History of Estoril Praia

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·23. Juni 2025

History of Estoril Praia

Estoril Praia was founded in 1939 by Fausto Cardoso de Figueiredo, a hugely important figure in the history of the town of Estoril and council of Cascais. Figueiredo graduated in Pharmacy but after a few years he left the medical profession and embarked on a career in business, tourism and politics, making it his life’s mission to turn Estoril into a tourist destination of international renown.

Figueiredo created the Grupo Desportivo Estoril-Plage for the workers of the local hotels, spas, casino and railway company, with the goal of inculcating a sense of identity to the region through sport. Like many of Portugal’s football clubs, Estoril Praia competes in a vast variety of sports, including badminton, table tennis, basketball, volleyball and roller hockey among others.

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On 7 December 1940 Estoril Praia inaugurated its home playing field with the President of the Republic Óscar Carmona in attendance (Photo: estorilpraia.pt)

Despite living in the shadow of Lisbon giants Benfica and Sporting, the football team enjoyed immediate and surprising success in its early years. Estoril reached the final of the Portuguese Cup in 1944, got promoted to the top flight, and finished 5th (1946/47), 4th (1947/48) and 5th (1948/49) in successive seasons. The club provided four players to Portugal’s national team during this golden era.

In 1952/53 Estoril Praia were relegated and endured a tough two decades, falling as low as the district leagues. The barren years ended when top-flight status was regained in the 1970s, spending the next three decades as something of a yo-yo club.

One of the club’s longest-serving and most successful managers during this time was a former player turned coach who went by the name of Fernando Santos. It was the first managerial position Santos held. The seven years in the dugout at the Estádio António Coimbra da Mota served as a solid apprenticeship for Santos, who would famously go on to lead Portugal to its first major trophy at Euro 2016.

Fernando Santos spent six years as a player and seven years as a manager at Estoril Praia (Photo: estorilpraia.pt)

The first decade of the new millennium saw Estoril again slip out of the limelight, with just a single season in the Primeira Liga, but promotion led to what can be considered the club’s second golden age. And most of the credit goes to one man, another famous “made in Estoril” manager.

The last six years of defender Marco Silva’s playing career had been spent at Estoril Praia, in the second division. When he retired. Silva was initially made director of football at the club, before being appointed head coach early in 2011/12. He subsequently guided the team to a return to the top flight as second-division champions, following up the feat with brilliant campaigns in 2012/13 (5th), and 2013/14 when the 4th-place finish equalled their highest ever final position achieved 66 years previously.

For the first time in their history, Estoril entered European competition, with historical clubs such as Sevilla, Panathinaikos, PSV Eindhoven and Dynamo Moscow playing at Amoreira. The heady times ended with the departure of Marco Silva, who was poached by Sporting CP and went on to forge a commendable managerial career in Greece and England.

Since then Estoril have been pretty much a staple in the upper echelons of Portuguese football (bar a spell in the second division 2018-2021), and they were runners up in the Taça da Liga (Portuguese League Cup) in 2023/24, losing the final on penalties to Braga. Moreover, substantial investment in recent decades in the youth setup has borne fruit, the U23 team winning the Liga Revelação national championship three times. The club is in a good place right now.

Estoril Praia have won the Liga Revelação, the Portuguese U23 national championship, three times in the last five years (Photo: estorilpraia.pt)