Sporting Clube Pombal

The lion has been roaring by the Arunca river for a century. Sporting Clube de Pombal was born on 20 October 1922 as branch number 10 of Sporting Clube de Portugal, with a christening worthy of the occasion: a football match that very day against Sporting de Tomar, branch number 1, acting as godfather. The crest tells the whole story of the town, with the Templar castle of Gualdim Pais on one side and the Alvalade lion on the other, and gave its people their nickname: Leões do Arunca, the Lions of the Arunca. The first and biggest club in the land of the Marquis of Pombal, it is a rare case of local eclecticism, with football at every age level, swimming, acrobatic gymnastics, karate and even camping, all sustained by over a thousand members. The senior side lives in the Leiria district leagues and plays at the Estádio Municipal de Pombal, but this club was never measured by its division. It is measured by the century it has spent dressing an entire town in green and white.