C.D. Santa Clara

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C.D. Santa Clara
Image:C.D. Santa Clara.jpg
Full name Clube Desportivo Santa Clara
Founded 1921
Ground Estádio de São Miguel,
Ponta Delgada
(Capacity 15,277)
Chairman Flag of Portugal Cruz Marques
Manager Flag of Portugal Paulo Brito
League Liga de Honra
2006-07 Liga de Honra, 4th
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
 
Home colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
 
Away colours

Clube Desportivo Santa Clara (IPA['klub(ɨ) dɨʃpuɾ'tivu 'sɐ̃tɐ 'klaɾɐ]) is an Portuguese football club from Ponta Delgada, Azores. To date, it is the only club from the Azores to have competed in the top division of the Portuguese Liga, although they currently compete in the Liga de Honra.

Among its most famous players are Paulo Figueiredo, Lito Vidigal and Jorge Ribeiro. Pedro Pauleta was a youth player at the club.

Santa Clara is one of the only teams from the Azores area to participate in the Portuguese Liga: due to the geographic area of the Azores, Santa Clara's rivals are C.D. Nacional and C.S. Marítimo, both from Madeira Island. Matches against teams from Madeira prove to be very heated affairs, with both sets of fans segregated and heightened security required. Also we recorded a young player who was 15 born in Canada named Dylan Janeiro who had played 2 league games with C.D. Santa Clara recording 1 clean sheet and only conceding 1 goal in 2 games.

Santa Clara play in the Estádio de São Miguel (In English, The Stadium of Saint Michael) in Ponta Delgada, the largest city in the Azores.

The club also shares lesser rivalries with F.C. Vizela and Trofense

The club also qualified for the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2002, where they crushed and ran riot against Armenia club FC Shirak.

The current Club captain is Nuno Sociedade.

The clubs most successful manager was Manuel José Tavares Fernandes a former Portugal International. Fernandes was the first manager to take Santa Clara to the First Division, where he was praised in the Azores.


Santa Clara's current kit manufactuer is Umbro and their sponsors are Açoreana Seguros. Over the past years it's been roumered that Lotto are intrested in manfactuaring their new kits.

The club also played in the old Estádio da Luz as Benfica's last official match before a new stadium was built in Lisbon FOR EURO 2004 in which Portugal hosted,the total capacity that game was close to 50,000 people.

Recently Paulo Sergio coach of Santa Clara was sacked after losing a 1st lead by midseason with only 7 games left until the end of the season the club lay in 10th place and have failed to get promoted.

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[edit] Madeira & Azores Rivalry

Prior to CS Maritimo's October 2006 betandwin.com Liga clash against Naval 1º de Maio, Maritimo and fellow Madeira rivals CD Nacional announced that construction would begin on the brand-new 31,000 all-seated Estádio do Madeira in the nearby Praia Formosa area of Funchal. After Portuguese press released this statement, officials in the Azores also prompted for a brand new stadium in the Azores for Santa Clara, where Santa Clara and Portugal would play in. So far Madeira's new stadium is in the works but Santa Clara's new stadium is now being looked at, but President Cruz says he will only consider it when Santa Clara get promoted into the Superliga.

During the 1990s the lack of funds going into Santa Clara where noticeable as the Club fell from the First Division and sank deeply into the 2nd. It was this period that also saw the Azores and Madeira derby grow even stronger as CD Nacional and C.S. Marítimo fans would sing "O Baco Açoreana esta no Fundo" (Translated as: "the Azorean boat has just sank to the bottom"), but in recent times, President Cruz Marques has been investing more time and money into the club such as into the ever growing talent of Rúben Rodrigues and players such as talented keeper João Botelho. The club is favourite in the Liga de Honra to get promoted for the current season.

Politics also takes part in the Madeira and Azores derby with Madeira's controversial regional governor Alberto João Jardim being a self-confessed C.S. Marítimo supporter and also because of the heated relationship with the two regional governors, while of course the Azores regional governor, Carlos César is a self confessed Santa Clara fan.

The derby even competes with each other using players as Madeira's most famous footballer being Cristiano Ronaldo who played for Madeira club CD Nacional who currently plays for Manchester United FC and the Azores had Prolific Striker and all-time leading scorer for Portugal,Pedro Pauleta who played for C.D. Santa Clara, this only exacerbates the ill-feeling between the clubs and Islands.

[edit] Current Squad

No. Position Player
33 Flag of Portugal GK Nuno Santos
24 Flag of Portugal GK João Botelho
1 Flag of Angola GK Fernando
2 Flag of Portugal DF Portela
5 Flag of Portugal DF Jorge Humberto
4 Flag of Brazil DF Accioly
5 Flag of Brazil DF Gomes
20 Flag of Brazil DF Anselmo
22 Flag of Portugal DF Bruno Novo
6 Flag of Portugal MF Zeca
7 Flag of Portugal MF Mariano
No. Position Player
10 Flag of Argentina MF Prieto
11 Flag of Brazil MF Júlio Cesar
15 Flag of Brazil MF Kall
16 Flag of Brazil MF Vinícius
18 Flag of Portugal MF Nuno Sociedade
14 Flag of Brazil FW Hugo Henrique
17 Flag of Portugal FW Rúben Rodrigues
21 Flag of Portugal FW Basílio Almeida
25 Flag of Portugal FW Vitor Silva

[edit] Notable former players

[edit] League and cup history

The club has spent three seasons at the top level of Portuguese football.

Season Div. Pos. Pl. W D L GS GA P Cup Notes
1998-1999 2H 3 34 13 13 7 53 37 55 last 32 promoted
1999-2000 1D 18 34 7 10 17 35 50 31 last 32 relegated
2000-2001 2H 1 34 20 7 7 60 37 67 promoted
2001-2002 1D 14 34 9 10 15 32 46 37 last 32 Record for Highest League Placing
2002-2003 1D 17 34 8 11 15 39 54 35 last 32 relegated
2003-2004 2H 13 34 11 9 14 41 44 42 last 128
2004-2005 2H 15 34 11 6 17 39 49 39 last 64
2005-2006 2H 6 34 13 12 9 45 32 51 last 64
2006-2007 2H 4 30 15 5 10 34 31 50 4th round

[edit] Santa Clara in UEFA competitions

Season Competition Round Club Score
2002 Intertoto Cup 1R Flag of Armenia FC Shirak 2-0, 3-3
2R Flag of the Czech Republic FK Teplice 1-5, 1-4

[edit] External links