NFL Adds Another South American City to Its Future International Games Lineup

American football will be played at one of world sport's most famous venues.

The historic Maracanã Stadium Stadium will receive a visit from the NFL. / Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

After a successful two-game stint in São Paulo, the NFL is headed to a new Brazilian city in 2026.

The league will "play a minimum of three regular-season games over five years" at the historic Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, it announced Friday morning. Constructed for the 1950 World Cup, the home of historic soccer teams Flamengo and Fluminense is the largest in Brazil.

"Building on the success of the games in São Paulo, we could not be more excited to play in one of the world's most iconic cities—Rio de Janeiro," commissioner Roger Goodell said in a league statement. "We look forward to working closely with our city and state partners in Rio along with the historic Maracanã Stadium to deepen our ties to the tens of millions of fans in Brazil and across South America."

The move is part of an aggressive international push by the NFL in recent years, unique even in a globally-minded era of American sports. In the next two years alone, the league will play games in Australia, Brazil, England, Germany, Ireland and Spain.

Once largely a standing-only stadium, the Maracanã Stadium has drawn soccer crowds as large as 194,603; its current capacity is 78,838.

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