Santa Cruz Futebol Clube (Rio Grande do Norte)

Not to be confused with Sport Club Santa Cruz.

Brazilian football club

Football club

Santa Cruz de Natal

Full name| Santa Cruz Futebol Clube
Nickname(s)| Tricolor de Natal
Santinha
Founded| 1934
25 December 1965; 58 years ago (1965-12-25)
Ground| Arena das Dunas, Natal
Capacity| 31,375
Chairman| João Batista Nobre
Manager| Fernando Tonet
League| Campeonato Brasileiro Série D
Campeonato Potiguar
2023 [pt]| Potiguar, 4th of 8

Home colours

Away colours

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Santa Cruz Futebol Clube, usually known as Santa Cruz or Santa Cruz de Natal, is a Brazilian football club from Natal, Rio Grande do Norte.

Santa Cruz is currently ranked fifth among Rio Grande do Norte teams in CBF's national club ranking, at 163rd place overall.[1]

## History[edit]

Originally founded in 1934 as Santa Cruz Esporte e Cultura, the club won one Campeonato Potiguar in 1943 before ceasing activities in the early 1960s. In 1965, the club was refounded as Santa Cruz Futebol Clube.

Santa Cruz subsequently spent more than 30 years without playing, only returning to amateur competitions in 2011. Four years later, the club entered in the second division of the Potiguar, finishing second and missing out promotion as only the champion moved up to the first division.

In 2017, after being crowned champions of the second division in the previous year, Santa Cruz returned to the first division after more than 50 years, and narrowly avoided relegation. In 2018, the club finished in an impressive 3rd place, qualifying to the following year's Série D and the Copa do Brasil.[2]

## References[edit]

1. ^ "RNC - Ranking Nacional dos Clubes 2022" (PDF). CBF. 16 December 2021.
2. ^ "Conheça o Santa Cruz de Natal, adversário do Bahia nesta quarta-feira" (in Brazilian Portuguese). Torcedores.com. 6 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.

## External links[edit]

* FNF team profile (in Portuguese)
* Soccerway team profile

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Campeonato Brasileiro Série D

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