Leixões S.C.

Leixões Sport Club, commonly known as Leixões, is a Portuguese sports club from Matosinhos. It is organised into several departments for many sports, such as athletics, boxing, football, futsal, handball, karate, swimming, volleyball, water polo and billiards. It is most well known for its professional football department. Its football department has hosted a B reserve team called Leixões S.C. B and also a C reserve team (Leixões S.C. C) playing in lower leagues.

Leixões won the 1960–61 Taça de Portugal.

History
Leixões Sport Club was founded in 1907, making them one of Portugal's oldest sports clubs in continuous operation. In 1961, they won their only Taça de Portugal, defeating Porto 2–0. This qualified Leixões to the 1961–62 European Cup Winners' Cup, in which they reached the quarter-finals before losing 4–2 on aggregate to East German side Motor Jena. Leixões had their best top-flight league performance in 1962–63, finishing fifth, 12 points behind champions Benfica.

Present in the top-flight since 1959–60, Leixões were relegated on goal difference in the 1976–77 season. Apart from the 1988–89 season, Leixões did not play in the top-flight again until 2007.

In 2002, Leixões beat Braga 3–1 away to secure a place in the Taça de Portugal final (the first and only third division club to play a final) against Sporting CP. The club, however, lost 1–0, but nonetheless secured a spot in the following season's UEFA Cup and Portuguese Supercup after Sporting had also finished as national champions for the year. The following season, Leixões lost the Portuguese Supercup against Sporting CP by 5–1. That same year, Leixões lost 5–3 on aggregate to Greek side PAOK after winning the first leg 2–1 at home, thus suffering elimination in the first round of the UEFA Cup. They also romped to the Segunda Divisão B title with 94 points and with it they gained promotion to the Segunda Liga.

In 2004, they just avoided relegation back to Division Two and finished 14th. A year later, they battled to finish seventh in the league. Finally in 2006, they nearly reached the top-flight Primeira Liga, losing out to Desportivo das Aves in the promotion chase by finishing third, two points behind Aves. Third place used to merit a promotion, but due to a re-construction to all leagues, it meant only the top two would go up (Beira-Mar as champions and Aves as runners-up). Finally, in 2007, they gained promotion to the Liga, 18 years after their relegation. During this stint, which lasted three seasons, their best result was a sixth-place finish in 2008–09. Their last match in the Primeira Liga was a 1–0 away loss to Olhanense on 2 May 2010.

Stadium
Leixões' home ground, the Estádio do Mar, was inaugurated on 1 January 1964 with a match against Benfica, who won 4–0.

Honours

 * Taça de Portugal: 1
 * 1960–61


 * Segunda Liga: 1
 * 2006–07


 * Segunda Divisão: 1
 * 1937–38


 * Segunda Divisão B: 1
 * 2002–03


 * Campeonato do Porto: 1
 * 1939–40


 * Taça AF Porto: 1
 * 1982–83

Youth honours

 * Nacional Juniores A 1ª Divisão(U19): 1
 * 1941–42


 * AF Porto Jun.A 1ª Divisão(U19 B): 3
 * 2009–10, 2016–17, 2018–19


 * AF Porto Juniores D T. Joaquim Piedade(U13): 1
 * 2010–11

Notable former players

 * 🇵🇹 António Frasco
 * 🇵🇹 Álvaro Magalhães
 * 🇵🇹 Frederico Rosa
 * 🇵🇹 Ricardo Nascimento
 * 🇵🇹 Rui Duarte
 * 🇵🇹 Beto
 * 🇵🇹 Jorge Gonçalves
 * 🇵🇹 Diogo Valente
 * 🇵🇹 Vieirinha
 * 🇵🇹 Filipe Oliveira
 * 🇵🇹 João Moreira
 * 🇵🇹 Vítor Castanheira
 * 🇵🇹 Nuno Laranjeiro
 * 🇵🇹 Zé Manel
 * 🇵🇹 Fernando Alexandre
 * 🇦🇷 Nelson Benítez
 * 🇦🇹 Hans-Peter Berger
 * 🇧🇦 Nail Besirović
 * 🇧🇷 Brasília
 * 🇧🇷 Élvis
 * 🇧🇷 Leandro Tatu
 * 🇧🇷 Roberto
 * 🇧🇷 Jaime
 * 🇧🇷 Ezequias
 * 🇧🇷 Derick Poloni
 * 🇧🇷 Wesley
 * 🇧🇷 Roberto Souza
 * 🇧🇷 Chumbinho
 * 🇧🇷 Wênio
 * 🇧🇷 Tales Schutz
 * 🇧🇷 🇵🇹 Detinho
 * 🇧🇫 Hervé Zengue
 * 🇨🇲 Christian Pouga
 * 🇨🇷 Brandon Poltronieri
 * 🇨🇴 Brayan Angulo
 * 🇫🇷 Amine Oudrhiri
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Phil Walker
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Bill Roffey
 * 🇬🇶 Rubén Belima
 * 🇧🇫 Edmond Tapsoba
 * 🇬🇷 Anastasios Tsoumagas
 * 🇬🇼 Dionisio Mendes
 * 🇭🇹 Jean Sony
 * 🇲🇹 Udo Nwoko
 * Lê Công Vinh

Managerial history

 * 🇭🇺 József Szabó (1957–1958)
 * Óscar Marques (1960)
 * 🇦🇷 José Valle (1960–1961)
 * 🇦🇷 Filpo Nunez (1961)
 * António Teixeira (1967–1970)
 * António Teixeira (1972–1974)
 * José Rachão (1982–1984)
 * Acácio Casimiro (1986–1987)
 * Henrique Calisto (1990–1991)
 * Amândio Barreiras (1991)
 * Manuel Barbosa (1991–1993)
 * Nicolau Vaqueiro (1993)
 * Vieira Nunes (1993–1994)
 * Henrique Calisto (1994)
 * Ruben Cunha (1994)
 * Acácio Casimiro (1994–1995)
 * Álvaro Carolino (1995)
 * António Caldas (1996–1997)
 * Ruben Cunha (1997–1998)
 * 🇧🇬 Eduard Eranosyan (1998)
 * Rúben Cunha (1998–1999)
 * José Alberto Torres (1999–2000)
 * António Pinto (June, 2000 – Jan 25, 2001)
 * Adelino Teixeira (Jan 25, 2001 – May 26, 2001)
 * Carlos Carvalhal (June 8, 2001 – Dec 9, 2002)
 * Abílio Novais (Dec 12, 2002 – Nov 5, 2003)
 * João Alves (Nov 5, 2003 – Jan 12, 2004)
 * António Pinto (Jan 12, 2004 – May 12, 2004)
 * José Gomes (June, 2004–May, 2005)
 * Rogério Gonçalves (June 11, 2005 – Feb 21, 2006)
 * Vítor Oliveira (Feb 22, 2006 – May 20, 2007)
 * Carlos Brito (May 26, 2007 – Feb 9, 2008)
 * António Pinto (Feb 9, 2008 – May 21, 2008)
 * José Mota (May 21, 2008 – Feb 9, 2010)
 * 🇪🇸 Fernando Castro Santos (Feb 9, 2010 – May 8, 2010)
 * Augusto Inácio (May 21, 2010 – Feb 13, 2011)
 * Litos (Feb 16, 2011 – Feb 14, 2012)
 * Horácio Gonçalves (Feb 15, 2012 – Nov 6, 2012)
 * Pedro Correia (Nov 6, 2012 – Mar 3, 2014)
 * Jorge Casquilha (Mar 6, 2014 – May 11, 2014)
 * Horácio Gonçalves (July 1, 2014 – June 30, 2015)
 * Manuel Monteiro (July 1, 2015 – Nov 22, 2015)
 * Pedro Miguel (Nov 29, 2015 – Jun 30, 2016)
 * Filipe Coelho (July 1, 2016 – Oct 30, 2016)
 * Daniel Kenedy (Nov 13, 2016 – Aug 19, 2017)
 * João Henriques (Aug 23, 2017 – Jan 6, 2018)
 * Ricardo Malafaia (Jan 14, 2018 – Apr 7, 2018)
 * Francisco Chaló (Apr 11, 2018 – Jun 30, 2018)
 * Filipe Gouveia (Jul 1, 2018 – Dec 23, 2018)
 * Bruno China (Dec 30, 2018)
 * Jorge Casquilha (Jan 6, 2019 – Jun 30, 2019)
 * Carlos Pinto (Jul 1, 2019 – Jan 18, 2020)
 * Manuel Cajuda (Feb 2, 2020 – Jun 30, 2020)
 * Tiago Fernandes (Jul 1, 2020 – Oct 4, 2020)
 * João Eusébio (Oct 7, 2020 – Jan 6, 2021)
 * José Mota (Jan 11, 2021 – Jun 30, 2022)
 * Vitor Martins (Jul 1, 2022 – Jun 30, 2023)
 * Pedro Ribeiro (Jul 1, 2023 – Jan 24, 2024)
 * Carlos Fangueiro (Jan 24, 2024 – )

League and cup history
The club has played 25 seasons at the top level of Portuguese football.


 * CL: Campeonato da Liga (winners weren't considered Portuguese champions)
 * 1D: Primeira Liga and predecessors (1st level)
 * 2H: Liga de Honra and successors (2nd level)
 * 2D.DL1: Segunda Divisão, Douro Litoral Zone, Group 1 (2nd level)
 * 2D.A.2.1: Segunda Divisão, Zone A, Group 2, Sub-Group 1 (2nd level)
 * 2D.A: Segunda Divisão, Zone A (2nd level)
 * 2DN: Segunda Divisão, Northern Zone (until 1990: 2nd level; post-1990: 3rd level)
 * CWC: Cup Winners' Cup
 * FC: Fairs Cup
 * UC: UEFA Cup


 * R1: 1st round


 * QF: Quarter-final

Other sports
In addition to football, Leixões also competes in boxing, karate, volleyball, swimming and billiards.