Benfica and Sporting play for the week in China: a Salazar memory on Liberdade Day

Colonialism has left its marks in a region several thousand kilometers from us. They still sing by eagles and lions in Macau.

It’s not humor: Sporting and Benfica faced on April 4, with a 4-0 result in favor of the incarnated. Sporting is last in the classification, but it is far away from here… in China. What joke is this?

Before you report the zap for “fake news”, you must have some context: there is really a Benfica and a Sporting… in the Autonomous region of Macao. Already seem more credible?

Now, the Benfica de Macao, known locally by 澳門賓菲加, has its origins in a gray period of Portugal – the colonialism. Not happy with his influence on African territory, António de Oliveira Salazar decided to “export” to Macao, now Chinese territory, one of his great prouds: football. And in place: Even today Football is the sport with the most adepts in the Chinese autonomous region.

This is how, in 1951, the house of Sport Lisboa and Benfica in Macau emerged. Until the early 1990s, the club participated in the Macao Football League and youth tournaments, according to the club’s own website.

But it was after Portugal to deliver Macau to China in December 1999 (the culmination of a long process that began with April 25), which the club began to add more titles. In 2008, there was a restructuring of the club, which has since won championships for 5 consecutive times and 3 macao cups – is One of the soccer teams with the most titles in Macao.

Benfica de Macao currently has 4 players of Portuguese nationality: goalkeeper Rui Oliveira, defense Rafael Fidalgo, midfielder Filipe Pereira and striker Miguel Rocha.

On April 25, This historic club, winner of last year’s Elite League (the main), will face the Must IPO Club. Node Freedom Daythus recalls the influence that Portugal had once in this region, including its culture and sport.

Also Sporting Clube de Macau, or 士砵亭, has a similar story. And in this case it is even older. It all started in 1926, even before the dictatorship, when the branch was created. However, it only gained great strength in 1951, recalls the page when it was revived and began to gain prominence in Macao.

But it was only in 2008, like Benfica, that the club began to gain more and more protagonism. In 2014, the club ascended to the first divisionand there has been walking there, even though this year is in the last place of the Elit League, where he was champion only once, in 1991.

On April 27, the club is looking for a new hope in a game against Cheng Fung, with the help of a Portuguese player: midfielder Fernandinho.

It remains to know how the classic hymns in Chinese are singing. To get an idea, “shroud nightgowns” is written pple sion ¯ emergency and he-she “Huáoyī”, and if quiser “the sake ” The whole world knows it. But the colors are the same, and the eagles and the lions They still sing very loud on the other side of the world.