📸 SE Palmeiras Photo Gallery (Photo: 13)

Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (Brazilian Portuguese: [sosjeˈdadʒi ispoʁˈtʃivɐ pawˈmejɾɐs] ), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with an approximate 21 million supporters and 198,656 affiliated fans. The football team plays in the Campeonato Paulista, the state of São Paulo's premier state league, as well as in the Brasileirão Série A, the top tier of the Brazilian football league system.

The Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras was founded by Italian immigrants on 26 August 1914, as \"Palestra Itália\" (pronounced [paˌlɛstɾiˈtaljɐ]). However, the club changed its name on 14 September 1942, as a result of Brazil joining the Allies in the Second World War against Italy (\"Itália\" in Portuguese) and the Axis powers. Since then, Palmeiras has won 18 top-tier national competitions, including a record 12 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, 4 Copas do Brasil, 1 Copa dos Campeões, and 1 Supercopa do Brasil making it the most successful club in top-tier domestic competitions in Brazil. In international club football, the Verdão (Big Green One) has won the first ever international tournament known as Copa Rio in 1951, the 1999, 2020 and 2021 Copa Libertadores, the 2022 Recopa Sudamericana, and the 1998 Copa Mercosul. The club has also been successful at a regional level as they have won 5 Interstate titles (Torneio Rio – São Paulo), and 26 State Championship titles (Campeonato Paulista).

Palmeiras currently occupies the second position on CBF and the first position CONMEBOL rankings, and was the first Brazilian club to win the IFFHS Men's Club World Ranking in 2021.

The squads for all five FIFA World Cups and two Olympic gold medals won by Brazil have had at least one Palmeiras player in them, an honour shared with cross-city rivals São Paulo.

The name Palmeiras usually refers to the football club, yet its athletic department competes in more than a dozen different sports. These include basketball and roller hockey (rink hockey), American football, archery, and karate among others.