Football in Portugal, the National Passion

Well, it's a game of passion and suspense. Like it keeps you guessing till the very end, the thrill and adrenaline rush you experience is what makes football a 90-minute thriller.Football in Portugal is a national obsession and a national passion. So, the question is, "Would you relocate to Portugal if you win the lotto?"

Football: Religion of Portugal

Portugal is a busy urbane country. Like most of the European countries, it churns around day and night underneath loud city lights. But on the day of the football match, it seems like everything has been put to a halt. The streets emptied, the TV rooms filled in with every member from the youngest child to the oldest grandparent, and the football fields pervading with the fan chants. As if we are witnessing a national festival.

So, what exactly happened here that engraved football in the Portuguese gene. Let's date back into history to dig how a Portuguese heart was engraved with football.

History of Football in Portugal

The story would go back to more than 100 years when the Portuguese population beheld their first football match. The match was short, entertaining, and quite fun, and hence the business persons were implanted with the idea of creating clubs. Clubs as in football clubs to represent football teams at different levels to augment game competition, fun, and profits, of course.

Therefore, the program was taken into consideration and worked with quite perfection. Within a few years, the country witnessed a definite rise in football clubs; the clubs sprang out like blooming flowers.

And then the late 1900s were the years of football breakthrough. The years when three glorious football clubs, or as the Portuguese call it, "Three Greatest," came into existence. These clubs are:

• F.C. Porto
• Sporting C.P
• S.L. Benfica

These clubs were pretty much surmised as the torch bearers of football obsession. These clubs were the sunshine of Portugal football: financially sound, extraordinarily efficient, and bagging several titles, like a complete package within a small brand. But the most crucial factor is that these clubs became the cohesive forces that served as the binding thread to the country fans altogether.

The Distribution of Football Fans Over Portugal

If you go around Portugal, hurling silly questions like: "would you relocate to Portugal if you win the lotto?" You are most likely to hear yes as an answer from around 80 percent of the population. So, what might seem like a farfetched dream to you is basically one of Portugal's fancy ambitions.

Football runs through their veins and pumps their heart. Calling them fans would be an understatement. So, if we plot the Portuguese fan club on the basis of club variations, we will observe some fascinating patterns like:

• The entire North of Portugal is head over heels for F.C. Porto as basically the club is named after the Northern Portugal city, Porto.
• When we move towards the heart of the country in the direction of the capital Lisbon, we will observe a more significant share of Sporting or Benfica fans. So, if you are visiting Lisbon, think twice before dissing these clubs.
• All in all, football is a massive affair in Portugal. It is a national passion. This passion is, as such, passed down to subsequent generations as a sacred heirloom. Love is so intense that people are ready to bet all they possess in favor of the club they adore.

Characteristic Superstitions of Portuguese Fans

Portuguese are straight-up crazy regarding football. They are naturals in the football fan business, to put it in one simple way, the true authentic in the football realms.

But you would be puzzled to find out how sick they get during the games. The superstitions they follow, the charms they voice, all of them are twisted and would appear completely senseless, but that's what titles the Portugal fans as different.

These people have themselves assigned to lucky corners or cafe tables or T-shirts. Many of them even believe that they miss big matches; their team would probably perform better. In a nutshell, Portugal is just a 92,212 km² box of football wonders.

Therefore, we can conclude that Portugal defines football. To Portuguese, it's not just a 90-minute entertainment buster; instead, it's a 90-minute thrill that accentuates their immense love and intense passion. In the end, we can say that we all need something to live by, and to Portuguese, it's football. Their choices are vocal and clear, unlike most of us.