page_title: Football in Portugal
section_title: National team
hierarchical_section_title: Football in Portugal / National team
caption_attribution_description: English: Portuguese supporters at the Euro 2004 Deutsch: Portugiesische Fans bei der Euro 2004
context_page_description: Association football, the most popular sport in Portugal, has a long and storied history in the country, following its 1875 introduction in cities such as Funchal, Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra by English merchants and Portuguese students arriving back home from studying in England. This led to the establishment of local clubs dedicated to the practice of the sport.
  Initially, football was played between neighbour clubs, but soon enough city wide and regional tournaments started to take place around the nation. Soon after the start of the 20th century, the need to establish which club was the best in Portugal culminated with the organizing of the "Campeonato de Portugal", with subsequent bragging rights going mostly to clubs from Lisbon and Porto.
  Portugal's top domestic league, the Primeira Liga, was founded in 1934 and is home to internationally successful clubs such as S.L. Benfica, FC Porto and Sporting CP – the "Big Three", who usually dominate the league.
context_section_description: On 26 May 2010, Portugal attained the third place in the FIFA World Ranking, their highest ever. They repeated this feat in 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2018. Their lowest rank was 43rd overall in 1998. In recent years, Portugal has consistently maintained a top 10 and, sometimes, a top 5 FIFA world rank position.
  In 2004 Portugal hosted UEFA Euro and reached its final but were beaten by Greece 1–0. In worldwide terms, Portugal have reached the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup twice: in the 1966 edition, where Eusébio was the top scorer with nine goals, and in the 2006 edition, where the team led by captain Luís Figo marked the World Cup debut of Cristiano Ronaldo.
  Following the retirement of all players from its "golden generation", Portugal, led by manager Fernando Santos, won Euro 2016, defeating hosts France 1–0 in the final. In 2019, Portugal won the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League by defeating Netherlands 1–0 in the final.
  Portugal also participates to the Lusophony Games and takes part in its football tournaments. In 2014, Portugal was one of the eight nations to take part in the first Unity World Cup.
caption: Portuguese football fans supporting the Portugal national team
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