Grupo Desportivo Estoril Praia (), commonly known as Estoril, is a Portuguese

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

from

Estoril Estoril () is a town in the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a tourist destination, with luxury hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numerous royal families and celebrities, and has host ...

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Portugal, tourist de ...

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

. Founded on 17 May 1939, its

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team currently plays in

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

and hold home games at the

Estádio António Coimbra da Mota Estadio António Coimbra da Mota is a multi-use stadium in Estoril, Portugal. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of Primeira Liga side G.D. Estoril Praia. The stadium has a capacity to hold 8,000 spectators. ...

, with a seating capacity of 8,015. As a sports club, Estoril has departments for football,

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hardcourt, hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and Indoor soccer, indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. Since the club's establishment, the senior football team has won nine secondary trophies, with the most recent being the

2011–12 Liga de Honra The 2011–12 Liga de Honra, also known as Liga Orangina due to sponsorship reasons, was the 22nd season of the second-tier of football in Portugal. A total of 16 teams contested the league, 12 of which already had contested it in the 2009–10, a ...

. As a result, some personnel of the club received awards in relation to their performances in the 2011–12 season, of which include Licá, who won the LPFP Liga de Honra Player of the Year, Vagner, who won the LPFP Liga de Honra Goalkeeper of the Year, and

Marco Silva Marco Alexandre Saraiva da Silva (; born 12 July 1977) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a right-back, currently manager of club Fulham. He played for a variety of Portuguese clubs, finishing his career with a six-year spell at ...

, who won the LPFP Liga de Honra Coach of the Year.

History

Early beginnings

The club was founded on 17 May 1939 as Grupo Desportivo Estoril Plage by, among others, Joaquim Cardim, José Ereia, João Rebelo, Armando Vilar, Ernesto Tomás, and Joaquim Nunes. The club's principal promoter was Fausto Cardoso de Figueiredo, the wealthy owner of the

-Cascais railway, the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

hotels of the city, Paris and the Palace, the bath building, and the

Estoril Casino The Estoril Casino ( pt, Casino do Estoril) is a casino in the Portuguese Riviera, in the municipality of Cascais, Portugal. Today, it is one of the biggest working casinos in Europe. History The first stone was laid on 16 January 1916 by then- ...

. The team's badge and kit colours were inspired by Estoril's many beaches, considered the best in all of Portugal. The yellow symbolizes the colour of the sun, while the blue symbolizes the colour of the neighbouring

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. When the club was initially established it began to play in the ''Campeonato de Lisboa'' which was a league competition contested by teams from

. It also began to compete in the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

. Four years after its establishment, the club has reached the

final in the 1943–44 season in which they lost to Benfica 8–0 at the

Campo das Salésias Campo das Salésias, also known as Estádio José Manuel Soares, was a multi-use stadium in Lisbon, Portugal. It was initially used as the stadium of C.F. Os Belenenses matches. It was replaced by the current Estádio do Restelo The Estádio ...

. Following that season the club reached for the

in the 1944–45 season where they finished seventh in their very first season in Portugal's top flight division. The next season saw the club play in the 1945–46 Segunda Divisão and the 1945–46 Campeonato de Lisboa. The club remained in the top flight until the

1952–53 Primeira Divisão Statistics of Portuguese Liga in the 1952–53 season. Overview It was contested by 14 teams, and Sporting Clube de Portugal won the championship. League standings Results References {{DEFAULTSORT:1952-53 Primeira Divisao Primeira L ...

season where they finished last and were relegated to the

Portuguese Second Division Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Decline and revival

The next season saw them begin their football life in the Segunda Divisão. Estoril played in the division for 22 years before gaining promotion to the top flight again. Following the appointment of experienced English manager

Jimmy Hagan James Hagan (21 January 1918 – 26 February 1998) was an English football player and manager. He played between 1938 and 1958 for Sheffield United and once for England. As manager he had his greatest successes with S.L. Benfica in the early 1 ...

in 1973 who prior to being appointed as manager of Estoril had managed Benfica to three consecutive league titles in 1970–71, 1971–72 and 1972–73 as well as a

in the 1971–72 season he helped the club achieve promotion to

. The club's return saw them finish an impressive eighth place in the league as well as a quarter-finalist in the cup competition. The next ten years saw the club remain in a stable position finishing in mid-table positions up until the mid-1980s. In the late 1980s, the club appointed Fernando Santos as manager. A young coach who had played for the club during his professional career in the 1970s who had retired due to several injuries. He helped the club rebuild itself and improve its players and after three years in charge he helped them gain promotion once again to the top flight at the age of 36. During his time he helped the club establish themselves as a Primeira Liga club up until the 1993–94 season where he left the club for

Estrela da Amadora Club Football Estrela da Amadora (), sometimes just Estrela, is a Portuguese sports club (predominantly football) based in Amadora, northwest of Lisbon. It's the successor of Clube de Futebol Estrela da Amadora, founded in 1932 and extinct in ...

and Estoril in that very season were relegated to the second tier. Since the departure of Fernando Santos as manager in 1994 the club has been lurking around the

Liga de Honra The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Prim ...

. Since the Liga de Honra's establishment the club has participated in fourteen seasons in that division. In the 1998–99 Liga de Honra season, the club suffered relegation to the third tier of Portuguese football for the first time in their history. Since then the club has suffered several promotions and relegation.

Recent years

At the beginning of the millennium, the club was playing in the Portuguese Second Division.

Ulisses Morais Ulisses Manuel Nogueira Morais (born 22 November 1959) is a Portuguese former Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward, currently a Manager (association football), manager. Playing career Born in t ...

took over in 2002 and led the club to back to back promotions leading the club to the top flight. Litos took over for the

2004–05 Primeira Liga The 2004–05 Primeira Liga was the 71st edition of top flight of Portuguese football. It started on 28 August 2004 with a match between Belenenses and Marítimo, and ended on 22 May 2005. Benfica won their 31st league title, with 65 points, ...

season where the club finished seventeenth and were relegated after one season. In the 2011–12 season, the club was promoted to first division by winning the Liga de Honra five points ahead of second place

Moreirense Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, in Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joa ...

. With new owners and under the management of

who halfway through the season took over from Vinícius Eutrópio, the team claimed the second Liga de Honra title in club history. The main players on the title roster were

João Coimbra João Carlos Amaral Marques Coimbra (born 24 May 1986) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Coimbra was born in Santa Comba Dão, Viseu District. A product of S.L. Benfica's youth system, he appe ...

, Licá,

Steven Vitória Steven de Sousa Vitória (born 11 January 1987) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a centre-back for Primeira Liga club Chaves and the Canada national team. Having started out at Porto, he went on to play for several clubs ...

and Vagner. The 2012–13 season marked the return of the club to the

and saw them finish in an impressive fifth place in the league, from the position of newly promoted, and also qualify for the

third qualifying round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

, marking its first presence in the European competitions. Estoril reached

group stages after defeating

Hapoel Ramat Gan Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim F.C. ( he, מועדון כדורגל הפועל רמת-גן גבעתיים, ''Moadon Kaduregel Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim'') is an Israeli football club from Ramat Gan and Givatayim. They currently play in Liga Leumit, ...

and

Pasching Pasching is a municipality in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. It is situated a few miles southwest of Linz and borders Leonding, Hörsching, Wilhering and Traun. Situated along the famous ''shopping mile'' the Kremstal Straße, it is t ...

. They finished fourth place in a group against

Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Gua ...

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

and

Slovan Liberec FC Slovan Liberec (), commonly referred to as Slovan Liberec or simply Slovan, is a Czech football club based in the city of Liberec. The club is one of the most successful in the Czech Republic, having won three league titles and the domesti ...

, with only three points in three draws against Sevilla and Freiburg (twice). In the 2013–14 season, Estoril finished in fourth place, marking its best performance ever in the Portuguese first division, qualifying directly to Europa League's Group Stage, thanks to Benfica's victory over Rio Ave in the Taça de Portugal.

Stadium

Estoril currently play at the

which holds a seating capacity of 8,015. The stadium also plays host to Estoril's reserve team home games. The

Swedish national football team The Sweden national football team ( sv, svenska fotbollslandslaget) represents Sweden in men's international football and it is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body of football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is F ...

used the stadium as a training ground in preparation for

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

. The stadium has also played host to matches of Portuguese youth team games most notably the Portuguese national under-21 football team. The stadium has also played host to games involving the Portuguese national rugby union team, most recently being against

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

in a 2006 European Nations Cup First Division match and against

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

in a 2007 Rugby World Cup repechage qualification match.

European cup history

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

U23 squad

Former players

Honours

Domestic honours

** ''Runners-up (1):'' 1943–44 *

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Prim ...

** Winners (3): 2003–04, 2011–12,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

** Winners (5): 1941–42, 1943–44, 1945–46, 1974–75, 2002–03 *

Liga Intercalar The Liga Intercalar or Reserves Championship was a competition that served mainly to rotate less used players, juniors and players returning from injury. The first edition (2007–2008) was organized by the Football Association of Porto, monitored ...

** Winners (1): 2009–10 * "FPF" Cup ** ''Runners-up (1):'' 1976–77 * AF Lisbon First Division ** Winners (1): 1968–69

Personnel honours

* LPFP Liga de Honra Player of the Year ** 2011–12 : Licá * LPFP Liga de Honra Goalkeeper of the Year ** 2011–12 : Vagner * LPFP Liga de Honra Coach of the Year ** 2011–12 :

Coaching Staff

Coaching history

* Augusto Silva (1942–45) * Lippo Hertzka (1946–47) *

János Biri János Biri (21 July 1901 – 29 March 1983) was a Hungarian footballer and coach. Biri played as a goalkeeper for a number of clubs, most notably Padova and MTK Budapest FC, also representing Hungary in the 1924 Summer Olympics. He is best kn ...

(1947–49) *

(1973–75) * António Medeiros (1975–77) *

José Torres José ("Chegüi") Torres (May 3, 1936 – January 19, 2009) was a Puerto Rican-born American professional boxer. As an amateur boxer, he won a silver medal in the junior middleweight division at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. In 1965, he ...

(1979–81) *

(1981–82) *

Mário Wilson Mário Wilson (; 17 October 1929 – 3 October 2016) was a Portuguese football central defender and manager. He appeared in 286 Primeira Liga matches over 14 seasons, mainly in representation of Académica. He also played for Desportivo de Lou ...

(1983–84) * António Medeiros (1984) *

(1984–86) * António Fidalgo (1986–87) * Fernando Santos (1987–94) *

Carlos Manuel Carlos Manuel Correia dos Santos (; born 15 January 1958), known as Carlos Manuel, is a Portuguese retired professional footballer who played as a central midfielder, and a manager. Best known for his spell at Benfica, for which he appeared i ...

(1994–96) * Isidro Beato (1996–98) * Rui Águas (1998–99) *

Minervino Pietra Minervino José Lopes Pietra (1 March 1954 – 7 March 2024) was a Portuguese footballer who played as a right-back. He appeared in 323 Primeira Liga games over the course of 16 seasons, with Belenenses and Benfica (28 goals scored). Subsequ ...

(1999–00) * José Rachão (2000–01) *

José Morais José Manuel Ferreira de Morais (born 27 July 1965) is a Portuguese professional football coach and former player. Morais arrived at Inter Milan in July 2009 to replace the departing André Villas-Boas, who took the head coaching position with ...

(2001–02) *

(1 Nov 2002 – 23 August 2004) * Litos (24 Aug 2004 – 30 June 2005) * Daúto Faquirá (1 July 2005 – 5 January 2006) *

Marco Paulo Marco Paulo is a masculine Portuguese given name. Notable people with the name include: * Marco Paulo Rebelo Lopes, (born 1976) Angolan international footballer of Portuguese descent * Marco Paulo Faria Lemos, (born 1973) Portuguese footballer * Ma ...

(6 Jan 2006 – 27 January 2006) * Litos (28 Jan 2006 – 24 May 2007) *

Tulipa Tulips (''Tulipa'') are a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm ...

(28 May 2007 – 24 September 2008) * Manuel Pinho ''(interim)'' (25 September 2008 – 29 September 2008) *

João Carlos Pereira João Carlos Serra Ferreira Pereira (born 11 April 1965) is a Portuguese football manager and former player. As a player he was a winger. Playing career Born in Luanda, Portuguese Angola to Portuguese parents, Pereira started playing football w ...

(30 September 2008 – 25 May 2009) *

Hélder Cristóvão Hélder is a given name in Portuguese. The unrelated German-Jewish surname "Helder" is also given the accent in Portuguese, such as the Portuguese poet Herberto Hélder (1930-). The name is sometimes confused with Heitor. People named Hélder incl ...

(1 July 2009 – 28 September 2009) * Neca (29 September 2009 – 10 May 2010) *

Vinícius Eutrópio Vinícius Soares Eutrópio (born 27 June 1966) is a Brazilian professional football manager and former player who played as a defensive midfielder. He is the current manager of Confiança. Managerial career After being seven years in Atlético ...

(14 May 2010 – 27 September 2011) *

(28 September 2011 – 12 May 2014) *

José Couceiro José Júlio de Carvalho Peyroteo Martins Couceiro (born 4 October 1962) is a Portuguese football manager, currently the national technical director of the Portuguese Football Federation. Managerial career As a manager, Couceiro's career is marke ...

(24 May 2014–)

League and cup history

:A. Also participated in the Campeonato de Lisboa. :C. The

was not held due to the end of the regional championships. As a result of this, a new format and scheduling scheme was introduced for the competition. :D. Best league classification finish in the club's history. :E. The

was not held due to the

Latin Cup The Latin Cup was an international football tournament for club sides from the Southwest European nations of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. In 1949 the football federations came together and requested FIFA to launch the competition. Europ ...

being held at the

Estádio Nacional The Estádio Nacional (English: National Stadium), also known as National Stadium Sports Complex ( pt, Complexo Desportivo do Estádio Nacional) and as ''Jamor Sports Complex'' ( pt, Complexo Desportivo do Jamor), is a national football stadium ...

. :E. Due to COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal, LigaPro was cancelled with 10 matches to play. Last updated: 18 July 2014
Div. = Division; 1D = Portuguese League; 2H =

; 2DS/2D =

Pos. = Position; Pl = Match played; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Lost; GS = Goal scored; GA = Goal against; P = Points

References

External links

*
Club Profile
at

LPFP The Liga Portugal (Portugal League), also known by its acronym LPFP, is a governing body that manages professional football club competitions in Portugal. It was founded in 1978 as Liga Portuguesa dos Clubes de Futebol Profissional and works as an ...

Club profile
at ZeroZero (archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Estoril Praia Football clubs in Portugal Association football clubs established in 1939 1939 establishments in Portugal Primeira Liga clubs Liga Portugal 2 clubs