Benfica

Sport Lisboa e Benfica, known simply as Benfica, is a multi-sport club from the city of Lisbon, Portugal, which competes in the Primeira Liga, the top division of Portuguese football. It was founded as a football club under the name Grupo Sport Lisboa on 28 February 1904. Since 2003 it has played at home in the Estádio da Luz, which has the same name as the original stadium of 1954. Benfica wears a red shirt, white shorts and red socks.

It is one of the Big Three of Portugal, together with Porto and Sporting CP. It contests the Lisbon derby with the latter. Together with those two, it was one of the founders of the Portuguese First Division in 1933, and the three are the only teams that have never been relegated to the lower division.

Benfica is the most decorated club in Portuguese national competitions, having won 80 titles. It has a record 38 league championships and 26 Taças de Portugal, 8 League Cups, 9 Supertaças and 3 Campeonatos de Portugal, which is why it is known to its fans as El Glorioso (in Portuguese: O Glorioso), while at the international level it has won two European Cups consecutively, in 1961 and 1962, and one Latin Cup in 1950.

Internationally it has also been runner-up in the European Cup in 1963, 1965, 1968, 1988 and 1990, and in the UEFA Cup/Europa League in 1983, 2013 and 2014. Benfica's ten European finals are a national record and rank seventh of all time among UEFA clubs as of 2014. It was also runner-up in the Intercontinental Cup in 1961 and 1962.

The club has the largest number of supporters in Portugal and also of any Portuguese team worldwide. In fact, it is known as "o clube do povo" (the people's club), in contrast to Sporting CP, founded by the city's upper classes. All of this led to Benfica entering the Guinness Book of World Records on 9 November 2006, recognized as the club with the most members in the world, reaching 197,877 at that time. At the end of 2009 Benfica remained the football club with the most members in the world, surpassing the barrier of 200,000, followed by Fútbol Club Barcelona (180,000 members). In 2022, Benfica had reached 291,000 members, surpassed worldwide only by Boca Juniors and FC Bayern Munich respectively.

It was chosen by FIFA as the 12th biggest football club of the 20th century and was considered by the IFFHS the ninth best European club of the 20th century. In February 2011 it was chosen by the IFFHS as the World's Team of the Month.

In UEFA, Benfica ranks eighth in the all-time club ranking and twenty-sixth in the club coefficient ranking at the end of the 2021-22 season. Currently, Benfica has the second-highest number of appearances in the UEFA European Cup/Champions League (41), a tournament in which it holds the overall record for the biggest aggregate victory, achieved in 1965-66. It also holds the European record for the most consecutive wins in the national league (29), in which it became the first unbeaten champion, in 1972-73.

Benfica has been honored with the Portuguese Orders of Christ, of Prince Henry and of Merit. The club's anthem, "Ser Benfiquista", refers to Benfica's supporters, who are called benfiquistas. "E pluribus unum" is the club's motto; Águia Vitória is its mascot.

On 2 August 2020, Benfica made the most expensive signing in its history and in the history of the Portuguese First Division, signing the Uruguayan forward Darwin Núñez from U. D. Almería for 25 million euros.

In addition to its main section, football, the club has professional teams in basketball, handball, futsal, volleyball, roller hockey and rugby, sports in which it is also considered one of the best clubs in its country. It also has professionals in athletics, cycling, water polo, billiards, capoeira, gymnastics, golf, judo, swimming, fishing, table tennis, archery and triathlon.