside of Europe.

Facilities

The complex, which has a built area of 5,850

square metre The square metre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or square meter ( American spelling) is the unit of area in the International System of Units (SI) with symbol m2. It is the area of a square ...

s and a total area of 244,460 square metres, includes four official size football pitches, a first-class hotel for first-squad players and youth academy with 20 suites, gaming room, restaurant, auditorium, panoramic deck and industrial kitchen, physiology room, medical and dentistry departments, climatized lockerrooms with hydrotherapy tubs, gym, spa pools, ice tank, 7-a-side football pitch and laundry room. The Press Room has a view to the main training pitch and includes multimedia resources and infrastructure for media professionals.

References

External links

Cidade do Galo on Atlético Mineiro's official website
{{Clube Atlético Mineiro Clube Atlético Mineiro Galo Sports venues in Minas Gerais