From Canada to Lisbon for a family pilgrimage to watch Sporting | OneFootball

A four-day round trip of over 11,000 kilometres to take in a Primeira Liga football match? It may sound crazy to many, but this is not an uncommon occurrence among the Portuguese diaspora spread all over the world.

First, second and even third-generation Portuguese emigrant communities have a common trait of retaining a strong bond to the motherland, often manifested through a shared passion for the country’s football clubs and the Seleção.

The story of the família Rocha will certainly resonate with the www.portugoal.net audience, be they Sportinguistas, Benfiquistas, Portistas or supporters of any other club.

This year Maria and João Rocha, residents of Toronto, decided to offer their father a special gift. The siblings surprised António with a lightning trip to watch their beloved Sporting as the Lisbon club continue on their quest to win the Portuguese championship for only the second time in the last two decades.

As mentioned above, Portuguese people are extremely proud of their roots, even if they have been brought up and built their lives elsewhere in Europe, or indeed in an entirely different continent, and many go to great lengths to keep their Lusitanian ties alive.

A trip to watch their favourite football team or the Seleção is a staple item on such journeys, which only serves to further nurture the sense of belonging to a community that, although far away in geographical terms, is an intimate part of the psyche of so many of the ex-pat community. You can take a Portuguese person out of Portugal, but you cannot take Portugal out of a Portuguese person.

Family history steeped in Sporting

In the case of the Rocha family in particular, the bond with Sporting Clube de Portugal goes even deeper. António’s father, also António, played for Sporting in the 1920s as a promising youth player before moving to Coimbra. A dispute over the transfer fee meant the young footballer never completed the move to Académica as he went on to study medicine in Portugal’s oldest university town.

A few decades later António junior was mobilised and was stationed first in Guinea-Bissau then Angola in the 1960s, where Maria and João were born. Upon returning to Portugal, António decided that the political instability and lack of opportunities necessitated another move abroad. He wrote to the Portuguese embassies in six countries in Europe, the United States and Canada, and it was the reply from the latter that persuaded him to head over to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

For a third time in António’s lifetime he was starting afresh and in a third different continent, now with a young family in tow. His two children were toddlers when they landed in Toronto, Canada, where they have lived ever since.

But the love for the land of his birth and for Sporting never wavered, and it is a sentiment he has inculcated into his children. Portugal plays a big part in the lives of both siblings.

Portugal far away but close at heart

Maria and João visit Portugal practically every year. João recently bought a place in Lisbon, and his children have travelled to the Portuguese capital to attend the summer training camp run by Sporting, and are proud to exhibit the diplomas handed to them by the club’s emblematic mascot Jubas.

Maria, who is especially fond of the Alentejo where her mother hails from, says she spends time “lovingly looking at properties online,” although the fact both brother and sister are settled with a stable professional life in Toronto makes a permanent move to Europe unlikely.

So it is that on 11 February 2024, a family whose roots are in Portugal, that took in Africa and that made North America its home, are back in Lisbon, at the Alvalade stadium. It is the first time they have attended a Sporting match together. Even back at home they rarely watch the games alongside one another. “RTP occasionally shows matches and we can watch on websites, but we all live in different residences so we rarely watch together.”

Braga are the opponents as Sporting aim to recapture first place. “I’m loving this season – too bad Sporting aren’t in first place this weekend, but they will be again soon,” said Maria pre-match. Dito e feito! Another brilliant display by Sporting earned them a thumping 5-0 victory over Braga, the win made even more significant as Benfica dropped points later that night, meaning the Lions are now joint top of the table with their Lisbon rivals, but with a game in hand.

António, Maria and João are all optimistic about Sporting’s chances of being crowned champions this year. Should it come to pass, it will trigger huge celebrations not only for Sporting fans in Portugal, but also among thousands of the Portuguese emigrant community of the green and white persuasion all over the world, including those living in Toronto, and especially among the three generations of the Rocha family residing there.

By Tom Kundert

[Our thanks to the Rocha family for sharing their story. Permit me an aside. I have had the privilege of meeting dozens of the Portuguese emigrant community as they take time out from their long-distance excursions (often on an annual basis) to reconnect with their past. Special shout out to Chris de Barros, Mário & Cíntia, Cristiano Oliveira and Miguel Oliveira. If you have a similar story to tell and would like to share it with the PortuGOAL community, feel free to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or to comment below]