Sporting Clube da Covilhã

In the wool city that once dressed half a country, football was spun early: on 2 June 1923, the Estrela Football Club and other local groups merged into Sporting Clube da Covilhã, the eighth branch of Lisbon's Sporting, with seventy founding members. The Lions of the Mountain reached the top flight in 1948 and made it home: fifteen seasons in all, nine of them consecutive, a fifth place in 1955/56 behind only the giants and the 1957 Portuguese Cup final, lost to Benfica in the very year of relegation. At the Santos Pinto, the Wembley of the Serra da Estrela, teams walked out to the voice of Amália, and as recently as 2016 cup holders Braga fell on the mountain. The centenary arrived in 2023 with the club in Liga 3, weaving the way back.