Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto, or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football.
Founded on 28 September 1893, Porto is one of the "Big Three" clubs in Portugal that have never been relegated from Primeira Liga, along with Lisbon-based rivals Benfica and Sporting CP. FC Porto are nicknamed dragões (Dragons), for the mythical creature atop the club's crest, and Azuis e brancos (Blue-and-whites), for the shirt colours. Those colours are in stripes with blue shorts. The club supporters are called portistas. Since 2003, Porto have played their home matches at the , which replaced the previous 51-year-old ground, the .
With a total of 88 major trophies, Porto is the most successful club in Portuguese football. Domestically, these include 31 Portuguese league titles (five of which won consecutively between 1994–95 and 1998–99, a Portuguese football record), 20 , 4 Campeonato de Portugal, 1 and a record 25 . Porto is one of two teams to have won the league title without defeats, in the 2010–11 and 2012–13 seasons. In the former, Porto achieved the largest-ever difference of points between champion and runner-up in a three-points-per-win system (21 points), on their way to a second quadruple.
In international competitions, Porto is the most decorated Portuguese team, with seven trophies. They won the European Cup/UEFA Champions League in 1987 and 2004, the UEFA Cup/Europa League in 2003 and 2011, the UEFA Super Cup in 1987, and the Intercontinental Cup in 1987 and 2004. In addition, they were runners-up in the 1983–84 European Cup Winners' Cup, plus the 2003, 2004 and 2011 editions of the UEFA Super Cup. Porto is the only Portuguese club to have won the UEFA Cup/Europa League, the UEFA Super Cup, the Intercontinental Cup, and to have achieved a continental treble of domestic league, domestic cup and European titles (2002–03 and 2010–11). The club has the fourth-most appearances in the UEFA Champions League group/league stage (27), behind Barcelona (30), Real Madrid (30) and Bayern Munich (29), ranking 9th in the all-time club ranking of the competition. At the end of the 2024–25 season, they ranked 18th in the UEFA club coefficient ranking.
History
Early years (1893–1921)
The club was founded on 28 September 1893 as Foot-Ball Club do Porto by António Nicolau de Almeida, a local port wine merchant and avid sportsman, who became fascinated with football during his trips to England. Porto played its first matches with other Portuguese clubs, including one against Lisbon's Foot-Ball Club Lisbonense on 2 March 1894. This match had the patronage of King Carlos I and Queen Amélie of Orléans, who travelled to Porto to witness the event and present a trophy to the winners.
Almeida's enthusiasm and involvement with the club waned due to family pressure, and by the turn of the century, Porto had entered a period of inactivity. In 1906, José Monteiro da Costa returned to Porto after finishing his studies in England. Like Almeida, thirteen years before, he was also captivated by the English game, and together with some associates, decided to reintroduce the practice of football in the city, outside of the British circles. On 2 August 1906, Porto was revived and Monteiro da Costa appointed its president. Although football was the driving force, the club also promoted other sports, including gymnastics, weightlifting and wrestling, athletics and swimming. Shortly after, Porto rented its first ground and recruited a French coach named Adolphe Cassaigne, who would stay in the club until 1925.
On 15 December 1907, Porto played its first match against a foreign team, hosting Spain's Real Fortuna. In the following month, Porto returned the visit and played its first match abroad. Four years later, the club won the inaugural staging of the José Monteiro da Costa Cup, securing its first-ever major title. In 1912, Porto joined efforts with Leixões to establish the Porto Football Association, which began organising the regional championship in the following year. Porto finished the first season as runners-up, behind local rivals Boavista, but in the following season the club won its first championship. By the end of the 1920–21 season, Porto had been regional champions six times in seven years, and outright winners of the Taça José Monteiro da Costa, after claiming a third consecutive victory in 1916.
First national titles and drought years (1921–1977) The 1921–22 season was marked by the creation of the first nationwide football competition – the Campeonato de Portugal. Organised by the national federation, this knockout tournament gathered the winners of the regional championships to determine the Portuguese champion. After clinching its fourth consecutive regional title, Porto defeated Sporting CP in the inaugural edition and became the first national champions. While a dominant regional force, the club faced stronger opposition in the national championship, winning it only three more times in a span of sixteen years (1925, 1932 and 1937). In 1933–34, Porto was denied participation in the Campeonato de Portugal by its football association for refusing to release players for a match between the Porto and Lisbon regional teams.
In the following season, a second nationwide competition named "Campeonato da Primeira Liga" (English: Premier League Championship), or simply Primeira Liga, was provisionally established by the national federation to increase the number of matches per season and improve the competitiveness of Portuguese football. As the regional champion, Porto qualified for the first edition of the new round-robin competition, winning it with 10 victories in 14 matches. Due to the success of its format, the Primeira Liga was made an official championship competition for the 1938–39 season – its name changed to "Campeonato Nacional da Primeira Divisão" (English: First Division National Championship) or simply Primeira Divisão – and replaced the Campeonato de Portugal, which in turn was converted into the , the main domestic cup competition. Porto won the inaugural edition of the new league championship and successfully defended the title in the next season, despite almost failing to take part. The club failed to secure a third consecutive title, and after nearly missing again a place in the Primeira Divisão in 1941–42, it would only return to a top-three finish in the 1946–47 season. In 1948, Porto defeated English champions Arsenal 3–2 in a friendly match. To commemorate this victory, the associates offered the club a massive trophy made of of silver and wood – the Arsenal Cup.
Having endured a 16-year title drought period, Porto returned to winning ways by taking the 1955–56 Primeira Divisão on head-to-head advantage over runners-up Benfica. Later that season, Porto beat Torreense to win its first Taça de Portugal and achieved its first double. As the Portuguese league winner, Porto made its debut in European competitions by qualifying for the 1956–57 European Cup. The club's first participation was short-lived, ending in the preliminary round with two defeats against Spanish champions Athletic Bilbao. A year later, Porto lifted its second Taça de Portugal by beating Benfica 1–0 in the final. In 1958, Béla Guttmann took charge as coach of Porto and helped them overhaul a five-point lead enjoyed by Benfica to win the Portuguese League title in 1959. The two clubs met in the season's final, but this time Benfica took the trophy and denied a second double for Porto that had won the 1958–59 Primeira Divisão three months before.
Shortly after, the club entered another lacklustre period of its history, the highest point of which was a victory in the 1968 Taça de Portugal final. During this time, Porto had its worst-ever league classification, a ninth place in 1969–70, while its best league record in that period consisted of six runner-up finishes (four consecutive between 1961–62 and 1964–65). In European competitions, the club participated for the first time in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (and its successor, the UEFA Cup) and in the Cup Winners' Cup, without getting past the third round. One of the club's most tragic moments occurred on 16 December 1973, when during a league match against Vitória de Setúbal, the 26-year-old captain Pavão fell unconscious on the pitch and died later at the hospital. The following month, Porto presented Peruvian international Teófilo Cubillas, who became one of the club's most successful players, scoring 65 goals in 108 games.
International affirmation (1977–1988)
The return of José Maria Pedroto – a former Porto player and head coach in the late 1960s – in the 1976–77 season started a new chapter in the club's history. Responsible for the previous cup triumph in 1968, Pedroto guided Porto to its fourth title in the competition. In the following season, he put an end to Porto's league title drought, winning the championship 19 years after having played in the team that took the last title. Internationally, Porto reached the quarter-finals of the 1977–78 Cup Winners' Cup, beating Manchester United along the way, but suffered its heaviest defeat (6–1) against AEK Athens in the subsequent season's European Cup. A poor run of performances in the latter part of the season – resulting in the loss of the league and cup titles – sparked a conflict between the technical staff and president Américo de Sá, which ended with the resignation of Pedroto and his replacement by Hermann Stessl. In December 1981, Porto overcame Benfica to win the inaugural staging of the Portuguese Super Cup, the .
Pedroto returned in April 1982 by the hand of the club's newly elected president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, who had resigned as director of football, two years before, in solidarity with the coach. The previous month, Porto fell again in the Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals against one of the eventual finalists, but needed only two years to finally reach the competition's final. On 16 May 1984, Porto played its first major European final in Basel's St. Jakob Stadium, losing 2–1 to Michel Platini's Juventus. Already without Pedroto, who stepped down due to illness, Porto won that season's Taça and Supertaça but lost the championship to Benfica. Under the steering of Pedroto's apprentice, Artur Jorge, the following season brought the Primeira Divisão title back to the club and crowned homegrown striker Fernando Gomes as Europe's top goalscorer for the second time, after first taking the award in 1983.
Porto retained the league title in 1986, securing an entry to the 1986–87 European Cup. In the first game, the club recorded its biggest win in European competitions: 9–0 against Maltese side Rabat Ajax. Vítkovice of Czechoslovakia, Brøndby of Denmark, and Dynamo Kyiv of the Soviet Union were successively eliminated as Porto advanced to its first European Cup final, against Bayern Munich. Trailing the Germans 1–0 until the 79th minute, Porto scored twice in two minutes – the first goal through a famous backheel from former Algerian international Rabah Madjer, who assisted Juary for the second – to secure a surprising win and the European Cup title. The following season, under new coach Tomislav Ivic, the club completed a treble of international trophies by beating Ajax for the 1987 European Super Cup and Uruguay's Peñarol for the 1987 Intercontinental Cup. The 1987–88 season was one of the most successful for the club, who also won the Taça de Portugal and an expanded 20-team Primeira Divisão with a record number of goals scored (88) and distance in points to the runners-up (15).
Tri, Tetra, Penta (1988–2001)