The club

Sport Lisboa e Benfica is a Portuguese sporting club, reckoned by FIFA as one of the 11 mythical clubs of the world.

Founded on February 28, 1904, S.L.B. achieved an endless amount of successes throughout more than 100 years of history, emblazoning not only our trophy room but also the Portuguese sporting history.

Symbols

The club's symbol is formed by an eagle on top of a bicycle wheel and the red and white shield. Benfica's mascot is also an eagle, named Vitória - which means victory, in english. At every home game, before the match starts, you can see its overwhelming flight over the stadium, landing on a perch with the club's symbol. It is one of the most exciting moments in every game played at Estádio da Luz.
Our motto is «E Pluribus Unun», which means "one out of all".
Red and white are the club's colours, always present in our main equipment: red jersey and socks and white shorts. The alternative equipment is traditionally white, but due to understandable commercial impositions, it has been yellow, silver, bordeaux, black, dark blue and even pink.
The club's major symbol will always be Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, best Portuguese player of all time, regarded as one of the 11 top footballers of all time by FIFA. A statue of him, which lays in front of the stadium, was raised in his honour.

Fans

Benfica, also known as Glorious, has been the Portuguese club with the larger amount of fans, in and out of the country, since the late 50's. We hold the record for the bigger number of associates - more than 160 thousand spread all over the world -, reckoned by the Guiness Book of Records. Benfica's estimated to have a total of 14 million, with 5 of those residing in Portugal.

One of the main factors responsible for the foreign popularity of the club is the existence of numerousCasas do Benfica.

Glories

Although football was always the bigger contributor to the enhancement of the club's reputation all over the world, twice European Champions in the 60's (1960/1961, 1961/1962), Benfica is an eclectic club where a huge number of sports are played at a high level: Basketball, Ring Hockey, Indoor Soccer, Volleyball, Swimming, Rugby, Cycling and Athletics. We have also clinched hundreds of trophys in these sports.

But there's more. Thoughout the years, the club has been given some Medals and Honorific Orders:

Instituição de Utilidade Pública
Comendador da Ordem Militar de Cristo
Oficial da Ordem de Benemerência
Cruz Vermelha de Benemerência
Medalha de Ouro e Mérito Turístico
Medalha de Mérito Desportivo
Medalha de Ouro da Cidade de Lisboa
Medalha da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique

Anthem

«Sou do Benfica
E isso me envaidece
Tenho a genica
Que a qualquer engrandece
Sou de um clube lutador
Que na luta com fervor
Nunca encontrou rival
Neste nosso Portugal.
(Chorus - repeat once)
Ser Benfiquista
É ter na alma a chama imensa
Que nos conquista
E leva à palma a luz intensa
Do sol que lá no céu
Risonho vem beijar
Com orgulho muito seu
As camisolas berrantes
Que nos campos a vibrar
São papoilas saltitantes.»