He was born in 1944 in the village and parish of
Raposeira,
Vila do Bispo Municipality, in the
Algarve region. He left school after concluding the
4th grade. After the
Carnation Revolution of 1974 and the
Processo Revolucionário em Curso of 1975, Cintra saw a number of his assets
expropriated but eventually would later acquire
Águas Vidago, a
mineral water company. Between 1989 and 1995, Sousa Cintra was the chairman of
Sporting CP. In the summer of 1993, Sousa Cintra, taking advantage of a deep crisis at Benfica, led at the time by
Jorge de Brito, signed players
Paulo Sousa and
Pacheco, who had terminated their contracts due to unpaid wages, to Sporting. A fully-fledged sports club museum to inventory, interpret and display the large number of trophies stored at the sports club's facilities was also established during his tenure, in 1994. Sousa Cintra served as
acting president of Sporting Clube de Portugal - Futebol,
SAD during the mandate of an emergency management committee established after the ousting of Sporting CP's president
Bruno de Carvalho from his post on 24 June 2018. After has been appointed acting president on 24 June, Cintra officially stepped down in September 2018 following the club's elections that elected
Frederico Varandas as the new president of the multi-sports club. == Personal life ==