Flamengo’s season lasted until yesterday, December 17th, when the team faced Paris Saint-Germain in the final of the Intercontinental Cup, in Doha (Qatar) — a 1-1 draw after extra time, and a 2-1 defeat on penalties. However, the year 2026 is already knocking on the door and the club needs to start preparing as quickly as possible.
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Due to the World Cup in the middle of the year, the calendar will be tight and will bring something new: the Brasileirão starts in January. In the first round, the red and black team will visit São Paulo. Before that, it starts in the Campeonato Carioca and competes in the Supercopa do Brasil, against the champion of the Copa do Brasil — Vasco or Corinthians.
The re-presentation schedule has not yet been released by Flamengo, but the tendency is for the cast to return to work between the 7th or 8th of January. In other words, the players will have less than a month of vacation, a situation that must be agreed in the middle of the World Cup, at least for those who are not called up by their national teams.
A pre-season in the United States has been considered over the last few months, but the board has already backed away from the idea and the preparation will have to be done at Ninho do Urubu itself.
The first rounds of Carioca will be played by the under-20 team, which is why Flamengo gave up competing in the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior. In fact, the boys started preparing for the State Championships today (18th). The club’s youth academy director, Alfredo Almeida, will accompany the group starting tomorrow at Ninho do Urubu.
After a few rounds, the main group takes over and enters the scene for the main competitions of the year. With a busy season, Flamengo will also be in the Libertadores, of which they are the current champions, the Recopa Sul-Americana — against Lanús — and the Copa do Brasil.
The main doubts that hang in the air to define the planning for 2026 are the permanence of Filipe Luís and José Boto. The coach has a contract until the end of this month and renewal negotiations have been going on for months. The director can leave his contract without having to pay a termination fine, and has his name linked to European football clubs after a successful season.
The good news, however, is that the trend is for the duo that heads the top of Ninho do Urubu to continue. According to Diogo Dantas’ blog, after finishing second at the Intercontinental, Filipe Luís made a request to the players: for everyone to take care of themselves during the holidays, with an eye on their return in January. The farewell had clear signs of a “see you later”.
The renewal is treated as a priority by the management of president Luiz Eduardo Baptista, Bap, who will resume conversations with the coach’s agent, Jorge Mendes. Even if the staff’s desire is to go to Europe, there shouldn’t be any top clubs needing a coach in the middle of the Old Continent season, and staying could be good for Filipe to mature even more in his position.
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Boto is another who has been negotiating a contract renewal with Flamengo, this time to establish an agreement with a termination fine. The Portuguese is willing to stay and has hinted that he is already leading actions in the transfer market to hire reinforcements.
From now on, Flamengo goes on vacation, and conversations should be resumed by next week. Still in Qatar, Filipe said he would have a meeting with Bap and Boto this Thursday, which did not happen. He went straight to Spain, while Boto went to Portugal to take a few days off. However, with no more games on the way, the club needs to resolve its future urgently so as not to jeopardize next season’s planning.
