Sporting CP
| SCP emblem | |||
| Full name | Sporting Clube de Portugal | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Leões (Lions) Verde-e-Brancos (Green'n'Whites) ' Lagartos (Lizards) | ||
| Founded | 1906 | ||
| Ground | Estádio José Alvalade XXI, Lisbon | ||
| Capacity | 52,466 | ||
| Chairman | Filipe Soares Franco | ||
| Manager | Paulo Bento | ||
| League | SuperLiga | ||
| 2004-05 | SuperLiga, 3rd | ||
|
| |||
Sporting Clube de Portugal, often known outside Portugal as Sporting Lisbon, was established in 1902 as Sport Club de Belas, which became Campo Grande Sporting Club in 1904. It took its current name in 1906.
Among Portuguese clubs, Sporting is currently the third club in the Portuguese overall championship. It boasts a new stadium, Estádio José Alvalade XXI, built for the 2004 European Football Championship, that hosted the 2005 UEFA Cup final in which Sporting lost to CSKA Moscow. Sporting also has a world-class football training facility (Academia Sporting in Alcochete).
Sporting has developed many top footballers in recent years; some of the most notable are Paulo Futre (Retired), Luis Figo (Inter Milan) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) and also others that failed to make an impression outside Portugal, such as former FC Barcelona players Ricardo Quaresma (who joined FC Porto in 2004) and Simão Sabrosa (joined SL Benfica in 2001). Hugo Viana, the only returning to Sporting, joined on loan from Newcastle United in 2004. The club captured 18 champion titles, 13 cups and won the former Cup Winners' Cup in 1964, their only european win.
Sporting also is a major team in futsal, in which they won the league in 2003/2004. But Sporting has numerous sections other than football, among them athletics (members include world-class athlete Francis Obikwelu), swimming, handball, table tennis and rink hockey.
Current Football Squad (2005/06 season)
External links
| Men's |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Women's |
| ||||||
| District Associations | |||||||
| Defunct competitions | |||||||
| |||||||
