About

Club Football Estrela da Amadora SAD sometimes just Estrela, is a Portuguese sports club (predominantly football) based in Amadora, northwest of Lisbon. Founded in 1932, its football team won the Taça de Portugal in 1990 and plays at Estádio José Gomes. After bankruptcy in 2011, it reformed in 2018. While never a contender to the place of the third-most important club in the Lisbon Football Association, Estrela da Amadora won a Cup of Portugal in 1990 and one second division championship in 1992–93. In 16 seasons in top flight football – eight consecutive – its best season was in 1997–98, when the team finished in seventh position, under the guidance of Fernando Santos. After winning the cup in 1990, Estrela reached the second round in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. In the following decades, the team maintained its first division status in most seasons. In 2008–09, however, amidst serious financial difficulties, it was (twice) relegated even though it finished the campaign in mid-table. Coach António Veloso only managed to lead Amadora to the tenth position in the third level in the 2009–10 season. Subsequently, as the club's dreadful economic situation persisted – which led to a two-year suspension from all activity by the Portuguese Football Federation – it folded. A new club, Clube Desportivo Estrela was created in 2011 to keep with youth teams and other sports, and continue with the history and legacy of Estrela da Amadora. In October 2018, CD Estrela created a senior football team. After two years in the Lisbon Football Association's third division, the club's members voted 92% in favour in July 2020 of a merger with Club Sintra Football, taking that team's place in the third-tier Campeonato de Portugal, reverting to Estrela's original name and forming a Sociedade Anónima Desportiva. The club's first season ended with promotion, despite losing the play-off final 1–0 to C.D. Trofense.