C.D. NACIONAL

'Clube Desportivo Nacional', founded in 1910, is a Portuguese football club, that plays in Funchal, Madeira Islands. It is commonly known as 'Nacional da Madeira', (pron. ). Nacional shares a rivalry with fellow Madeira club C.S. Marítimo. Marítimo are historically more successful than Nacional, but in 2005-06 Nacional finished 5th in the Portuguese Liga, qualifying the club for the UEFA Cup. Nacional's best ever league finish was 4th in 2003-04.

Contents

History

Current Playing Squad

Notable Former Players

League And Cup History

Suporters

External link

History

Nacional da Madeira's rivals are C.S. Marítimo. The Madeira derby is often associated with the clubs' followers' differing culture and way of life. The fans of Nacional da Madeira, being of a higher socio-economic status than those of Marítimo, were mainly lobbyists for the commercial expansion of Madeira, but the working class Marítimo followers were keen to preserve Madeira. This only exacerbated the ill-feeling between the clubs.
The rivalry heightened when Portuguese starlet Cristiano Ronaldo signed declined an offer from Marítimo in favour of Nacional Madeira, where his Godfather was a member of the board.
Politics plays a part in the Madeira and Azores derby because Madeira's controversial regional governor Alberto João Jardim is a self-confessed C.S. Marítimo supporter. He doesn't have a good relationship with Carlos César the regional governor of the Azores, an avowed C.D. Santa Clara fan.
The club are also undergoing a project for a new Stadium with it being 40,000 All-Seater stadium in the Praia Formosa district in Funchal that will be shared with their arch-Rivals C.S. Marítimo. The stadium is to be completed by the 2008/2009 season.
Nacional are also known for there Football after gaining Promotion from the Liga de Honra they finished an impressive 4th place in the league, but they are unfortuantly known as the inconsistent side in Portuguese Football with below par finishes in the league.
Famous coaches are Carlos Brito who managed Nacional in the 2006�7 season, Despite his intelligence, Carlos was sacked in April 2007 after the club lost ground in the league with Boavista FC pulling out a win in the end of the season which saw Nacional lose out on a UEFA spot.
Important figures in the 2006�7 season was Carlos Chainho who played a major role in the clubs midfield but after several Knee injuries he was left out for several weeks including the games against SL Benfica and a UEFA Cup game against Rapid Bucuresti. In the 2006�7 season he signed a contract extension tying him up with the club until the 2007�8 season.
anothr player to play a major role in the reconsruction faze of Nacional is Diego Benaglio who played as the clubs keeper with excellent preformances he quicky became the Number One for his Country Switzerland after the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Nacional have turned down several clubs including Boavista FC and Valencia CF with the player signing an extension.
In the 2006-07 UEFA Cup, Nacional were drawn against Romanian side Rapid Bucuresti in the first round. The ''Alvinegros'' lost the away tie in Bucharest 1-0. This did not stop many predicting that Nacional would pull back the tie at the Estádio Eng. Rui Alves. Back in Madeira, Nacional led 1-0 at the final whistle, through a Juliano Spadacio goal, to make the tie go into extra time. However, Rapid scored twice in extra time to make the score 3-1 on aggregate, and knocked Nacional out.

Current Playing Squad

'In:'

★ Leandro do Bonfim - on loan fromFC Porto

★ Diego - signed from Cruzeiro

★ João Coimbra - on loan from SL Benfica

★ João Moreira - on loan from Valencia CF

★ Felipe Lopes - signed from R.S.C. Anderlecht

★ Fellype Gabriel - on loan from Cruzeiro

★ Juninho - signed from Atlético-MG

★ Edu Sales - signed from Créteil
'Out:'

★ Darko Anić - to Rio Ave FC

★ Miguelito to SL Benfica

★ José Rui to CSKA Sofia

★ Georgi Chilikov to CSKA Sofia

★ Bruno to CS Marítimo

Notable Former Players

★ Miguelito

League And Cup History

The club is currently in its eighth season at the top level of Portuguese football. Its best position (a 4th place) is the best ever for a team from Madeira.

Season		Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Cup	Europe		Notes
1988-1989	1D	'10'	38	12	12	14	43	49	'36'
1989-1990	1D	'14'	34	7	14	13	34	46	'28'
1990-1991	1D	'20'	38	8	11	19	33	60	'27'				relegated
1991-1992	2H	'14'	34	6	13	15	26	42	'25'
1992-1993	2H	'13'	34	10	10	14	34	32	'30'
1993-1994	2H	'11'	34	10	11	13	32	33	'31'
1994-1995	2H	'13'	34	10	11	13	39	42	'32'
1995-1996	2H	'16'	34	11	6	17	39	43	'39'				relegated
1996-1997	2DS	'1'	34	24	6	4	80	30	'78'	last 64
1997-1998	2H	'18'	34	6	9	19	37	58	'27'	last 64			relegated
1998-1999	2DS	'9'	34	15	4	15	42	39	'49'	last 64
1999-2000	2DS	'1'	38	25	8	5	66	32	'83'				promoted
2000-2001	2H	'7'	34	14	9	11	55	52	'51'	last 16
2001-2002	2H	'3'	34	18	8	8	62	39	'62'	last 128			promoted
2002-2003	1D	'11'	34	9	13	12	40	46	'40'	last 32
2003-2004	1D	'4'	34	17	5	12	56	35	'56'	quarter-final			best classification ever
2004-2005	1D	'12'	34	12	5	17	46	48	'41'	last 16	UC	1st round
2005-2006	1D	'5'	34	14	10	10	40	32	'52'	last 16
2006-2007	1D	'''8'''	''18''	''7''	''3''	''8''	''25''	''25''	'''24'''	last 16	UC	2nd round	''ongoing''

1D : Portuguese Liga and predecessors ; 2H : Liga de Honra ; 2DS: Portuguese Second Division, Southern section.

Suporters

★ "Força Alvi-Negra"

★ "Ultras Alvinegros"

★ "Grupo Os Alvinegros"

★ "Grupo Os Preto-e-Brancos

External link

★ Official website (in Portuguese).

★ Results Blogspot (in Portuguese)