Early success Although Casa Pia A.C. was officially founded on 3 July 1920, at the initiative of Cândido de Oliveira, Ricardo Ornelas, Tomás Marquez and David Ferreira (among others), the club's history dates back to 1893, when the Real Casa Pia de Lisboa football team was formed, the first team to defeat the so-called "invincible" team
Carcavelos Club in 1898 in a historic victory that forever cemented the practice of
football in Portugal. In its debut season, Casa Pia FC won the
Lisbon Regional Championship and the
Lisbon Cup without registering a single defeat. And to these titles, Casa Pia added the triumph in the confrontation with the
champion of the North,
FC Porto, in the then-called
Taça 27 de Julho. This game was the final rehearsal for the start of the Portuguese Championship which began in the following year. At 17 months of age, Casa Pia had already participated in three tournaments abroad along with star player Afonso Alvito:
Paris,
San Sebastián, and
Seville. The
Casapianos was the first Portuguese team to play in Paris, playing at the
Pershing Stadium in the city's Tournament at
Christmas 1920, together with the
Cercle Athlétic de Paris,
Cercle Athlétic de Vitry,
FC Cantonal (from
Switzerland) and
FC Espanya de Barcelona, who headed the rankings in the championships of their countries. In the opening game, Cercle de Paris beat Casa Pia 2–1, with the Casapian goal scored by Cândido de Oliveira. The trip to Seville took place on 16 October 1921, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Campo de Sports on Avenida de la Reina Victoria, facing
Sevilla FC, who was wearing its current emblem on their chests for the first time, and despite the injury suffered by
Spencer, who was forced to leave the pitch for much of the match, Sevilla FC achieved a clear victory over the
Casapianos, prevailing by three goals to nil, goals scored by
León,
Kinké and Escobar. The team's best player was Cândido de Oliveira, one of the founders of the club and the captain, who had grown up in Casa Pia since he was delivered there at the age of nine as an orphan, and who had previously played for Real Casa Pia de Lisboa, founded at the end of the 19th century. Oliveira was the main architect of the team's rise to football power in Lisbon, competing head-to-head against the likes of Benfica and
Sporting CP, and largely thanks to his quality, the immediate impact of Casa Pia continued to be felt in the following seasons. In the first four years they competed, the 'Gansos' won the Lisbon Championship three times. The reputation grew and, on 13 December 1925, the club was invited to face Benfica on the occasion of the inauguration of
Estádio das Amoreiras, which was considered at the time the best stadium in the
Iberian Peninsula. The Casapians faced Benfica in the 4 categories in front of 15 thousand people, and although it is defeated in the
Quartas by 8–1, in
Terceiras by 11–0, in
Segundas by 4–2, they won in
Primeiras by 3–1. Casa Pia FC was also the first team on the continent to travel to the
Azores doing it so for free after being invited by
Fayal S.C. to play 3 games there in favor of the victims of the
1922 earthquake in that archipelago.
Stagnation In 1938–39, Casa Pia FC played in the inaugural editions of the
National Championship and
Taça de Portugal, which still today are the most important football competitions in Portugal. However, its participation in the National Championship in the 1938–39 season was the only one in which the club played in the
First Division. Their ground,
Campo do Restelo, was expropriated in 1939–40 by the
Estado Novo for the exhibition of the Portuguese World. Without its own pitch until 29 August 1954, when the
Pina Manique Stadium in Benfica was inaugurated, far from
Belém and Casa Pia, the club wandered from one field to another, achieving a brilliant record in National Championships.
Recent history In the 2020–21 season, Casa Pia registered its 71st participation in National Championships, starting in the 1938–39 season. ==Honours==