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Sporting Clube de Portugal; sometimes referred
wrongly to as Sporting Lisbon) is a sports club based in Lisbon,
Portugal. The club is particularly renowned for its football
branch, which is Portugal's most followed sport. With about
100,000 registered club members, Sporting is among the most
successful and popular sports clubs in Portugal, its teams,
athletes and supporters being oftenly nicknamed "os Leões"
- "the Lions".
Along
with F.C. Porto and S.L. Benfica, Sporting Clube de Portugal
is one of the "Big Three" clubs in Portugal. It is
one of the clubs with the greatest number of medals and victories
in olympic competitions worldwide as well as being one of the
most notable on an European level, in the number of trophies
won in every sport.
History
The club's foundation was instigated by José Holtreman
Roquette (José of Alvalade), with the support in money
and land of his grandfather, Alfredo Augusto das Neves Holtreman,
Viscount of Alvalade. The Viscount of Alvalade was the first
President of Sporting Clube de Portugal. The club was established
in 1902 as Sport Club de Belas, which became Campo Grande Sporting
Club in 1904, and took its current name of Sporting Clube de
Portugal in 1906.
Within
Portugal, the club is often referred to simply as "Sporting".
Outside Portugal, the most commonly used name of the club is
"Sporting Lisbon". In the past the club has attempted
to shed this name, particularly through ex-president Sousa Cintra
and his staff, in an effort to become known abroad by its native
name. Despite this, the English-language media still uses Sporting
Lisbon due to precedent and to avoid confusion with other clubs
such as Sporting Braga, Sporting Covilhã and Sporting
Gijón, instead of using a more proper and accurate name
like Sporting Portugal.
Organisation
Sporting Clube de Portugal is a multisports club, parent to
many different competitive departments, including football,
futsal, athletics and handball, amongst others. The football
department is the largest by budget and popularity. The other
departments of the club (the ranks of which include Olympic
winners and World Champions) are managed by specialized professionals
according to each sport specificity and have their own policy
and government bodies.
Stadium
Estádio José Alvalade Sporting Clube de Portugal
boasts a new stadium, Estádio José Alvalade, built
for the 2004 European Football Championship. Sporting also has
a world-class football training facility (Academia Sporting
in Alcochete), which accommodated Portugal during the Euro 2004
competition, and helped to produce some of the best Portuguese
players, such as Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo.
It
was designed by Tomás Taveira and was classified by UEFA
as a 5-star stadium, enabling it to host finals of major UEFA
events. This stadium - originally projected to hold only 40,000
spectators at any given time - has a capacity of 52,000 and
was acoustically engineered as a venue for major concerts. Its
official opening was on 6 August 2003 when Sporting played and
beat Manchester United 3-1. It also hosted the 2005 UEFA Cup
final between Sporting and CSKA Moscow, which CSKA won 3-1.
The
stadium was also one of the stadia that hosted matches during
Euro 2004. There were five games played in Estádio José
Alvalade, one of them being the semi-final between Portugal
and The Netherlands, which Portugal won 2-1. This match won
the title of Best Organised in the whole competition. It was
a great game for all Portuguese football fans.
Sporting's youth academy
Famous for its football youth academy system which features
a range of well-equipped facilities and is one of the most renowned
in the world, Sporting has continuously developed many world
class footballers. Some of its most notable home-bred footballers,
many of them incidentally wingers, include João Moutinho
and Miguel Veloso in the current squad, Paulo Futre (retired),
Luís Figo (Inter Milan), Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani (Manchester
United), as well as Luís Boa Morte (West Ham United).
The long list of valuable players who developed their skills
in the youth academy of the club, include other noted footballers
such as Dani (retired) who played for Ajax Amsterdam, former
FC Barcelona player Ricardo Quaresma (who joined Porto in 2004),
Simão Sabrosa (Atlético de Madrid), Hugo Viana
and Custódio. Sporting's youth academy was considered
by Luiz Felipe Scolari (Portugal's national coach) and José
Pekerman (former Argentina national coach) as one of the best
sports academies in the world. It was also the home training
ground for the Portuguese national football team during Euro
2004. A great number of European clubs choose the Sporting's
Academia for training in the off-season.
The
Academy (known as the Academia de Alcochete) has been renamed
Sporting/Puma Academy (Academia Sporting/Puma) to reflect the
sponsoring and naming contract signed by the club and the sports
brand Puma in 2006; the contract will last until 2012.
Historical results
Sporting 3-3 FK Partizan, 1956 (inaugural game of the European
Cup)
Sporting 7-1 Sport Lisboa e Benfica, 1986
Sporting 5-0 Manchester United, 1964
Sporting 1-0 MTK, 1964 (Final Replay of the UEFA Cup Winners'
Cup, the only European title in Sporting's history)
Sporting 16-1 APOEL Nicosia, in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1963-64
(the greatest win by goal difference and by number of goals
scored in any UEFA competition, European record)
Sporting 4-1 Newcastle United FC, 2005 (losing by two goals
in the aggregate score, in the second match (Alvalade Stadium),
Sporting won the game by 4-1 (aggregate score 4-2), reaching
the semi-finals)
Sporting 21-0 Mindelense (the biggest goal difference in a Portuguese
Cup match)
Sporting 5-3 Sport Lisboa e Benfica (Wednesday, April 16, 2008,
Sporting came down from 0-2 to score 5 goals in less than 30
minutes in the second half)
Official Song
A Marcha do Sporting, de Maria josé Valério, tornou-se
no Hino do Sporting, apesar do clube também ter um hino.
É ao som da marcha que os «leões»
entram em campo em Alvalade. Oiça a Marcha do Sporting.
O
Sporting nasceu um dia
Sob o signo do leão
Nós aprendemos a amá-lo
E a trazê-lo no coração
Rapaziada oiçam bem o que eu lhes digo
E gritem todos comigo
Viva ao Sporting!
Rapaziada
quer se possa
Ou se não possa
A vitória será nossa
Viva ao Sporting!
Rapaziada
oiçam bem o que eu lhes digo
E gritem todos comigo
Viva ao Sporting!
Rapaziada
quer se possa
Ou se não possa
A vitória será nossa
Viva ao Sporting!
Bandeira
verde o Leão
E uma esperança sem fim
Muita fé no coração
O sportinguista é assim
Rapaziada
oiçam bem o que eu lhes digo
E gritem todos comigo
Viva ao Sporting!
Rapaziada
quer se possa
Ou se não possa
A vitória será nossa
Viva ao Sporting!
Rapaziada
oiçam bem o que eu lhes digo
E gritem todos comigo
Viva ao Sporting!
Rapaziada
quer se possa
Ou se não possa
A vitória será nossa
Viva ao Sporting!
Ai
vamos lá cantar a marcha
Que é a de todos nós
Cantam todos os do Sporting
Desde os netos até aos avós
Rapaziada
oiçam bem o que eu lhes digo
E gritem todos comigo
Viva ao Sporting!
Rapaziada
quer se possa
Ou se não possa
A vitória será nossa
Viva ao Sporting!
Rapaziada
oiçam bem o que eu lhes digo
E gritem todos comigo
Viva ao Sporting!
Rapaziada
quer se possa
Ou se não possa
A vitória é sempre nossa
Viva ao Sporting!
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