The Most Successful Football Clubs In Portugal

In 1934 a properly structured, professional league first came into being in Portugal and in the 90 years since three clubs have shared an almost complete domination of it.

Between them Sporting CP, FC Porto and SL Benfica have won 88 league titles. Only in 1946 and 2001 did another club manage to top this fearsome triopoly.

Which makes it a very straightforward process when determining who inhabits the top three on this list. In what order though? That’s where it gets a little tricky.

Belenenses

Founded in 1919 and based in Belem, a district of Lisbon, the fifth most decorated team in Portugal largely attained their achievements prior to the Primeira Liga being formed.

One of the original members of the league, ‘O Belem’ were proud residents of the top-flight until 1982 when a calamitous season saw them relegated. A yo-yo club ever since, they currently compete in the third tier.

It was in the year following the cessation of the Second World War when Belenenses reached their zenith, holding off a late charge by Benfica to secure their first and only league crown. They nearly repeated the feat a decade later but a concession four minutes from time allowed the Eagles to pip them on goal difference.

Boasting a legacy that is the envy of many, this historic institution have beaten Barcelona in the UEFA Cup and were the first Portuguese club to have a turf pitch and floodlights.

Boavista FC

The Chequered Ones were founded in 1903 by two English brothers and were one of the first clubs to lobby for a professional league.

We can assume this decision was regretted a few times from the mid-Thirties on, as Boavista bounced around the divisions, failing to really establish themselves in the top-flight and even plummeting to the third tier for a brief period in the Sixties.

It was the subsequent decade that saw them emerge as a real force, challenging the big three at the league’s summit while carving out a reputation for being cup specialists. With legendary coach Jimmy Hagan at the helm, the Panthers lifted the Taca de Portugal on three occasions.

Their second quantum leap forward occurred in the late-Nineties, when Joao Loureiro – just 34 at the time – took on the presidency and installed Jaime Pacheco as manager.

With the duo striking up a productive working relationship Boavista’s fortunes were transformed. In 2001 they defied the football betting by beating out Sporting, Porto and Benfica to a league title.

There is additionally a decent continental record to consider, not least a EUFA Cup semi-final reached in 2003.

Sporting CP

According to more than one study, Sporting are the second best supported club on the Iberian Peninsula, with upwards of 270,000 sportinguistas.

Every one of them would like it known that their club is not called Sporting Lisbon. It is Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Regardless of their moniker, this is a standard-bearer of Portuguese football that has won 20 league titles as well as the domestic cup 17 times. In 1964, MTK Budapest were defeated as Sporting lifted the European Cup Winners Cup. A vintage Manchester United side were thrashed 5-0 on route.

Their trophy haul is exceptional and made all the more impressive by enduring a league title drought across two decades leading up to the millennium. This was followed soon after by financial woes resulting from a substantial debt. This in turn bled into another title drought that again lasted for nigh-on 20 years.

All of this changed when Ruben Amorim took charge in 2020 but though the present Manchester United manager is globally renowned he is by no means Sporting’s most famous alumnus. That honour belongs to a certain Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro.

FC Porto

The residents of Estádio do Dragão spent the 1990s and 2000s successfully closing the gap on what was an overwhelmingly dominant SL Benfica side, doing so by collecting 14 Primeira Liga wins in those two decades.

With Sporting CP taking a back seat in recent years, it’s been FC Porto continuing to take the fight to Benfica, and now, they boast 30 league titles along with 20 Taça da Portugal triumphs.

Pertinently, they have also finished runner-up in Primeira Liga on 29 occasions.

What heightens their status further of course is continental success, including winning the big one twice-over.

First, an extravagantly-gifted late-Eighties collective conquered Europe. This was followed 17 years later by a team that was generally unfancied beforehand in the betting.

Nobody seemed to fully appreciate the levels of Ricardo Carvalho and Deco, nor who was orchestrating proceedings from the dug-out. At the time, Jose Mourinho really was a special one.

SL Benfica

The Eagles are European royalty, mainly due to one incredible player and two incredible feats.

In the early Sixties this giant of Portuguese football won back-to-back European Cups, inspired by the then teenage Eusebio. Going on to win the Ballon d’Or in 1965, ‘O Rei’ (The King) would lead Benfica to a further three European Cup finals, all regrettably lost.

No matter because their place in the sports highest echelon was already secured, while domestically the club’s dominance was formidable. In that decade alone, they hoovered up eight league titles.

All told, the residents of the Estadio de Luz have won exactly a third of the league championships ever competed for in Portugal while a roll-call of the great names who have graced the stadium is long and illustrious.