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FC Porto

FC Porto emblem
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FCPorto, Founded in 1893 by António Nicolau de Almeida in Porto, is a sports club known for their football section. The football home ground is now the Estádio do Dragão (finished in 2004 as a venue for Euro 2004) after 51 years playing in the Estadio das Antas. It's currently the second club in the Portuguese overall championship, just second to SL Benfica. Porto won the Champions League twice (one still as the ECC) and the UEFA Cup once. It was the first team since the Liverpool FC 75-77 squad to win the Champions League after winning the UEFA Cup.
FC Porto is also a leading force in other sports: the handball and basketball team are regular contenders to the portuguese national titles, and the Rink hockey section is amongst the best in the sport. The new arena near the stadium is being completed soon, in the past years the non-professional home grounds were scattered in northwestern cities of Portugal (such as Gondomar and Espinho).

Table of contents
1 Brief history (football)
2 Current Team
3 Famous Players
4 Famous Managers
5 Achievements
6 External Links

Brief history (football)

FC Porto was originally founded in 1893, but was abandoned until 1906 when Monteiro da Costa revived the club. In the following years it became one of the most important clubs in Portugal, but lacking to Lisbon rivals SL Benfica, Sporting and even Belenenses, but went on winning the first two portuguese championships. Afterwards, only 4 titles followed until the beggining of the 80's.
In 1982 Pinto da Costa took control of Porto. The next decades turned what was the fourth team in the overall into the biggest title cruncher of the past 20 years. Since 1982, Porto won 13 titles, achiving the record Penta (five leagues in a row) in 1999, 8 portuguese cups, and has a majority of Supercups, having won 13 in 25 possible.
While when Pinto da Costa joined as president Porto was the only club from the "big three" without european honours, that changed briefly. The first final was played against Juventus for the 1984 CWC, but Porto lost. Three years later, the team led by Artur Jorge, the name hand-picked by Pedroto won it's first european honour, in a thrilling 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich. In the following year Porto won the European Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup, making them the first portuguese winners of the two cups. The following 16 years saw Porto as a middle range team - often in the final 16, but not progressing further. The exception was in 1994, when Porto reached the semi-finals of the Champions League. The semi-final, decided on a lone game, resulted in an heavy loss (3-0) at the hands of Johann Cruyff's FC Barcelona, in the Nou Camp.
In 2003, under guidance of José Mourinho Porto made a thrilling UEFA Cup run, topped with a victory on a fantastic final again Celtic Glasgow. The following season meant a higher challenge, but dispite a slow start, Porto won the Champions League, the first team to win the competition outside the "big 5" since Ajax in 1995.
After the victory, Porto became the portuguese side with more european cups won - 2 CL/ECC plus a UEFA Cup, against two ECC by Benfica and one CWC by Sporting.
Porto's importance in the modern football panorama is also widely aknowledged, being one of the founding memebers of G-14.

Current Team

This article deals with a current or ongoing event. Information may be changing rapidly. About 5 players (those most likely are in italic) are expected to leave, and there are ongoing talks with other players. Only confirmed transfers are present.

GK: Vítor Baía, Nuno Espírito Santo, Bruno Vale
RD: Seitaridis, Ibarra
CD: Jorge Costa, Ricardo Costa, Pedro Emanuel, Pepe, Bruno Alves
LD: Nuno Valente, Areias, Mário Silva
M: Costinha, Paulo Assunção, Raul Meireles, Bosingwa, Maniche, Carlos Alberto, Diego
RW: Quaresma, Maciel, Marco Ferreira
F: Derlei, Benni McCarthy, Hélder Postiga, Jankauskas, Hugo Almeida, Bruno Moraes
LW: César Peixoto e Rossato

Manager: Luigi Del Neri

Famous Players

  • Inácio
  • Celso
  • André
  • Jaime Pacheco
  • Jaime Magalhães
  • Madjer
  • Futre
  • Juary
  • Branco
  • Geraldão
  • Paulinho Santos
  • Rui Filipe
  • Rui Barros
  • Emerson

Famous Managers

Achievements

This was the first match ever decided under UEFA's new silver goal rule.

Other Trophies

External Links