Portugal Sports – The Most Popular Sports in Portugal

The Most Popular Portuguese Sports

Find below Portugal national sports, ranked by popularity:

So there you have them, the most popular sports in Portugal! Keep reading below for more information about each sport in Portugal.

What is the National Sport of Portugal ?

The national sport of Portugal is Football.

Like many other countries in the world, Portugal is crazy about football. The sport is largely popular, and some of the best players in the world come from Portugal, as well as several managers. Everyone loves playing and watching the game, and everyone closely follows the national team on television.

Learn More About Portugal Popular Sports

Portugal is one of the oldest countries, and it is located in SouthWestern Europe, right next to Spain, which is the only country it shares borders with. Its capital city is Lisbon, which counts more than 544,000 inhabitants (but more than 2,871,000 if you include the metropolitan area!).

An interesting part of the country that I wanted to tackle is its most popular sports. In light of that, I have listed all Portugal popular sports, and I hope you will love them:

Football

The most popular sport in Portugal is, by far and away, football.

You must have heard of the most popular players and managers from Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo, Eusébio, Luís Figo (players) and José Mourinho and Fernando Santos (managers) are great examples.

While there is a national football league, what Portuguese people love watching most is the national team, their pride. It is one of the higher-rated teams in Europe and even in the world, and it won the 2016 Euros as well as the 2018 UEFA Nations League.

Famous Portuguese Football players: Cristiano Ronaldo, Ricardo Carvalho, Rui Costa, Luís Figo, Ricardo Quaresma, Eusébio, Paulo Futre, Bernardo Silva, Paulo Sousa, Pauleta, Anderson Luis de Souza, Mário Coluna, Vítor Baía, João Moutinho, Nani, Fernando Chalana

Basketball

The second most popular sport in Portugal is basketball.

The most successful Portuguese clubs are S. L. Benfica and FC Porto, like in many other sports, including football. During the past years, both of these teams have participated in quite a few European cups. The best achievement of the national basketball team was during the 2007 EuroBasket, where it lost in groups.

Since a couple years ago, 3×3 basketball has also exploded in popularity, and it is still growing to this day. This game is played on a half-court and with only one backboard.

Famous Portuguese Basketball players: Sérgio Ramos, João Gomes, Miguel Minhava, Elvis Évora, Carlos Lisboa, Mário Gil Fernandes, Nuno Marçal, Neemias Queta, Paulo Cunha

Futsal

The third most popular sport in Portugal is futsal.

Football is present not only once but twice on this list, and both of its variants are in the top 3, that just goes to show how much Portugal loves the sport. Futsal is a sport that is played indoors, on a small and hard court. It was invented in Uruguay in 1930, right after the first FIFA World Cup, and it quickly reached worldwide popularity afterwards.

When it comes to the national futsal team, Portugal is one of the strongest ones in the world. It won the UEFA Futsal Euro in 2018, and it is ranked among the top 5 countries in the world right now.

Famous Portuguese Futsal players: Ricardinho, Bebé, Afonso Jesus, Tiago Brito, Miguel Ângelo, Zicky Té, Bruno Coelho, Erick Mendonça, André Coelho, João Matos, Pany Varela

Water sports

The fourth most popular sport in Portugal is water sports.

If you have seen how Portugal looks geographically, with such a huge coastline of 1,794 km / 1,115 mi, it should not be a surprise to you that water sports in Portugal are among the most popular sports.

The major disciplines are swimming, surfing, kayaking and sailing. Bodyboarding is also very famous thanks to Manuel Centeno, who won the National, European and World titles in 2006. The best Portuguese surfer is Frederico Morais.

Famous Portuguese Water sports players: Miguel Nascimento, Frederico Morais, José Lopes, Manuel Centeno, Guilherme Pina, Alexis Santos, Francisco Santos, Carlos Almeida, Simão Morgado, Diogo Carvalho, Pedro Oliveira

Athletics

The fifth most popular sport in Portugal is athletics.

Portugal has seen success in several athletics disciplines, but the major one is definitely long distance running. The country has produced many worldwide stars like Rosa Mota, Carlos Lopes and Manuela Machado.

When it comes to sprinting, Francis Obikwelu has won several gold, silver and bronze medals in European, World and Olympic Games tournaments.

Two of the world’s most important cross-country running events take place in Portugal every year: the Almond Blossom Cross Country and Oeiras International Cross Country.

Famous Portuguese Athletics players: Rosa Mota, Patrícia Mamona, António Leitão, Fernanda Ribeiro, Francis Obikwelu, Rui Silva, João Vieira, Inês Henriques, Nelson Évora, Pedro Pichardo

Cycling

The sixth most popular sport in Portugal is cycling.

Many Portuguese people enjoy cycling for fun, but there is also and most importantly a competitive scene. The most important event of the country is Volta a Portugal, one of the major European cycling tracks, and many professional teams come from Portugal, including S. L. Benfica, Boavista and União Ciclista da Maia.

The most famous Portuguese cyclists are probably Rui Costa, who won the 2013 World Road Race, as well as Joaquim Agostinho, Sérgio Paulinho and José Azevedo.

Famous Portuguese Cycling players: João Almeida, Rúben Guerreiro, Joaquim Agostinho, Acácio da Silva, Rui Costa, Marco Chagas, José Azevedo, Sérgio Paulinho

Rugby union

The seventh most popular sport in Portugal is rugby union.

While rugby union is still very far from the popularity of football in Portugal, it is still growing, and it already has a huge player base, with almost 50,000 participants. The sport is majorly amateur, but there is also a semi-professional scene as well as a national rugby union team.

Most of the Portuguese teams are university teams, especially in cities like Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra. Besides, the governing body of the sport is the Federação Portuguesa de Rugby, which was founded in 1926.

Number of Rugby union licensed players in Portugal: 48,551

Famous Portuguese Rugby union players: Vasco Uva, Gonçalo Uva, Joaquim Ferreira, António Aguilar, João Correia, Pedro Leal, Diogo Mateus, Luís Pissarra, Miguel Portela, Gonçalo Foro

Martial arts

The eighth and last most popular sport in Portugal is martial arts.

Last but not least, martial arts are another growing sport. In fact, they are growing all around the world, and Portugal is no exception to that.

For instance, judo has given many medals to the country, mostly due to Telma Monteiro who won 2 gold medals at the European Championships as well as a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games.

On top of this, there are also more traditional martial arts like Jogo do Pau, which is basically Portuguese Stick Fencing.

Famous Portuguese Martial arts players: Telma Monteiro, João Pina, Nuno Delgado, Abdul Rahim Shaikh, Alvaro Sanches, Anton Pugach, Divino Rui, Domingos “Savage” Gomes

So there you have them, these were all the most popular sports in Portugal. I hope you enjoyed them and that you learned something new today.

In case you want to learn more about sports in other countries, feel free to keep reading, as I still have lots of things to tell you about:

What are some traditional sports in Portugal?

There are tons of traditional sports in Portugal, and they are more or less popular, depending on the region.

Some of them are Jogo da Emboca, Jogo da Galhofa (which only takes place in a specific city, once a year), Apanhada, Giroplano, Macaca, Jogo da Caracol and Cabra cega. All of these vary from fighting games to running games.

More Sport Facts!

Loved these Portugal sports facts? Want to see what sports are the most popular in other countries?

Then check out these posts:

• Famous Sports in Italy
• Famous Sports in France
• Famous Sports in Spain

Or click here to see ALL the facts up on the blog! Spoiler alert: there’s A LOT of them.

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