Clube de Desportos do Maxaquene, usually known simply as Maxaquene, is a sports club based in Maputo, Mozambique. The club is nicknamed Maxaca. Currently, besides football (soccer) there are two indoor sports, namely, basketball (CD Maxaquene Basketball) and handball. In such sports Maxaquene is the club with the most national titles after independence.[1] Maxaquene won its first post-independence title in football, the Taça de Moçambique, in 1978. Prior to Mozambique's independence from Portugal in 1975, CD Maxaquene were known as Sporting Clube de Lourenço Marques or simply Sporting de Lourenço Marques (Lourenço Marques being the name for Maputo before independence), and was the branch number 6 of Lisbon-based Sporting Clube de Portugal (Sporting CP).[2] Under this name, the legendary Eusébio played for the club.[3][4]

CD Maxaquene
Logo
Full nameClube de Desportos do Maxaquene
Nickname(s)Maxaca
FoundedMay 20th, 1920
GroundEstádio do Maxaquene
Maputo, Mozambique
Capacity15.000
ChairmanJosé Solomone Cossa
ManagerChiquinho Conde
LeagueMoçambola
201912th (relegation)
WebsiteClub website

History edit

Colonial Mozambique edit

The origins of Sporting Clube de Lourenço Marques can be traced back to 1915, when a group of students from Liceu 5 de Outubro high school, in the city of Lourenço Marques, former name of Maputo, by then in Portuguese Mozambique, formed a football team, which they decided to call Sporting, because most of them were supporters of Sporting Clube de Portugal. On 3 May 1920, considered in the statutes to be the club's official founding date, twenty founding members held a general meeting where the statutes were approved, whose approval was requested from the Governor General on the 15th of that month and granted on 21 July 1920. In March 1923, Aurélio Galhardo began negotiations with the Mozambican club to make it a branch of Lisbon-based club Sporting Clube de Portugal. Sporting Clube de Lourenço Marques thus became the branch number 6 of Sporting Clube de Portugal, and remained so until 1975.[2] The club's symbol and players' equipment were identical to those of Sporting CP, with the letters SCLM in place of SCP.[5]

In other sports besides football, Sporting Clube de Lourenço Marques won the Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol three times, in 1968, 1971 and 1973.[6][7]

Inclusiveness record in Colonial Mozambique edit

In the first decades of the club's history, for black players to play for Sporting de Lourenço Marques, they either had to be players of a clearly perceived outstanding talent or they had to have someone to sponsor them. The club's leaders and players came mainly from the police and the Municipalized Water and Electricity Service, the city's utilities. However, this was the result, not of a decision by Sporting de Lourenço Marques, but of a "ban on the use of blacks without an assimilation licence" in football, since those population was often deemed tribal or indigent and was largely illiterate and usually unable to speak fluent Portuguese. In fact, José Craveirinha, one of Mozambique's greatest poets and a major figure in Portuguese-language literature, who was awarded the Camões Prize in 1991, praised "the outburst of pure and unbridled sportsmanship" that the "absolutely unique case" of "the presentation on the athletics tracks of some pure black athletes wearing the very susceptible, until then, local Sporting jersey" represented in the 1951–52 season. People of diverse ethnic backgrounds, such as the Sino-Mozambicans from Lourenço Marques, also played sport for Sporting.[2]

Also in the 1950s, Eusébio tried to enlist with some friends for the team Desportivo de Lourenço de Marques, his favourite team and a Benfica feeder team that shared with Lisbon-based Benfica identical symbols and motto and was a branch of Benfica until 1954,[8][9] also the team where Mário Coluna had played before his move to Benfica, but was rejected, without even being given a chance to prove his worth.[10][11] He was also rejected by Ferroviário de Lourenço Marques.[12] He then tried his luck with Sporting Clube de Lourenço Marques, the branch number 6 (filial número 6)[13] of Lisbon-based Sporting CP,[8] and Sporting Lourenço Marques accepted him as well as a group of his friends who lived in Eusébio's neighbourhood.[14][15] There he would have his first training sessions supervised by a coaching staff, receive his first ever football equipment and play competitive football in an organized way at both youth level and the main senior team before moving to Lisbon.[16][4] From 1957 to 1960, Eusébio scored a total of 77 goals in 42 appearances playing for the main team of Sporting Lourenço Marques.[17] While playing there, he won the Campeonato Provincial de Moçambique and the Campeonato Distrital de Lourenço Marques in his last season with the club, in 1960.[18]

Independent Mozambique edit

In 1975, after Mozambique's independence, it became Sporting Clube de Maputo, and in 1977 it took on its current name - Clube de Desportos da Maxaquene. Between December 1981 and February 1982, the club was called Asas de Moçambique, returning its name to Clube de Desportos da Maxaquene after three months as Asas.[2] Maxaquene won its first post-independence title in football, the Taça de Moçambique, in 1978.

Name history edit

  • 1920–76: Founded as Sporting Clube de Lourenço Marques; it was an affiliate club and feeder team of Lisbon-based Sporting Clube de Portugal.
  • 1976–78: The club is renamed Sporting Clube de Maputo.
  • 1978–present: The club is renamed Clube de Desportos Maxaquene. Between December 1981 and February 1982, the club took the name Asas de Moçambique.[19]

Stadium edit

The club plays their home matches at Estádio do Maxaquene, which has a maximum capacity of 15,000 people.[20]

Achievements edit

1984, 1985, 1986, 2003, 2012
1978, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2010
1960, 1962
1922, 1930, 1933, 1938, 1940, 1943, 1948, 1953, 1960
  • Taça de Honra de Maputo:
2006

Performance in CAF competitions edit

2004 – First Round
1987 – Preliminary Round
2011 – Preliminary Round
1998 – First Round
2003 – First Round

Performance in African competitions edit

Best: 2003–04 Preliminary Round – Lost against Amazulu 7–4 on aggregate
Best: 2002–03 First Round – Lost against Black Rhinos 1–1 on aggregate
Best: 1994–95 Semi-finals – Lost against Julius Berger 1–0 on aggregate

Current squad edit

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
GK   MOZ Soarito
DF   MOZ Campira
DF   MOZ Gabito
DF   ZIM Eusebio
DF   MOZ Vovote
DF   MOZ Narciso
DF   MOZ Fanuel
MF   ZIM Liberty
MF   MOZ Kito
No. Pos. Nation Player
MF   MOZ Dário Chissano
MF   RSA Mfiki
MF   MOZ Josemar
MF   MOZ Genito
MF   RSA Marvin Oakes
MF   MOZ Paíto
FW   MOZ Tony Afonso
FW   MOZ Pelembe

Former coaches edit

Notable players edit

  • Hilário (born 1939), Portugal national football team player who started his career at Sporting Clube de Lourenço Marques.
  • Eusébio (born 1942), who graduated as a footballer and played for the club at both youth level and the main squad between the ages of 15 and 18, and whose impact in Portuguese football stood out to such an extent that when Eusébio arrived in Lisbon in December 1960 still as a player of Sporting Lourenço Marques, Sporting CP, the Lisbon-based parent club of Sporting Lourenço Marques, had won ten league titles, which was as many as rival Benfica's, and when, 15 years later, Eusébio, recognised as Benfica's best player of all time, left Benfica, Benfica had won 21 championships to just 14 for Sporting CP.[21] Although being a black player from Mozambique, he is considered one of the greatest Portuguese football players ever[22] and his role in the 1966 FIFA World Cup is still remembered today as a significant milestone in Portugal’s football history.[23]
  • Chiquinho Conde (born 1965), Mozambique national football team player and later manager, who started his career in the club.
  • Geny Catamo (born 2001), youth team player of CD Maxaquene, that was his first club.

References edit

  1. ^ Africa UPENN
  2. ^ a b c d "O SPORTING CLUBE DE LOURENÇO MARQUES EM 1937 E EM 1962". THE DELAGOA BAY WORLD (in European Portuguese). 2021-02-18. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  3. ^ "Eusébio: "O Sporting de Lourenço de Marques era um clube de elite, um clube da polícia, que não gostava das pessoas de cor"". Tribuna Expresso (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  4. ^ a b "Antigo "vice" do Sporting sugere destaque a Eusébio no museu do clube". CNN Portugal (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  5. ^ "SPORTING CLUBE DE LOURENÇO MARQUES (SCLM) – 3 de Maio de 1920 (data da fundação do clube) – "Xipalapala" de João de Sousa". BigSlam (in European Portuguese). 2020-05-03. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  6. ^ "Basquetebol: Liga - Historial dos vencedores". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  7. ^ "Basquetebol: Sporting de Lourenço Marques vs Desportivo de Lourenço Marques" (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  8. ^ a b "EUSÉBIO NO SPORTING? por Rui Alves - Replay, RTP Memoria - Canais TV - RTP". www.rtp.pt (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  9. ^ Domingos, Nuno (2006-06-01). "O futebol Português em Moçambique como memória social". Cadernos de Estudos Africanos (in Portuguese) (9/10): 113–127. doi:10.4000/cea.1242. hdl:10071/3123. ISSN 1645-3794.
  10. ^ "100 figuras do futebol português". Archived from the original on 12 December 2007. Retrieved 14 April 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Retrieved 27 January 2011 (Portuguese)
  11. ^ "Entrevista com Nuno Martins (Parte 1)". Academia de Talentos (in Portuguese). January 2000. Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
  12. ^ Vaza, Marco (5 January 2014). "Cronologia de uma vida". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 28 September 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  13. ^ "O SPORTING CLUBE DE LOURENÇO MARQUES EM 1937 E EM 1962". THE DELAGOA BAY WORLD (in European Portuguese). 2021-02-18. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  14. ^ "Eusébio: "O Sporting de Lourenço de Marques era um clube de elite, um clube da polícia, que não gostava das pessoas de cor"". Tribuna Expresso (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 30 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  15. ^ Vaza, Marco (5 January 2014). "Eusébio nunca será suplente na equipa dos melhores de sempre". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  16. ^ "Antigo jogador desmente Eusébio". Jornal Expresso (in Portuguese). Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  17. ^ "Eusébio :: Eusébio da Silva Ferreira :: Estatísticas :: Títulos :: História :: Golos :: Próximos Jogos :: Resultados :: Notícias :: Videos :: Fotos :: zerozero.pt". www.zerozero.pt (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 30 October 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  18. ^ admin (5 May 2020). "Carlos Vieira, antigo vice-presidente do Sporting, defende espaço para Eusébio no museu leonino". Jornal SOL (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 30 October 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  19. ^ Sporting Clube de Lourenço Marques – Uma breve história no 99º aniversário da sua fundação – 6 de Maio de 1920 (in Portuguese).
  20. ^ "World Stadiums". Archived from the original on 2016-03-02. Retrieved 2006-01-05.
  21. ^ "EUSÉBIO NO SPORTING? por Rui Alves - Replay, RTP Memoria - Canais TV - RTP". www.rtp.pt (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  22. ^ Cleveland, Todd (2017). Following the Ball : The Migration of African Soccer Players Across the Portuguese Colonial Empire, 1949–1975. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-89680-499-9.
  23. ^ "The Golden Era: Tracing Portugal's Rise to Football Prominence". portugoal.net. Retrieved 2024-04-10.