União Desportiva de Leiria (), commonly known as União de Leiria, is a Portuguese professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...

. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super 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 Pr ...

, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa, with a 23,888-seat capacity.

History

Leiria's biggest rivals in Portugal are

Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar (), commonly known as Beira-Mar, is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its Association football, football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal (league), Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth natio ...

Associação Naval 1º de Maio Associação Naval 1º de Maio or Associação Naval 1893, commonly known as Naval, was a Portuguese Association football, football club based in Figueira da Foz, Coimbra District. Founded on 1 May 1893, it last played in the Division of Honour i ...

and Académica de Coimbra, which belong to the same geographical region. In 1979–80, the club first competed in the top division, finishing in 13th position and being the first team inside the relegation zone. A heavy contender in the battle to reach European competitions in the 2000s, the club was relegated in 2007–08 to the second level, after finishing last. The team would be immediately promoted back, coming in second after champions

Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense (), commonly known as Olhanense, is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Algarve Football Association First Division, the fifth tier of ...

. On 23 August 2004, União de Leiria reached the

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

final with Lille. After getting a 0–0 draw in France in the first leg, the whole city thought it would be possible for the club to win a European competition. However, in the second leg, after another 0–0 draw at their home stadium, the team would lose the game in extra time by 0–2, mostly due to the excessive fatigue. For the history, it was the first Portuguese team to reach the final of this competition. The 2011–12 season was lived amongst serious financial difficulties, with the squad not being paid their wages for several months, as three coaching moves also happened during the campaign and president João Bartolomeu resigned amongst accusations of ingratitude towards the players. On 29 April 2012, after most of the squad rescinded their contracts, only eight players took the pitch for the league match at home against

Feirense Clube Desportivo Feirense, commonly known as CD Feirense or just Feirense, is a Portuguese football club based in Santa Maria da Feira. Founded on 18 March 1918, Feirense play in the LigaPro, the second tier of Portuguese football. Their chairma ...

in an eventual 0–4 home loss. The side played the last two matches, against Benfica and

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

, with a complete team, but three players came from the juniors. After failing to meet the deadline to register the team in Division Two, Leiria were automatically relegated to the third level. Overwhelmed with the task of rebuilding a squad from scratch, the organization hired several players in an attempt to return to the professionals, as a second senior team also begun competing in the Leiria regional leagues, coached by former club player

Luís Bilro Luís Miguel Bilro Pereira (born 1 April 1971), known as Bilro, is a Portuguese retired football and beach soccer player. While playing association football, in a career that lasted over a decade, he operated as right-back or central defender, h ...

. On 28 June 2013, the UD Leiria SAD was declared

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

in a meeting of

creditor A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some propert ...

s, which demanded the payment of a debt amounting to €13.5 million, with the Portuguese state

abstaining Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with ...

for demanding a debt of over €3.6 million. The second senior team that competed in the regional league took the place of the SAD by buying their sports rights for €1,000, with the club returning to the Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa after playing their home matches at other grounds for two seasons. In February 2015, at an extraordinary general assembly, UD Leiria would vote for the creation of another SAD, opening doors to the arrival of Alexander Tolstikov, who after João Bartolomeu would become the new "Lord" of Leiria. The club would have already had a SAD between 1999 and 2013, having been extinguished in the face of its high debt value. The SAD's initial share capital is 40% owned by UD Leiria and 60% owned by DS Investment LLP, of which Alexander Tolstikov is one of those responsible. Thus, DS Investment started to control the main football team and also the junior team.

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

League and cup history

Honours

Segunda Divisão : : The Segunda Divisão Portuguesa ( English: ''Portuguese Second Division'') was a football league situated at the third level of the Portuguese football league system. The division had previously been the second level of the Portuguese pyrami ...

: 1980–81, 1997–98 * Liga 3:

2022–23 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 ...

co-winners:

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

. Listed are all 11 teams that won the Intertoto Cup, qualifying for the UEFA Cup. *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de 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 Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

runners-up: 2002–03 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

runners-up:

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Stadium

The Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa was built 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 ...

in 2003, hosting during the competition

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

's matches against

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

(0–0) and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

(2–2). It also hosted the 2006 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira final between

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), 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 association footbal ...

and

Vitória de Setúbal 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 * Sofia Vitória (bor ...

, as well as the following (

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

1–0 Porto). The architect who designed the stadium was

Tomás Taveira Tomás Cardoso Taveira (born 22 November 1938) is a Portuguese architect and former university teacher. He has a degree in architecture from the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes de Lisboa (ESBAL), later incorporated into the Technical University ...

, who also designed stadiums for Euro 2004, including Beira-Mar's

Estádio Municipal de Aveiro The Estádio Municipal de Aveiro (') is a football stadium in Aveiro, Portugal. It was designed for the UEFA Euro 2004 tournament by Portuguese architect Tomás Taveira. It has a capacity of 32,830 spectators, making it the fifth largest footba ...

and Sporting CP's

Estádio José Alvalade The Estádio José Alvalade (; ') is a Football (soccer), football stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, home of Sporting Clube de Portugal. It was built adjacent to the site of the Estádio José Alvalade (1956), older stadium. The stadium is named afte ...

. The grounds belong to the municipality of Leiria. Due to an excessive rent, Leiria relocated to the Estádio Municipal in the nearby town of

Marinha Grande Marinha Grande () is a municipality in the Leiria District, Portugal. The population in 2021 was 39,032, in an area of 187.25 km². The city itself has a population of 32,330. It is located right in the middle of the 700-year-old Leiria pine ...

, for 2011–12. For the following season, the club moved to Campo da Portela in Santa Catarina da Serra, home of U.D. Serra.U. Leiria SAD jogará no Campo da Portela (U. Leiria SAD will play in Campo da Portela)
O Derbie, 1 August 2012 After the SAD bankruptcy, the club returned to play its home matches at the Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa.

Managers

* Vieira Nunes (1989–90) * Luís Campos (1992–93) *

Manuel Cajuda Manuel Ventura Cajuda de Sousa (born 27 June 1951) is a Portuguese football manager and retired footballer. In a career which spanned three decades, he managed nearly 20 teams in his own country, and also worked in Egypt, the United Arab Emi ...

(1993–94) * Vitor Manuel (1994–96) *

Eurico Gomes Eurico Monteiro Gomes (born 29 September 1955), known simply as Eurico as a player, is a Portuguese former professional football central defender and manager. He began his career at Benfica, later appearing for Sporting CP and Porto; he becam ...

(1996) * Quinito (1996–97) * Vitor Manuel (1997) * Vítor Oliveira (1997–98) * Mário Reis (1998–99) *

Manuel José Manuel José de Jesus Silva ComM (born 9 April 1946), simply known as Manuel José (), is a Portuguese football manager. Some of the teams he has coached include Vitória de Guimarães, Sporting CP, Sporting de Braga, Boavista, Benfica, Al ...

(1999–01) *

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

(2001–02) * Mário Reis (2002) * Vítor Pontes (2002) *

(2002–03) * Vítor Pontes (2003–05) *

José Manuel Gomes José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

(2005) *

Jorge Jesus Jorge Fernando Pinheiro de Jesus (; born 24 July 1954) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player. Most recently he was the manager of Saudi Professional League, Saudi P ...

(2005–06) * Domingos (2006–07) * Paulo Duarte (2007) * Vítor Oliveira (2007–08) * Paulo Alves (2008) * Manuel Fernandes (2008–09) *

Lito Vidigal José Carlos Fernandes Vidigal (born 11 July 1969), commonly known as Lito, is an Angolan professional football manager and former player who played as a defender. He spent his entire playing career in Portugal, mainly with Belenenses in the ...

(2009–10) *

Pedro Caixinha Pedro Miguel Faria Caixinha (; born 15 November 1970) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who played as a goalkeeper. He started coaching in his late twenties, acting an assistant with Sporting CP, Al-Hilal, Panath ...

(2010–11) * Vítor Pontes (2011) *

(2011–12) *

José Dominguez José Manuel Martins Dominguez (born 16 February 1974) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player. As a player, he was a diminutive winger with above-average technical skills and speed. He started playing professional foo ...

(2012) * Ricardo Moura (2012–2013) * Luis Bilro (2012–2013) * Rui Rodrigues (2013–2014) *

Jorge Casquilha Jorge António Rosa Casquilha (born 13 January 1969) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, currently a manager. After playing in the Primeira Liga for Gil Vicente for six years, he embarked on a managerial car ...

(2014–2016) * Siarhei Kabelski (2016) * Kata (2016–2017) * Serghei Cleșcenco (2017) * Rui Amorim (2017–2018) * Luís Pinto (2018) * Tiago Vicente (2018) * Filipe Cândido (2018–2020) * Carlos Delgado (2020) * Hélder Pereira (2020–2021) * Filipe Cândido (2021) * Bino (2021–2022) * Vasco Botelho da Costa (2022–2024) * Filipe Cândido (2024–''present'')

Fans

União's fans are called ''Leirienses'' or ''Unionistas'', and their main group of supporters is ''Armata Ultra'' ("Armata Ultra").

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leiria Football clubs in Portugal Association football clubs established in 1966 1966 establishments in Portugal

UD Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria (), commonly known as União de Leiria, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Leiria. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pe ...

Primeira Liga clubs Liga Portugal 2 clubs