ASSOCIAçãO PORTUGUESA DE DESPORTOS

'Associação Portuguesa de Desportos', usually called 'Portuguesa' or 'Lusa', is a sports club, and a traditional Brazilian football team from São Paulo in São Paulo state, founded on August 14, 1920 by the Portuguese population of the city.

Contents

History

Titles

Rivalry

Stadium

Logo history

Team colors

The mascots

The anthems

Players

First-team squad

Famous players

Famous managers

References

External links

History

On August 14, 1920 (the same day of the 1385 Battle of Aljubarrota), the five Paulista clubs representing the Portuguese community of São Paulo (Lusíadas Futebol Club, Portugal Marinhense, Associação Cinco de Outubro, Associação Atlética Marquês de Pombal and Esporte Club Lusitano) met at Salão da Câmara Portuguesa de Comércio to merge, and founded Associação Portuguesa de Esportes, and they chose the colors of Portugal: green and red.
In 1940, the club changed its name to Associação Portuguesa de Desportos, which remains up to now.
In 1956, Portuguesa bought the Canindé stadium from São Paulo.
Portuguesa have always being a first division traditional team in the state of São Paulo and Brazil. However, after the good performances between 1995 and 1998, the club went do a big downfall, with bad quality players and poor administration. In 2001 the club saw his first relegation, going to the Brazilian League Serie B. In 2006 Portuguesa faced a worst situation, going to the São Paulo State Championship Serie A2.
However, in the current season, better administration, players and coach, allowed Portuguesa to find the way back to victories. In the first 6 months of 2007 the club won the Serie A2 of the São Paulo State Championship and was promoted back to the first divion in the state. In the current Brazilian League Serie B, the club is doing a good job staying near the first 4 positions of the table, who in the end will be promoted to Serie A.

Titles

★ São Paulo Youth Cup (Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior): 1991 and 2002

★ São Paulo State Championship:
::1935/36 (organized by APEA)
::1973

★ Rio-São Paulo Tournament: 1952 and 1955

★ São Paulo State Championship Serie A2: 2007

★ Brazilian League Runner-up: 1996

★ Campeonato Brasileiro de Futebol Feminino: 1999/2000

★ Campeonato Paulista Feminino de Futebol: 1998 and 2000

Rivalry

Portuguesa doesn't have any traditional rivalry in the state of São Paulo, such as the rivalry between Corinthians and Palmeiras. However, for the Portuguesa fans it's very important to win matches witgh the other main traditional teams in Sao Paulo, such as Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras, Santos Futebol Clube and Sao Paulo Futebol Clube.

Stadium

Portuguesa's stadium is Estádio do Canindé, built in 1956, with a maximum capacity of 19,717 people, following the current FIFA safety rules (The stadium was first build for a maximum capacity of 27,500 thousand).

Logo history

The club's first logo, introduced on August 14, 1920 (during the club's foundation) was a Portuguese shield. This logo was chosen to homage Portugal.
The club's second logo, introduced in 1923 had a Cross of Avis bordered by a red contour. The Cross of Avis represents the Portuguese independence from the Castile Kingdom, which happened after the Battle of Aljubarrota, on August 14, 1385.
In 2005, the club's logo design was modernized. Also it was added a golden contour around the red contour.

Team colors

Portuguesa's first kit, introduced on September 20, 1920, was an all-red shirt, with white shorts and red socks with two horizontal green lines. The goalkeeper kit was completely white.
On March 26, 1923, the club's kit was changed. The club played in red and green vertical striped shirts.

The team kit was later changed again. The red and green stripes were changed to horizontal ones, and the away kit was composed of an all-white shirt, red shorts and red socks.

The mascots

Portuguesa's first mascot was a Portuguese girl named Severa. She was named after the 1930s fado dancer Dima Tereza who were nicknamed ''A Severa''.
In 1994, Portuguesa changed its mascot. The club's unique original mascot was replaced by a lion wearing the club's home kit. The lion is one of the most common Brazilian football club's mascots.

The anthems

There are two club's anthems. The first anthem, called 'Hino Rubro-verde' (Portuguese for ''Red and green Anthem'') is the old one, and was composed by Archimedes Messina and Carlos Leite Guerra.
The second anthem, called 'Campeões' (Portuguese for ''Champions'') is the current club's anthem, and was composed by Roberto Leal and Márcia Lúcia.

Players

:''As of 25 August, 2007

First-team squad

Famous players

★ Alex Alves

★ Batatais

★ Brandão

★ Brandãozinho

★ Capitão

★ Clemer

★ Dener

★ Djalma Santos

★ Edu Marangon

★ Eneas

★ Félix

★ Ipojucan

★ Ivair

★ Julinho

★ Leandro Amaral

★ Luís Pereira

★ Nininho

★ Pinga, José Lázaro Robles

★ Rodolfo Rodríguez

★ Rodrigo Fabri

★ Servílio

★ Simão

★ Sinval

★ Tico

★ Zé Maria, José Maria Rodrigues Alves

★ Zé Maria, José Marcelo Ferreira

Famous managers

★ Aymoré Moreira

★ Candinho

★ Conrado Ross

★ Otto Glória

★ Vagner Benazzi

★ V. Benazzi is the current coach since 2006

References

★ ''Lusa, uma História de Amor'' - Orlando Duarte, Livraria Teixeira, 2000.

External links

★ Official website

★ Portuguesa's Unofficial website (Site Extra-oficial)