Sporting CP U19

Sporting's under-19 side goes into this campaign chasing familiar targets: the Campeonato Nacional de Juniores title, which they have lifted 17 times, and a run in the UEFA Youth League that has never quite reached the final. The closest they came was 2022–23, when a 1–0 win over Liverpool U19 in the quarter-finals took them into the semi-finals before AZ Alkmaar U19 ended the run on penalties.

The team is drawn largely from the Academia Cristiano Ronaldo, opened in 2002, though the youth structure at Sporting goes back to the club's founding. Its output over the decades is the real case for attention: Luís Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and, more recently, Rafael Leão, Bruno Fernandes and Nuno Mendes all came through these age groups before moving into the first team and beyond.

Matches against Benfica's youth side carry the weight of the Lisbon derby down into the junior ranks, and the fixture list still includes the biggest date on the club calendar.

Sporting's youth teams have carried the green and white since 1906, the year the senior club was founded and the date from which this development structure has run in parallel with it.