Portuguese Football in English
-
Stadiums gone and missed: Campo Grande, home to both Sporting and Benfica in the first half of the 20th century
One city. Two clubs. One stadium. Before the Alvalade. Before the Luz. Before each Lisbon giant enjoyed its state-of-the-art football ground, there...
-
Stadiums gone and missed: Gil Vicente’s Estádio Adelino Ribeiro Novo, Barcelos
If there’s a football club that represents the rise of the northern textile centres into the Portuguese football elite, it’s Gil Vicente. The club...
-
Stadiums gone and missed: FC Porto’s Estádio das Antas
They needed a home according to their dreams and fought for it for decades. When it became reality, it seemed like heaven had been found, but, in...
-
Stadiums gone and missed: Belenenses’s Campo das Salésias
It was once Portugal’s greatest and most modern football ground. The best grass pitch in the land, a statement of intent for a footballing nation...
-
Stadiums gone and missed: Rio Ave’s Campo da Avenida
There were moments when it seemed the earth shook. Times when Vila do Conde was more akin to a rebellious village preparing to halt every invader...
-
Stadiums gone and missed: Benfica’s old Estádio da Luz
It wasn’t a stadium. It was a cathedral. A football temple like Portugal had never seen. Sport Lisboa e Benfica’s Estádio da Luz captured the club’s...
-
Stadiums gone and missed: Salgueiros’ mythical Engenheiro Vidal Pinheiro ground
It’s one of the saddest sights you can come across. Walk the stairs from the Vidal Pinheiro metro station in the city of Porto, and you find...
-
Stadiums gone and missed: Amorosa in Guimarães
Guimarães is the beating heart at the soul of Portuguese football. The game is felt differently in the town that gave birth to the nation. It...
-
Stadiums gone and missed: Braga’s 1º de Maio
It is funny how Braga hosts one of the most lauded football grounds built in Europe over the past two decades, but still, many feel a sense of lost...
-
Stadiums gone and missed: Sporting’s old José de Alvalade – much more than a football ground
Sporting were always the more well-to-do club of the Big Three. The patronage of the Alvalade Viscount and the social status of many of its early...
-
Stadiums gone and missed: Constituição, the first iconic ground in Porto
In 1906, FC Porto, who had been asleep for more than a decade, according to those who believe the club was originally founded in 1893, was brought...
-
Stadiums gone and missed: Beira-Mar’s Estádio Municipal Mário Duarte
Portuguese football is full of iconic landmarks and places that hold memories and traces of the nation’s footballing identity. Some of those grounds...