Sporting Clube de Braga (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɨˈpɔɾtĩ ˈkluβɨ ðɨ ˈβɾaɣɐ]), commonly known as Sporting Braga, or simply Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. Best known for the men's professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football at the Estádio Municipal de Braga, it also has departments for athletics, badminton, basketball, billiards, boccia, boxing, esports, futsal, karate, kickboxing, muay thai, swimming, taekwondo and volleyball.
Founded on 19 January 1921, Braga are nicknamed, Braguistas, and Os Arsenalistas (The Arsenalists) for the shirt colour that resembles English club Arsenal. Since 2003, Braga have played their home matches at the Estádio Municipal de Braga, which replaced the Estádio 1º de Maio, now used for the club's reserve team.
In the 2000s, Braga became one of Portugal's most decorated clubs (5th) and has had some success in European competitions, winning the last UEFA Intertoto Cup (the only Portuguese club to do so) in 2008, and reaching the final of the UEFA Europa League in 2011. Domestically, they have also won another 7 domestic trophies: three Taça de Portugal in 1965–66, 2015–16, and in 2020–21, and the Taça da Liga three times in 2012–13, 2019–20 and 2023–24.
The club qualified for the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League, reaching the competition for the first time in their history, by eliminating Celtic and Sevilla following a 2nd-place finish in the 2009–10 Primeira Liga season. This represented the highest finish in the league in the club's history. Moreover, in the 2010s, Braga have cultivated a reputation for spotting and developing young talent, and have remained focused on developing a youth system.
Braga have a long-standing rivalry with nearby club Vitória Guimarães, with whom they contest the Derby do Minho.
Contents
History
Existing records say that in 1919, two years before the formal foundation, a group of Braga residents who were sympathisers of the Lisbon-based Sporting Clube de Portugal (Sporting CP) came up with the name Sporting Clube de Braga. The equipment used was also identical to that of Sporting CP. During weekend matches at Campo das Goladas, the friends from Braga wore the classic Sporting CP Stromp kit, with a green and white shirt split down the middle. Influenced by sympathisers of Sport Lisboa e Benfica (Benfica), a solution was found in 1921 to please everyone. The name remained true to Sporting CP, but the kit changed to red and white, in honour of the connection of some of the Braga fans to Lisbon's Benfica.
Until 1945, SC Braga imitated Benfica's kit. Red shirt, shorts and white socks. That year, at the end of World War II, the club adopted the Arsenal version for their second team, with white sleeves. Braga changed their kits to their current red and white during the 1945–46 season (for the reserve squad) and the 1946–47 season (for the first team). The change, according to one version of the story, was at the behest of their president, José Antunes Guimarães, who had business connections in London and was an Arsenal fan; according to an alternate version, it was József Szabó, Braga's Hungarian coach, who asked the president to change the uniform to an Arsenal-style red and white. In 1947, Braga won the Second division title in the new kit, reaching the First division for the first time. Braga even renamed their youth team Arsenal de Braga.
Braga's emblem is the city of Braga's shield with Mother Mary and baby Jesus with the blue from the city's shield changed to red. On the top of the emblem is the golden Mural Crown of Braga, with the name "Sporting Clube de Braga" on it. Many Braga fans have said that Mother Mary gives them luck. The fans of Braga are known as Arsenalistas due to their team home kit that resembles that of English club Arsenal. They are also known as Bracarenses because of being from the city of Bracari, later named Bracara Augusta, city of Portugal that is now known as Braga.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Braga began to climb up the league ladder and eventually participated in the UEFA competitions. Braga's recent run of successive European participations began in the 2004–05 UEFA Cup after finishing fifth in the league under Jesualdo Ferreira's first full season in the club. In the 2006–07 UEFA Cup, the side reached the last 16 before a 6–4 aggregate loss to Tottenham Hotspur. That summer, the club signed a three-year sponsorship deal with French insurance company Axa, who took over the naming rights for the stadium for €4.5 million; this was renewed for a further three years in 2010.
Finances and ownership
Results
In 2023, Sporting Clube de Braga - Futebol, SAD's net profit was 20.377 million euros and the EBITDA was 29.779 million euros.
Ownership
Sporting Clube de Braga – Futebol, SAD is listed on Euronext Lisbon. By 2023, Sporting Clube de Braga, the sports club as a whole, retained 36.99% of the football SAD (Sporting Clube de Braga – Futebol, SAD) stock, followed by Qatar Sports Investments with 29.60%, and then Sundown Investments Limited with 17.04%. Other investors held the remaining 16.37%.
Rivalries
Rivalry with Vitória SC
The Derby do Minho is the rivalry between Sporting Clube de Braga and Vitória Sport Clube in the Minho region of northern Portugal. This derby is marked by great tension and passion, reflecting not only sporting competition, but also a historical and cultural rivalry between the cities of Braga and Guimarães that began even before the formation of the Kingdom of Portugal. Since then it has been a struggle in all aspects of society, sport, culture, the economy. Football has only become a means used to transpose the rivalry. Considered to be one of the most exciting and fiercely contested matches in Portuguese football, the Dérbi Minhoto is eagerly awaited by the fans for the clash between these two cities known for their history and identity.
Other rivalries
There is also a certain rivalry between Braga, Boavista, Belenenses and Vitória SC, due to the closeness in the number of titles and because they are some of the clubs with the largest number of fans in Portugal, with many people creating arguments to determine which would be the "4th big". However, the distance between these clubs and the Big Three is considerable enough in any sport to be given such a designation.
League and cup history
Honours
Source:
National
Segunda Divisão
Winners (2): 1946–47, 1963–64
Taça de Portugal
Winners (3): 1965–66, 2015–16, 2020–21
Taça da Liga
Winners (3): 2012–13, 2019–20, 2023–24
Taça Federação Portuguesa de Futebol
Winners (1): 1976–77 (First Division)
International
UEFA Intertoto Cup
Winners (1): 2008 (Outright Winners)
Players
Current squad
As of 24 July 2026
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Club staff
As of 23 June 2025