Sporting C.P. Youth Academy is the youth development division of Sporting Clube de Portugal ( Academia Sporting in Alcochete), which accommodated Portugal during the

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 football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

competition. Sporting's youth system developed footballers such as

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual association football, football award presented by French news magazine ''France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Pl ...

recipients

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...

and

Luís Figo Luís Filipe Madeira Caeiro Figo (; born 4 November 1972) is a Portuguese former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Winger (association football), winger for Sporting CP, FC Barcelona, Barcelona, Real Madrid CF, Real ...

Youth Squads

Sporting U23 team

Staff *Head Coach: Filipe Pedro *Assistant Coach: Tiago Farinha *Assistant Coach: João Pereira *GK Coach: Dário Ezequiel *Fitness Coach: Bruno Dias

Sporting U19 team - ''Juniores''

Staff *Head Coach: Pedro Coelho *Assistant Coach: Paulo Carvalho *Assistant Coach: Bernardo Caetano *GK Coach: Rodolfo Vieira *Fitness Coach: Pedro Cardoso

Sporting U17 team - ''Juvenis''

Staff *Head Coach: José João *Assistant Coach: André Krus *Assistant Coach: José Caldeira *GK Coach: Luis Caetano *Fitness Coach: João Marmeleira

Sporting U15 team - ''Iniciados''

Staff *Head Coach: Bernardo Bruschy *Assistant Coaches: Fábio Roque *Assistant Coaches: João Lourenço *GK Coach: João Santos

The Academy

Sporting's Academy was also the first and only sports academy in Europe to receive the ISO9001:2008 – a quality certification awarded by EIC, a Portuguese anonymous society responsible for this type of reward, which is recognised both locally and internationally.

Facilities

Budgeted around 2000 $00 million (2 million contos), the construction of the academy commenced in August 1999 in the council of Alcochete, located on the outskirts of Lisbon on the southern bank of the river

Tejo Tejo may refer to: *Tagus (Portuguese: ''Tejo''), a river on the Iberian Peninsula. * Tejo (sport), a sport and national pastime of Colombia. * Tejo (Argentina), a sport and national pastime of Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argen ...

, and the inauguration was on June 21, 2002. The main building of the academy has two different areas, the professional football area and the youth area. In both sides there is medical center equipped with treatment rooms, gym,

Turkish bath A hammam ( ar, حمّام, translit=ḥammām, tr, hamam) or Turkish bath is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited ...

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and bedrooms. In the youth area, there are also several study rooms. The academy is equipped with a main field, four grass pitches for training, a synthetic field and a grassed area for goalkeepers training. Sporting's youth academy was one of the training grounds for the

Portugal national football team The Portugal national football team ( pt, Seleção Portuguesa de Futebol) has represented Portugal in international men's football competition since 1921. The national team is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), the gover ...

during Euro 2004. A number of European clubs choose the Sporting's ''Academia'' for training in the off-season.

Youth program

Sporting CP Youth Program helped produce two

FIFA World Player of the Year The FIFA World Player of the Year was an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, between 1991 and 2015 at the FIFA World Player Gala. Coaches and captains of international teams and media representati ...

winners (

and

), two

winners (Luís Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo) and one runner-up (

Paulo Futre Paulo Jorge dos Santos Futre (; born 28 February 1966) is a Portuguese former footballer who played mostly as a left winger. He is one of the greatest natural talents of the Portugal. After starting playing for Sporting, he moved to Porto – ...

), and one

FIFA Ballon d'Or The FIFA Ballon d'Or ("Golden Ball") was an annual association football award presented to the world's best men's player from 2010 to 2015. Awarded jointly by FIFA and ''France Football'', the prize was a merger of the FIFA World Player of the Ye ...

winner (Cristiano Ronaldo).

Notable Academy graduates

;List criteria: *Player has made 25 appearances or more for his country at full international level *Player who has been at least nominated for a "world's best men's player" award (

The Best FIFA Men's Player The Best FIFA Men's Player is an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, since 2016, to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous calendar year. The award was formerly known ...

References

External links

The Sporting CP academy way
– ''These Football Times'' (2015) {{coord missing, Portugal Football academies in Portugal Sporting CP Youth football in Portugal UEFA Youth League teams NextGen series