The Ballon d'Or is an annual football award presented by French news magazine France Football since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year and known as the FIFA Ballon d'Or. That partnership ended in 2016, and the award reverted to the Ballon d'Or, while FIFA also reverted to its own separate annual award The Best FIFA Men's Player. The recipients of the joint FIFA Ballon d'Or are considered as winners by both award organisations. The Ballon d’Or is generally regarded as football’s most prestigious and valuable individual award. Nevertheless, critics have described the award as a "popularity contest", criticising its voting process and for systematically singling out an individual in a team sport.
The Portugal national football team has represented Portugal in men's international football competition since 1921. The national team is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), the governing body for football in Portugal. Portugal's home matches are played at various stadiums throughout Portugal, and its primary training ground and technical headquarters, Cidade do Futebol, is located in Oeiras. The head coach of the team is Roberto Martínez, and the captain is Cristiano Ronaldo, who also holds the team records for most caps and most goals.
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr and the Portugal national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo has won five Ballon d'Or awards, a record three UEFA Best Player in Europe, and four European Golden Shoes, the most by a European player. He has won 34 trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, the UEFA European Championship and the UEFA Nations League. Ronaldo holds the records for most appearances (183), goals (140) and assists (42) in the Champions League, goals in the European Championship (14), international goals (127) and international appearances (203). He is one of the few players to have made over 1,200 professional career appearances, and has scored over 850 official senior career goals for club and country, making him the top goalscorer of all time.
Sporting Clube de Portugal, otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting, or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries, is a Portuguese sports club based in Lisbon. Noted for the wide array of sports departments and sporting disciplines it houses, as well as for the number of trophies won by them, it is best known for its men's professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Its youth academy has helped produce footballers such as Luís Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Paulo Jorge Gomes Bento is a Portuguese football manager and former player. He is the current manager of the United Arab Emirates national team.
Madeira Airport, informally Funchal Airport, formerly Santa Catarina Airport and officially Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport, is an international airport in the civil parish of Santa Cruz in the Portuguese archipelago and autonomous region of Madeira. The airport is located 13.2 km (8.2 mi) east-northeast of the regional capital, Funchal, after which it is sometimes informally named. It mostly hosts flights to European metropolitan destinations due to Madeira's importance as a leisure destination, and is pivotal in the movement of cargo in and out of the archipelago of Madeira. It is the fourth-busiest airport in Portugal. The airport is named after Madeiran native Cristiano Ronaldo. During its renaming ceremony in 2017, the airport drew media notoriety for an infamous bust of Ronaldo unveiled at the ceremony, now replaced.
José Vítor Moreira Semedo is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder.
Association football, the most popular sport in Portugal, has a long and storied history in the country, following its introduction in 1875 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.
Pestana Group is a Portuguese tourism and leisure group. Its hotel chain Pestana Hotels and Resorts has 100 hotels with over 12,000 rooms. The group manages Pousadas de Portugal since 2003.
The Academia Cristiano Ronaldo, formerly known as Academia Sporting and also known as Academia de Alcochete, is the name given to the football training facilities of Sporting Clube de Portugal, located outside Alcochete, in Setúbal District, Portugal. It includes the Sporting CP Youth Academy which helped to develop at a young age footballers such as Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo. Sporting CP B, the reserve football team of Sporting CP's main squad, play its home matches at the Estádio Aurélio Pereira in the Academia Cristiano Ronaldo, which holds a seating capacity of 1,200.
Jorge Paulo Agostinho Mendes is a Portuguese football agent. He is registered with the Portuguese Football Federation and heads the GestiFute company, founded in 1996. Mendes is among the most influential football agents in the world, with clients including Cristiano Ronaldo, David de Gea, José Mourinho, Diego Costa, James Rodríguez and João Félix. Outside of football, he represents clients such as Formula 1 star Charles Leclerc, triple jump champion Patricia Mamona, surfer Frederico Morais, tennis player João Sousa and the cyclist João Almeida. Mendes is often referred to as a "super-agent".
The Sporting CP Youth Academy is the youth development division of Sporting CP and part of Academia Cristiano Ronaldo in Alcochete. Sporting CP's youth system, which counted for several decades with Aurélio Pereira among its scouting staff, helped develop footballers such as Paulo Futre, Luís Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Bruno Miguel Borges Fernandes is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Premier League club Manchester United, which he captains, and the Portugal national team. Bruno Fernandes is known for his passing ability, vision, creativity, and penalty technique.
The history of the Portugal national football team dates back to its first match on 18 December 1921. The national team, also referred to as Seleção das Quinas, represents the nation of Portugal in international football. It is fielded by the Portuguese Football Federation and competes as one of the founding members of UEFA.
The Messi–Ronaldo rivalry, or Ronaldo–Messi rivalry, is a sporting rivalry in football propelled by the media and fans that involves Argentine footballer Lionel Messi and Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, mainly for being contemporaries and for their similar records and sporting success. They spent nine seasons in the prime of their careers facing off regularly while playing for rival clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The Portugal–Spain football rivalry is one of the oldest football rivalries at a national level. It began on 19 December 1921, when Portugal lost 0-3 to Spain at Madrid in their first ever international friendly game. Portugal lost their first matches, with their first draw (2–2) only coming in 1926. Portugal's first win came much later (4–1) in 1947.
Events in the year 2022 in Portugal.
