On 8 December 1910 a group of young men in Funchal, Madeira, founded the club we now know as Nacional. The island team in the middle of the Atlantic turns 116 years old on 8 December 2026. It is also the team that a Madeiran boy named Cristiano Ronaldo once played for.

A group of friends at Campo do Brás

The founders were young men from Funchal who had been playing matches at Campo do Brás since 1908. The founding followed a game between friends, and the first president was António Figueira, who had also suggested the name and stayed in office until 1926. At first the team was called Nacional Sport Grupo.

In 1916 it became Grupo Desportivo Nacional, and in 1922 it took its current name, Clube Desportivo Nacional. In 1923 it formed a youth team, the first club in Madeira to do so.

In the first Madeira championship, in 1927, Nacional opened with a 5-2 win over Marítimo, its great island rival. In 1933-34 it represented Madeira in the Campeonato de Portugal and reached the quarter-finals.

Black and white from day one

Black and white were chosen at the founding meeting itself and have never changed. The sources, however, do not explain why these colours were picked. The home shirt has black and white vertical stripes with black shorts and black socks, which is why fans call the team the "Alvinegros".

Since the 2025-26 season the shirt has been made by Kappa, after 13 years with Hummel.

From Barreiros to Choupana

For decades Nacional played at the Estádio dos Barreiros, the island's first stadium. It opened in June 1927 with a 0-0 draw between Nacional and Vitória de Setúbal.

In 2000 the team moved to a home of its own, at Choupana near Funchal. The ground was named after club president Rui Alves and since 2007 has been called the Estádio da Madeira, with about 5,200 seats.

Nacional has fiercely guarded its independence. In 1996 its members rejected the regional government's proposal to merge it with Marítimo and União da Madeira into a single island club.

The boy from Madeira

Cristiano Ronaldo started out at local club Andorinha, where his father worked. In 1995 he moved to Nacional and, after a good season, earned a trial with Sporting. Nacional has not forgotten: its academy facilities are named the Cristiano Ronaldo Campus Futebol.

Great nights in Europe

The club's best era came after promotion in 2002. In 2003-04, with Brazilian coach Casemiro Mior on the bench, it finished fourth and qualified for Europe for the first time. It matched that finish in 2008-09, when Nenê was the season's top scorer with 20 goals.

The brightest night came in 2009, when it knocked out Zenit in the Europa League play-off and reached the group stage. In all it counts five European campaigns, and its big names include Rúben Micael, Paulo Assunção and Serginho, the all-time top scorer.

Recent years have brought both relegation and return. The club won the Segunda Liga in 2017-18 and, after finishing second in 2023-24, is back in Portugal's top flight.

Celebrate with us

116 years on, Funchal's black and whites still carry the pride of an entire island. Happy birthday to Nacional, and here's to many more years at Choupana!

See our collectible jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Estádio Eng. Rui Alves (now Estádio da Madeira), 2007 – Mghamburg, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.