Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, 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 the city of
Braga
Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...
. It is best known for the professional
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 playing in the
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, ...
, the top flight of
Portuguese football
Association football ( pt, futebol), the most popular sport in Portugal, has a long and storied history in the country, following its introduction in 1875 in cities such as Funchal, Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra by English merchants and Portuguese ...
at the
Estádio Municipal de Braga
The Municipal Stadium of Braga ( pt, Estádio Municipal de Braga) is an all-seater football stadium located in Braga, Portugal, and the current home of Sporting Clube de Braga. It has a capacity of 30,286 spectators, making it the seventh larges ...
.
Founded on 19 January 1921, Braga are nicknamed, ''Braguistas'', and ''Os Arsenalistas'' (The Arsenalists) for the shirt colour that resembles English club
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
. Since 2003, Braga have played their home matches at the
Estádio Municipal de Braga
The Municipal Stadium of Braga ( pt, Estádio Municipal de Braga) is an all-seater football stadium located in Braga, Portugal, and the current home of Sporting Clube de Braga. It has a capacity of 30,286 spectators, making it the seventh larges ...
, which replaced the
Estádio 1º de Maio
The 1 May Stadium ( pt, Estádio Primeiro de Maio/Estádio 1.º de Maio) is a multi-purpose stadium in civil parish of Braga (São José de São Lázaro e São João do Souto) in the municipality of Braga, in the district of the same name. Built ...
, now used for the
club's reserve team. Unlike most European sporting entities, Braga's members (''sócios'') have owned and operated the club throughout its history.
In the 2000s, Braga became
one of Portugal's most decorated clubs (7th) after the
Big Three and has had some success in European competitions, winning the last
UEFA Intertoto Cup
The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...
(the only Portuguese club to do so) in 2008, and reaching the final of the
UEFA 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 ...
in 2011, cultivating the reputation of being regarded as the fourth strongest club in Portugal, outside of the Big Three. Domestically, they have also won another 6 domestic trophies: three
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 ...
in
1965–66,
2015–16, and in
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 ...
, and the
Taça da Liga
The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tier ...
twice in
2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
and
2019–20. Braga have a long-standing rivalry with nearby club
Vitória de Guimarães
Vitoria or Vitória may refer to :
People
* Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian
* Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer
* Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer
* Steven Vitória (b ...
, with whom they contest the ''Derby do Minho''.
The club qualified for the
2010–11 UEFA Champions League
The 2010–11 UEFA Champions League was the 56th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 19th under the UEFA Champions League format. The final was held at Wembley Stadium in London on 28 May 2011, where Bar ...
, reaching the competition for the first time in their history, by eliminating
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
and
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 ...
following a 2nd place finish in the
2009–10 Primeira Liga
The 2009–10 Primeira Liga (also known as the Liga Sagres for sponsorship reasons) was the 76th season of the Primeira Liga, the top professional league for Portuguese association football clubs. It began on 16 August 2009 and ended on 9 May 201 ...
season. This represented the highest finish in the league in the club's history. Moreover, in the 2010s, Braga have cultivated a reputation for spotting and developing young talent, and have remained focused on developing a
youth system
In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...
.
History
Braga changed their kits from green and white to their current red and white during the 1945–46 season (for the reserve squad) and the 1946–47 season (for the first team). The change, according to one version of the story, was at the behest of their president, José Antunes Guimarães, who had business connections in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and was an Arsenal fan; according to an alternate version, it was
József Szabó
József Szabó (born 10 March 1969) is a retired Hungarian swimmer. He competed in three individual events at the 1988 Olympics and won a gold medal in the 200 m breaststroke; he placed fourth in the 400 m and 24th in the 200 m medley eve ...
, Braga's Hungarian coach, who asked the president to change the green and white uniform to an Arsenal-style red and white. In 1947, Braga won the Second division title in the new
kit, reaching the First division for the first time. Braga even renamed their youth team ''Arsenal de Braga''.
![BragavsCelta](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/BragavsCelta.jpg)
Braga's emblem is the city of
Braga
Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...
's shield with
Mother Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
and baby
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
with the blue from the city's shield changed to red. On the top of the emblem is the golden Mural Crown of Braga, with the name "Sporting Clube de Braga" on it. Many Braga fans have said that Mother Mary gives them luck. The fans of Braga are known as ''Arsenalistas'' due to their team home kit that resembles that of English club Arsenal. They are also known as ''Bracarenses'' because of being from the city of
Bracari The Bracari or Callaeci Bracari were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the northwest of modern Portugal, in the province of Minho, between the rivers Tâmega and Cávado. After the conquest of the region beginning in 136BC, the Rom ...
, later named Bracara Augusta, city of Portugal that is now known as Braga.
Aside from the loyalty of its supporters, the Minho derby against
Vitória de Guimarães
Vitoria or Vitória may refer to :
People
* Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian
* Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer
* Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer
* Steven Vitória (b ...
is a match that both sets of fans eagerly await. This match is more than football – it is a way people from the north view each city. The derby is one of Portugal's most intense matches, and children under 13 are restricted from entering unless an adult is with them. The rivalry goes back to when the City of Braga was the ancient capital of
Gallaecia
Gallaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province in the north-west of Hispania, approximately present-day Galicia, northern Portugal, Asturias and Leon and the later Kingdom of Gallaecia. The Roman cities included ...
and the largest Portuguese city by the time the
Kingdom of Portugal
The Kingdom of Portugal ( la, Regnum Portugalliae, pt, Reino de Portugal) was a monarchy in the western Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of the modern Portuguese Republic. Existing to various extents between 1139 and 1910, it was also kno ...
was formed by
Afonso I of Portugal
Afonso I of PortugalOr also ''Affonso'' (Archaic Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonso'' (Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonsus'' (Latin version), sometimes rendered in English as ''Alphonzo'' or ''Alphonse'', depending on the Spanish or French inf ...
. At that time,
Guimarães
Guimarães () is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga.
Its historic town centre has been listed as a UNESCWorld Heritage Sitesince 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved and a ...
became the seat of the King and nobility, whereas the city of Braga remained the centre of trade and religious power (the largest city and seat of the Archbishop).
In the 1960s and 1970s, Braga began to climb up the league ladder and eventually participated in the
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
competitions. Braga's recent run of successive European participations began in the
2004–05 UEFA Cup
The 2004–05 UEFA Cup was the 34th edition of the UEFA Cup. The format of the competition had changed from previous seasons, replacing that from the previous one after the abolition of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1999; an extra qualifying round was ...
after finishing fifth in the league under
Jesualdo Ferreira
Manuel Jesualdo Ferreira (born 24 May 1946) is a Portuguese football manager. He is currently the manager of Zamalek in the Egyptian Premier League.
In a managerial career of over forty years, he was in charge of all of his country's Big Three ...
's first full season in the club. In the
2006–07 UEFA Cup
The 2006–07 UEFA Cup was the 36th UEFA Cup, Europe's second-tier club football tournament. On 16 May 2007, at Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Sevilla won their second consecutive UEFA Cup, defeating Espanyol 3–1 on penalties after the match ...
, the side reached the last 16 before a 6–4 aggregate loss to
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
. That summer, the club signed a three-year sponsorship deal with French insurance company
Axa
Axa S.A. (styled as ''AXA'' or GIG in the Middle East) is a French multinational insurance company. The head office is in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. It also provides investment management and other financial services.
The Ax ...
, who took over the naming rights for the stadium for €4.5 million; this was renewed for a further three years in 2010.
Braga won the 2008
UEFA Intertoto Cup
The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...
and again reached the UEFA Cup last 16 in the 2008-09 season, where they lost by a single goal to
Paris Saint-Germain
Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...
.
Braga was runners-up in the league for the only time in its history in the 2009-10 season under
Domingos Paciência
Domingos José Paciência Oliveira, known simply as Domingos as a player (; born 2 January 1969), is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a striker, currently a manager.
He achieved success with both Porto and the Portugal national te ...
. Entering the
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
for the first time, in the fourth qualifying round Braga beat Sevilla 1–0 at home and 4–3 away, thus making the
group stage
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concent ...
. On 15 September 2010, Braga were heavily defeated 6–0 by Arsenal in its first
group stage
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concent ...
match. Eliminated in third place, they dropped into the Europa League and reached
the final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, where they lost to a goal by
FC Porto
Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...
's
Radamel Falcao
Radamel Falcao García Zárate (born 10 February 1986) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a forward for La Liga club Rayo Vallecano and often captains the Colombia national team. Nicknamed "''El Tigre''" (Spanish for ''The Tige ...
.
Braga won the
Taça da Liga
The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tier ...
for the first time in
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
under
José Peseiro
José Vítor dos Santos Peseiro (born 4 April 1960) is a Portuguese football manager and former player who played as a forward. He is the manager of the Nigeria national team.
After an unassuming career as a player, he went on to coach several ...
, with one goal from
Alan
Alan may refer to:
People
*Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname
* Alan (given name), an English given name
**List of people with given name Alan
''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.''
*A ...
against Porto. Two years later,
Sérgio Conceição
Sérgio Paulo Marceneiro da Conceição (; born 15 November 1974) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who mostly played as a right winger. He is the current manager of Porto.
Throughout his career, he played for ten ...
's side lost on penalties to Sporting CP in the
Taça de Portugal final, but
Paulo Fonseca
Paulo Alexandre Rodrigues Fonseca (born 5 March 1973) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who played as a central defender. He is the current head coach of French Ligue 1 club Lille.
He amassed Primeira Liga totals o ...
's triumphed over Porto on the same method
in 2016 to win their first such cup in 50 years.
In 2019–20, Braga went through four managers over the course of the season. The second of these,
Rúben Amorim
Rúben Filipe Marques Amorim (; born 27 January 1985) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of Primeira Liga club Sporting CP.
Amorim played in his career as a midfielder, spending most of ...
, led them to a league cup victory over Porto, with
Ricardo Horta
Ricardo Jorge da Luz Horta (; born 15 September 1994) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a right winger for Primeira Liga club Braga and the Portugal national team.
He spent most of his career with Braga after coming through ...
scoring in added time to secure the trophy on home soil.
On 28 July 2020,
Carlos Carvalhal
Carlos Augusto Soares da Costa Faria Carvalhal (; born 4 December 1965) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a centre-back, currently manager of La Liga club RC Celta de Vigo.
As a player, he totalled 197 Primeira Liga appearances in ...
was announced as the new head coach, after 14 years away from the club. He led the club to the league cup final again, where they lost to Amorim's new team Sporting, but won the
2021 Taça de Portugal Final
The 2021 Taça de Portugal Final was the last match of the 2020–21 Taça de Portugal, which decided the winner of the 81st edition of the Taça de Portugal, the premier knockout competition in Portuguese football. It was played on 23 May 2021 at ...
2–0 against Benfica.
He would leave the club and be replaced by
Artur Jorge after the 2021–22 season ended.
On 10 October 2022, 21.67% of the club shares were bought for €80 million by
Qatar Sports Investments
Qatar Sports Investments (QSi) is a closed shareholding organization founded in 2005 and based in Doha, Qatar. Revenues generated from ventures of QSi are reinvested into Qatar's sport, leisure and entertainment sectors. QSi is led by Chairman Nas ...
(QSI), a subsidiary of
Qatar Investment Authority
The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA; ar, جهاز قطر للإستثمار) is Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. The QIA was founded by the State of Qatar in 2005 to strengthen the country's economy by diversifying into new asset classes. In 2021 ...
(QIA), the state-run sovereign-wealth fund in
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
owned by
Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani ( ar, تميم بن حمد بن خليفة آل ثاني; born 3 June 1980, Doha, Qatar) is the Emir of Qatar who succeeded his father, Sheikh Hamad, after Hamad abdicated in his favour.
Tamim is the fourth son ...
, the
Emir of Qatar
The Emir, or Amir, of the State of Qatar ( ar, أمیر دولة قطر) is the monarch and head of state of the country. He is also the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and guarantor of the Constitution. He holds the most powerful positio ...
, who is also the owner of
Ligue 1
Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...
side Paris Saint-Germain through the QSI.
League and cup history
Recent seasons
Honours
National
League
*
Segunda Divisão
The Segunda Divisão Portuguesa (English language, English: ''Portuguese Second Division'') was a association football, football league situated at the third level of the Portuguese football league system. The division had previously been the secon ...
[Upon the formation of the ''Liga de Honra'' (League of Honor), a new second level national league in 1990, the Portuguese Second Division became the third tier of ]Portuguese football
Association football ( pt, futebol), the most popular sport in Portugal, has a long and storied history in the country, following its introduction in 1875 in cities such as Funchal, Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra by English merchants and Portuguese ...
.
:* Winners: 1946–47, 1963–64
Cups
*
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 ...
:* Winners:
1965–66,
2015–16,
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 ...
*
Taça da Liga
The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tier ...
:*Winners:
2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
,
2019–20
*
Taça Federação Portuguesa de Futebol
:* Winners (1): 1976–77
International
*
UEFA Intertoto Cup
The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...
:* Winners:
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
European record
Overview
''As of 23 February 2023.''
Matches
Players
Current squad
Out on loan
Former players
Club staff
Managerial history
References
External links
Official website
FootballLineups team profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braga SC
Football clubs in Portugal
Braga, S.C.
1921 establishments in Portugal
Taça de Portugal winners
Primeira Liga clubs
Companies listed on Euronext Lisbon
Sport in Braga
B