Open AccessWhereas an initial step in the management of stakeholders is the identification and classification of these actors, this study sought to answer the research question: how managers of Brazilian professional soccer clubs identify and classify their stakeholders? The theoretical framework used was the Stakeholder Theory, developed by Freeman (1984) and other researchers. The method used was proposed by Almeida et al. (2000), which assesses the saliency through the concepts power, legitimacy and urgency, that were proposed in the study of Mitchell et al. (1997). There were two propositions concerning the context of Brazilian soccer clubs: first, that the urgency perceived by managers in the demands of a stakeholder is high when his legitimacy is high and other one is that the most salient stakeholders for the managers are those with high degrees of legitimacy. Stakeholders were surveyed as perceived by the managers of Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras. Three types of stakeholders were classified as demanding (sponsors, partners and the partner for the construction of the new stadium) and three as dependents (members, athletes of professional soccer team and the media). Other stakeholders identified were classified as irrelevant, including the fans and and the organized groups of fans. It can be said that in the specific case of these managers of this particular football club, the trend was the acceptance of both propositions.