The club known as Audax only played their first professional match in 2007 but have surprised everyone this year with the kind of high-tempo passing game that is rare in Brazil.
Formed by a supermarket chain to buy and sell young players, the club based in the Sao Paulo suburb of Rochdale has been sold once in the decade since and changed their name twice.
Although their home gates can sometimes be measured in the hundreds rather than the thousands, they have taken on the state giants this year and won.
They hammered Sao Paulo 4-1 in the quarter-finals and then went to Corinthians and won on penalties in the last four.
Audax drew the first leg of the final 1-1 at home to Santos last weekend and will hope to hand Pele's former club a first home defeat since last July when they play the return leg this Sunday.
But no matter the score, their feats so far have won the club comparisons with Leicester and their manager Fernando Diniz is talked of in the same breath as Foxes boss Claudio Rainieri.
"In terms of shocks, Leicester is greater than Audax," said Mauricio Barros, a former editor of Brazil's premier football magazine Placar.
"(But) Audax is one of the biggest surprises in Brazilian football for years. They play such nice football, and always try to pass the ball.
"Diniz has been there three years getting them to play the way he wants. It's innovative that way of playing football and so different from what we are used to.
"In terms of novelty, I see the work of Fernando Diniz as more spectacular than Rainieri at Leicester."
Unlike Leicester, who have yet to sell any of their star performers, Audax are already resigned to losing players who took them so far this year.
At least three of them have signed pre-contract deals with Corinthians and Palmeiras, two of the biggest clubs in the country.
(Editing by John O'Brien)
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