Grupo Desportivo Alcochetense

Alcochete is Portugal's most Sporting town by trade: it is home to Sporting CP's Academy, the factory that produced Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and company. But green and white arrived in town long before the academy did. Grupo Desportivo Alcochetense was born on the first day of 1937, founded by local supporters who borrowed Sporting's colours, and has worn them for nearly 90 years on the south bank of the Tagus, among the salt pans, the estuary's nature reserve and the Barrete Verde festivities, where even the traditional local cap matches the kit. The Alcochetanos play at the Estádio António Almeida Correia, known as the Foni, with seating for 5000, and live their life in the Setúbal district leagues, feeding a youth system enormous for the size of the town, from football to futsal and basketball. In the land that trains champions for the world, GDA does the older, quieter job: training Alcochetanos. Someone has to dress in green those who stay.