Can Anyone Stop Portugal’s Três Grandes?
Far from the universal appeal of the Premier League, La Liga or Serie A, the Primeira Liga, the first division of Portuguese football, has its own share of followers and has launched a good number of familiar faces into the Olympus of the sport. Cristiano Ronaldo, José Mourinho and Eusébio are the clearest examples of Portugals football heritage, has the Special One would put it.
Among the things that these three legends have in common, one of them is the fact that all of them have played/coached for at least one of the three giants of their country, Sporting CP, SL Benfica, both from the capital, Lisbon, and FC Porto, from Porto. For decades, these clubs have been in a continuous stand-off, that makes them the most celebrated teams in the country, winning the most titles and gathering most fans.
Sporting CP is the current champions and have developed several stars like Cristiano Ronaldo Luís Figo or Nani. SL Benfica is the club with the most championship wins, 38, and the most fans. FC Porto has the most international trophies, seven, including two International Cups.
Exceptions That Confirm the Rule
Since 1934-1935, these three giants have won every Primeira Liga edition with two exceptions. Os Belensenses, also from Lisbon, now playing in the Liga 3, have won the title in 1945-1946, and Boavista, also from Porto and now trying to survive in the Primeira Liga despite their financial problems, have won the most wanted trophy in the nation in 2000-2001, surpassing, at the time, their city rivals.
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These two exceptions confirm, even more, the reality: the Lisbon and Porto cities, or districts if you will, have the monopoly of trophies and fans in Portugal and that’s something that will never change. However, there is a place up north that has been accumulating relevance in Portuguese football for quite some time: the Braga district.
Amongst the teams that belong to this region are SC Braga, Vitória SC, FC Famalicão, Moreirense and Gil Vicente. Now, all of them are playing in the Primeira Liga, making the district the most represented this season, with the same number of teams as Lisbon. Since 2019-2020, Braga is the most represented district in each edition and some of the most well-known figures from the last two decades in Portuguese football have represented some of these clubs.
Jorge Jesus, for Flamengo, Abel Ferreira, for Palmeiras, and Artur Jorge, for Botafogo, have all won the Copa Libertadores and they all coached SC Braga, just like Leonardo Jardim who won the Asian Champions League for Al-Hilal. At the same time, Ruben Amorim and Paulo Fonseca, that have represented SC Braga and even won trophies there, are now in charge of two of the biggest clubs in the world, Manchester United and AC Milan.
Domestically, even the Três Grandes have had their share of Braga “graduates”. Sérgio Conceição, who have turned the last years of Pinto da Costa’s iconic presidency at FC Porto from poor too competitive, coached both SC Braga and Vitória SC, Rui Vitória, two times Portuguese champion with SL Benfica, also coached Vitória SC, and Sporting CP fished Pedro Gonçalves and Ugarte, from Famalicão, Paulinho (now shining in Mexico), from SC Braga, just like Amorim, and Marcus Edwards, from Vitória SC.
Northern Lights
SC Braga seems like the most viable candidate to, someday, break the Porto-Lisbon dynasty, having already been involved in a neck-to-neck title race against a star-studded SL Benfica (Ángel Di Maria, Pablo Aimar, David Luiz, Ramires, Fábio Coentrão, etc) in 2009-2010 and losing a Europa League final against a star-studded FC Porto (Hulk, Radamel Falcao, João Moutinho, Álvaro Pereira, James Rodríguez, etc) in the following season. On top of that, SC Braga have been collecting domestic titles in recent years and selling their players for higher and higher fees.
On the other side of the Minho rivalry, Vitória SC have been somewhat disappointing in European campaigns in the last decade. However, this season, Vitória have been impressive in their Conference League campaign. Up until the game against Fiorentina the last of the league stage, to be played on the 19th of December, Rui Borges man won every match apart from a draw in Kazakhstan, setting a record of consecutive wins, nine, by a Portuguese team in a European competition.
The club contribution for the Portuguese ranking in 2024-2025 has been the most important in the season and could be crucial to help Portugal surpass the Netherlands and regain a third spot in the Champions League. In any case, the most impressive thing about Vitória is their fans. Guimarães is known to be the city that has been “vaccinated” against the Três Grandes fever, with Vitória SC being the club that is the most supported in the city, resulting in good attendances in every match.
Unlike established teams SC Braga and Vitória SC, FC Famalicão has a growing reputation in league. The team seems like an interesting and well managed club, usually buying players that would later be part of important sale. FC Porto´s defense, for instance, is composed by three players that have played in Famalicão, like Otávio and Francisco Moura, bought directly from the club, and Nehuén Pérez.
In 2019-2020, FC Famalicão played in the Primeira Liga for the first time in many years. That season, the team composed by the likes of Nehuén Pérez, Toni Martinez or Pedro Gonçalves, started with great promise, being the leader for the first few games. However, the team missed on a European spot in the last match of the season and has failed to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or Conference League in every season since being back in the topflight of Portuguese football.
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Neighbors with Growing Reputations
Moreirense and Gil Vicente are the teams with the other Braga-based teams in the league. Moreirense seems like the quintessential elevator team in Portugal, being a club that may go down in one year, bouncing back in the next. Last season, the team was one of the best in the country, 6th, which granted their manager at the time, Rui Borges, a small trip to Guimarães to sign for Vitória SC.
This season, things have been looking good as well, with the team now coached by former FC Porto and SL Benfica player César Peixoto being in the first half of the table and still in the Taça de Portugal, after knocking FC Porto, the winner of the last three editions of the cup. Despite this recent good years, Moreirense biggest achievement have been made in 2016-2017, when the team won the Taça da Liga in Algarve, after beating SL Benfica and SC Braga in the Final Four.
With a more stable path in recent years, Gil Vicente have struggled with legal problems up until 2019-2020. Since that season, the team has stayed in first division and achieved European football for the first time in their history in 2021-2022. Unfortunately for them and for the Portuguese ranking, they were knocked-out in the playoff of the Europa League in the next season, after losing to AZ Alkmaar.
With the disappearance of several cities from the football map, the Braga district, or the Minho region if you will, is an absolute decisive part of Portuguese football, in terms of players and managers development. The evolution of the league in terms of competitiveness is dependent on SC Braga and Vitória SC ability to close the gap between them and the Três Grandes and the valorization of Portuguese football (decisive for the league to gain more attention and publicity) depends on clubs like FC Famalicão, Moreirense and Gil Vicente to establish themselves even more in the league.
By: Gonçalo Diniz Ribeiro
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Quality Sport Images / Getty Images