Sporting Clube de Portugal "Juniors" (), commonly known as Sporting Juniors, is the under-19

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team comprised in the youth department of Portuguese club

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

. They play their home matches at the

Academia Cristiano Ronaldo The Academia Cristiano Ronaldo (English: Cristiano Ronaldo Academy), formerly known as Academia Sporting () and also known as Academia de Alcochete (English: Alcochete Academy), is the name given to the football training facilities of Sporting ...

Alcochete Alcochete () is a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 17,569, in an area of 128.36 km². The municipality is composed of three parishes and is located in Setúbal District. Alcochete is known for its bullfighting tradition ...

which counted for several decades with

Aurélio Pereira Aurélio da Silva Pereira (1 October 1947 – 8 April 2025) was a Portuguese football coach and youth player scout who was professionally involved with the men's football team of Sporting Clube de Portugal (Sporting CP) for several decades. Firs ...

among its scouting staff, helped develop footballers such as

Paulo Futre Paulo Jorge dos Santos Futre (; born 28 February 1966) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a left winger. Widely considered as one of the best players of his generation, after starting his professional career with Sport ...

Luís Figo Luís Filipe Madeira Caeiro Figo (; born 4 November 1972) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a winger for Sporting CP, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Inter Milan. He won 127 caps for the Portugal national team, a one-t ...

and

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Saudi Pr ...

Youth Squads

Sporting U23 team

Staff *Head coach: João Pereira *First assistant coach: Tiago Teixeira *Assistant coach: António Calça e Pina *Assistant coach: José Caldeira *GK Coach: Dário Ezequiel *Fitness coach: Pedro Cardoso *Analytics coach: João Ferreira

Sporting U19 team - ''Juniores''

Staff *Head coach: Pedro Coelho *Assistant coach: Paulo Carvalho *Assistant coach: Pedro Cruz *GK Coach: Rodolfo Vieira *Analytics coach: João Jorge *Scout: César Fragoso *Scout: André Figueiró *Team Manager: Mariana Vaz Pinto

Sporting U17 team - ''Juvenis''

Staff *Head coach: José João *Assistant coach: Rafael Pinto *Assistant coach: Diogo Souto *GK Coach: Luís Caetano *Analytics coach: André Gonçalves

Sporting U15 team - ''Iniciados''

Staff *Head coach: Bernardo Bruschy *Assistant coaches: Gonçalo Olim *Assistant coaches: João Lourenço *GK Coach: João Santos

The Academy

Sporting's Academy was the first and only sports academy in Europe to receive the

ISO9001 The ISO 9000 family is a set of international standards for quality management systems. It was developed in March 1987 by International Organization for Standardization. The goal of these standards is to help organizations ensure that they meet ...

:2008 – a quality certification awarded by EIC, a Portuguese anonymous society responsible for this type of certification, which is recognised both locally and internationally.

Facilities

Budgeted at around 2,000,000,000 $00 million (2 million contos), the construction of the academy commenced in August 1999 in the municipality of

, located on the outskirts of

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

on the southern bank of the river

Tejo The World Esperanto Youth Organization (, TEJO) is an organization dedicated to supporting young Esperanto speakers around the world and promote the use of Esperanto. TEJO was founded in 1938 as the ''Tutmonda Junular-Organizo'' (World Youth Org ...

, and the inauguration was on 21 June 21 2002. The main building of the academy has two different areas, the professional football area and the youth area. In both sides there is medical center equipped with treatment rooms, gym,

Turkish bath A hammam (), also often called a Turkish bath by Westerners, is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited from the model ...

Jacuzzi Jacuzzi is an American private company that manufactures and markets hot tubs, pools, and other bath products. It is best known for the Jacuzzi hydrotherapy products. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California. It is the largest hot tu ...

and bedrooms. In the youth area, there are also several study rooms. The academy is equipped with a main field, four grass pitches for training, a synthetic field and a grassed area for goalkeepers training. Sporting's youth academy and the larger Sporting Academy in general was one of the training grounds for the

Portugal national football team The Portugal national football team () has represented Portugal in men's international Association football, football competitions since 1921. The national team is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), the governing body for ...

during Euro 2004. A number of European clubs choose the Sporting's ''Academia'' for training in the off-season.

Youth program

Sporting CP Youth Program helped produce two

FIFA World Player of the Year The FIFA World Player of the Year was an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, between 1991 and 2015 at the FIFA World Player Gala. Coaches and captains of international teams and media representative ...

winners (

and

), two

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual association football, football award presented by French magazine ''France Football'' since 1956 Ballon d'Or, 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. Conceived ...

winners (Luís Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo) and one runner-up (

), and one

FIFA Ballon d'Or The FIFA Ballon d'Or ("Golden Ball") was an annual association football award presented to the world's best men's player from 2010 to 2015. Awarded jointly by FIFA and ''France Football'', the prize was a merger of the FIFA World Player of the Y ...

winner (Cristiano Ronaldo).

Notable Academy graduates

;List criteria *Player has made 25 appearances or more for his country at full international level *Player who has been at least nominated for a "world's best men's player" award (

The Best FIFA Men's Player The Best FIFA Men's Player is an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, since 2016, to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous calendar year. The award was formerly known ...

Academia Aurélio Pereira and Pólo EUL

The youth development division includes the Pólo EUL, Sporting Clube de Portugal's youth development campus at the Estádio Universitário de Lisboa (6 to 13 years old children), and the Aurélio Pereira Academy located at the football fields next to the

Pavilhão João Rocha Pavilhão João Rocha is a multi-sports pavilion located in Lisbon, next to the Estádio José Alvalade and it is the home of Sporting CP sports. The pavilion is named after João Rocha, a former club president who remained in office from Sept ...

, within a short walking distance from the

Estádio José Alvalade The Estádio José Alvalade (; ') is a Football (soccer), football stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, home of Sporting Clube de Portugal. It was built adjacent to the site of the Estádio José Alvalade (1956), older stadium. The stadium is named afte ...

Escolas Academia Sporting

The Escolas Academia Sporting (EAS – Sporting Academy Schools) are football training schools affiliated with Sporting CP. Boys and girls aged 4 to 15 are eligible to get admission in the EAS, which are in operation in several locations across Portugal. Angola, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, Costa Rica, Singapore, South Africa and Spain, among other countries, are foreign countries where the EAS have been founded.

References

External links

The Sporting CP academy way
– ''These Football Times'' (2015) {{coord missing, Portugal Football academies in Portugal Sporting CP Youth football in Portugal UEFA Youth League teams NextGen series