More than two decades after its inauguration, Sporting opened the doors of its academy to Flashscore. The photos of Ballon d’Or winners Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo seem to greet everyone, especially the new players entering the youth wing.
Ballon d’Or winners at the entrance
On the way to the cafeteria, a mural introduces the younger players to the 88 academy graduates from Alcochete who have already made their debut for the first team. There’s always an empty spot with the message: “You could be next”.
Elsewhere, a photo of the 'Aurélios' - 10 homegrown players who became European champions with Portugal at Euro 2016 - reminds the young talents walking the academy halls that Sporting is not only a major club, but also a powerhouse for developing footballers in Portugal and beyond.
“These are significant milestones in our youth development,” said Tomaz Morais, co-general director of the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy, to Flashscore.
The names that are part of our history “not only help attract talent, but also add responsibility for the more than 200 people currently working in youth football. The fact that Sporting has produced two Ballon d’Or winners in the past - Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo, who is still performing at the highest level and breaking records - gives us an even greater responsibility to leave our mark on every player who comes through here.
"We make sure people feel that, beyond those two big names, many other top players have come through here, both in the past and today, like Nuno Mendes, now at Paris Saint-Germain.”
"We strive for excellence here, so that excellent players emerge. First for Sporting’s first team, and then for world football,” Morais emphasised.
Joao Simoes as one of the latest examples
Joao Simoes is one of the most recent success stories. With just over a year in the first team, he already has more Champions League appearances than league matches and speaks with great admiration about the quality of the academy that has taken some players to the top.
“It’s a great reflection of what Sporting’s youth system is all about. Not just Figo, Cristiano, and the European champions, but also others like Nuno Mendes, Eduardo Quaresma, Goncalo Inacio, Quenda, and so many others. The mural in the youth wing really shows the quality and talent that exists here,” the midfielder told Flashscore.
For those who walk through that door for the first time at 14, the impact of the names and titles is the first way to pass on the values that helped them reach a level of success few can achieve.
“We’re proud of that, and we pass those values on to every age group and everything they represent. Naturally, with Cristiano Ronaldo as the highest example,” said Filipe Santos, the U14 coach, to Flashscore.
“When Cristiano started his professional career, none of these youngsters had even been born. Hard work, humility, and professionalism can lead to a long career like Cristiano’s, who, at 40, is still playing at the highest level.
"That’s why we have several departments supporting their development - performance, nutrition, psychology, and technical areas. All of us adults are involved so that each child can develop in every aspect and go far. That’s the example that gives this academy its name. He’s the ultimate example of what our club and our country stand for."
No Cristiano Ronaldo clones
Sporting doesn’t try to produce Cristiano Ronaldo clones - he’s one of a kind - but aims to instil in young players certain principles that can enhance their own natural abilities. The academy’s player-centred model has even been recognised by the European Club Association for its youth development work.
According to Tomaz Morais, “it’s a non-negotiable model,” based on “individual differentiation for each player. We believe that until we deliver a player to the high-performance level - where the focus is on winning - youth development is about much more than the final score.
"At the top level, you work for the team: team rules, team results. In youth development, it’s the opposite: the focus is on the player. What matters is how much he improves and grows each day.
"We exist to maximise and develop players. All our departments are aligned to help him evolve, first as a person - the foundation of our model - and then as a player. We believe that if he’s a good, well-rounded person, he’ll be close to becoming a good player.
"If not, we don’t think it’s possible. That’s how we work here, and that’s how we train for this model. Then comes the technical side. In youth football, the coach is an educator, a mentor, a role model - because he reflects the young player. They follow examples. Every academy player has had a coach who was special in their life.”
"He’s not just a team coach, he’s a Sporting coach. That’s the big difference. He has to see the whole forest - all the players - not just the 11 he’ll pick or the squad for that season.
"For me, that’s been a huge win at Sporting: believing in the process and working on the process. Then there are the technical decisions in our player transition model: very internal, very discreet, very much our own, with privacy.
"The guidance given to the player, the choice of the right competitive context - whether he plays in group A or B, whether he needs more or less adversity, more or less difficulty - that’s the secret of the process,” revealed Tomaz Morais.
"This has allowed us to speed up the development of some players in recent years. I’m not just talking about Quenda or Salvador Blopa, but also others who have made it to the first team - some are still here, others have moved to top European clubs.
"That’s because, at the right moment, we made the strategic development shift the player needed. Sometimes this affects results, because we move players up an age group. Just look at the B team: many could still play in the U19s, but we’re giving them a chance in Liga 2, and the team is leading with very young players. So, this is a player-centred model,” Morais concluded.
Recreating what inspired Aurelio Pereira
Much of this process is overseen by the individual development department, led by Raul Ribeiro. This department started almost anonymously, but now involves more and more people, and the goal is to expand it to all Sporting academies across Portugal, as it now works with increasingly younger players.
“It’s a complement to team training. We isolate certain actions and technical skills so they happen more often in our sessions, which isn’t always possible in group training. We focus on the things we want to see more often. We prepare them to get closer to the elite level. The complexity increases as they progress, depending on age and age group,” he told Flashscore.
This area continues the legacy of Aurelio Pereira, who was passionate about street football and discovered great talents in schoolyards and street games.
Ribeiro explained: “We believe in that too. Kids play less and less these days, which limits the physical freedom needed to play football at the highest level. We have a dedicated space for that - field seven - where players experience situations similar to street football.
"There, they don’t practice formal matches, but everything they need to make the game more fluid: foot-volley, teqball, foot-tennis, small-sided games with different stimuli.
"Every exercise is designed to promote certain movements and degrees of physical freedom. We want to free players from those constraints. By the end of their development, we want their bodies to have experienced as many stimuli as possible, to understand everything happening on the pitch.
"Our ‘zero theme’ is the relationship with the ball - the ball should be an extension of the body, not a problem to solve. Treat the ball as a friend. I believe strongly in development.
"Joao Simoes, Blopa, and Quenda weren’t born this way. We want to give them more tools to use in games. If they’re already great at dribbling and cutting inside on their strong foot, we need to give them ways to be unpredictable or find more solutions to problems.
"Development takes time. By the end of their training, we want all the pieces to fit together, creating solid players ready to handle the challenges of the game without losing balance."
An Academy with a new face
The core buildings of the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy haven’t changed much on the outside. There’s a wing for the professional team, with exclusive use of two pitches, and another for youth development, with four natural grass pitches and two artificial ones. Naturally, two decades after opening, the needs are different. There are more teams, more players, and space is tight.
There are expansion plans, but not necessarily on the current site. A project has already been made public, but it’s been bogged down by bureaucracy and election cycles, and has yet to see the light of day, so Sporting’s management is looking for alternatives.
Morais added: “As we know, youth development and football are highly dynamic, and Sporting has grown a lot in this area. We want to keep growing and add more pitches. But, as we’ve been doing, we’re also looking at other regions where we could open more Sporting Academies, especially near urban areas where our Sporting North hubs (Santo Tirso), Coimbra, Aveiro, and Algarve are already working well.
"Talent is everywhere, and we have to stay alert. In Lisbon, at the University Stadium, we’re making a significant investment in infrastructure, as that’s where our players up to the age of 13 train. We’re currently renovating and plan to extend these improvements to the buildings and stands supporting the pitches by 2026. We want to give our players, of any age, the best possible conditions for training and competition.
Still, the work at the academy can’t stop.
“When we talk about the academy here at Sporting, it’s much more than that: it’s a legacy of development. We’re talking about organisation, leadership, methodology, and process.
"It’s an academy with its original look, but completely renewed inside, and with more pitches. Above all, the quality of the pitches. Today, both the professional team’s pitches and the Aurelio Pereira Stadium pitch are state-of-the-art hybrid grass. As we say, it’s 10 out of 10.
"We’re also finishing new changing rooms: one for each team, which the academy never had before. More modern facilities. In terms of space, we can’t expand much, so we have to make the most of what we have,” the director added.
400 million euros in profit
So far, 27 players developed at the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy have been transferred, generating nearly 400 million euros, with Geovani Quenda being the most valuable, already sold to Chelsea for 51 million.
The academy has already seen 88 players debut for the first team, about half of them in the last eight years - some with more, some with less success, but currently, 13 academy graduates are part of the first team squad.
Many fall by the wayside and may never fulfil Simoes’ dream, though nothing is guaranteed yet.
The young midfielder told Flashscore: “It was a dream come true, but that doesn’t mean the journey is over. It’s a long road, with many challenges. Many try to make it and don’t succeed. You have to keep your feet on the ground, stay calm, and listen to the more experienced. Only by listening to the older ones can you get there."
However, not signing a professional contract doesn’t mean the dream is over. Sporting continues to follow its players, even those released, and some even return, as Morais explained: "All players are monitored. Our scouting network is everywhere. We never abandon our players. Even if we loan them out, let them go permanently, or if they never joined us, they’re still followed.”
This isn’t always easy to manage, but sometimes it’s necessary, as coach Filipe Santos emphasised: “We explain that the journey doesn’t end there and give examples of players who left, grew elsewhere, and even came back. No one has a crystal ball, but we always try to find the best path. Our goal is their well-being and happiness."
And that well-being starts with everything the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy offers its young players. The goal is to develop footballers, but a good player is always built on being a good person, Morais added.
The Sporting director explained: "Youth development is a very long project, a marathon. And a marathon is run with consistency. The more consistent a child is in different areas of life, the more likely he is to achieve his dream. But we also prepare players for the possibility that they might not make it.
"That’s Sporting’s big investment: holistic development. Giving them the chance to succeed in something else if they don’t become footballers. That’s our goal: for them to be successful and happy in whatever they do.
"The parents know this. And we ourselves have realistic expectations. They’ll all become men, and that’s our main focus: one day, we’ll meet them and say, ‘Excellent!’ - an excellent student, mechanic, doctor, professional, or father. Some will help football in other ways."
One thing hasn’t changed over the years: the bond between young players and the academy. Every time someone makes it to the first team, they keep in touch with teammates who haven’t reached that level yet.
"I usually talk to the kids. I ask how they’re doing, how school is going, give advice, and sometimes a tough word when needed. It’s important to remember where I came from and be there for them. We’re just normal people. I put myself in their shoes and would have loved it if someone from the first team had come to talk to me,” said Joao Simoes.
According to Morais, this support comes from the set of values instilled early on at the Academy: “That’s a Sporting trademark, and it’s hard to explain - you have to feel it, experience it, live it to understand the quality of how we, as people, give meaning to our values.”
José Roquette’s vision created the first football academy in Portugal. Today, the challenges are different, but the principles that made the dream a reality remain unchanged. Every day, new talents emerge from the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy, which Cristiano himself once described by saying: “I wish you all success and congratulate you on everything you’ve achieved. It’s a great honour for me to have my name on the academy.”