How Portuguese Football Is Linked to Vista Alegre Porcelain Maker
- @ Cynthia Adina Kirkwood
- 17 minutes ago
- 4 min read
On January 22, 1889, Guilherme Pinto Basto (4), a great-grandson of Vista Alegre's founder, organized the first formal football game in Portugal, pitting a Portuguese team against a British team at Campo Pequeno, Lisbon, according to Football Club, Vista Alegre. The Portuguese won 2-1. (Photo from Vista Alegre)
Some of the players in the British team came from the cable station at Carcavelos and Graham's Textile and General Trading firm based in Lisbon at Braça da Prata, according to The British Impact on the Development of Sport in Portugal, by Andrew W. Shepherd, British Historical Society of Portugal.
As well as being pioneers in porcelain manufacturing, the great-grandsons of José Ferreira Pinto Basto, the founder of Vista Alegre, played a fundamental role in introducing football to Portugal, according to Club of Portugal, Vista Alegre.
Guilherme Pinto Basto, called the father of Portuguese football, and his brothers, Eduardo and Federico, studied in England at Downside College, a Catholic private school, near Bath, in Somerset, according to Club International de Foot-Ball, Lisbon. The first rules of modern football were created in England in 1863 for the founding of the Football Association in England.
In 1884, on a return trip to Portugal, Guilherme brought a football with him in his luggage. He religiously guarded it, only showing it to his friends so they could see this novelty that was delighting England. Later, in 1888, the three brothers returned to Portugal for the summer holidays and brought with them a new football.
Already familiar with the rules and techniques of the game, the Pinto Basto brothers entertained themselves by kicking around a football with their friends on a field in Quinta da Fronteira, in Belas, Sintra Municipality.
However, it was in October of that same year, 1888, that Guilherme Pinto Basto organized and gathered a group of friends for the public presentation of the first challenge, which took place on land adjacent to the Clube da Parada, in Cascais. Among those who played were the young Pinto Basto brothers, monarchist Aires d'Ornelas, and Hugo O'Neill, member of an influential Irish clan, which included Surrealistic poet Alexandre O'Neill, whose ancestors emigrated from Ireland to Lisbon in 1740.
The match was played on a Sunday afternoon. Players spent all morning picking up stones to create a suitable surface, according to The British Impact on the Development of Sport in Portugal, by Andrew W. Shepherd, British Historical Society of Portugal (2020).
The first formal football match in Portugal, between Portugal and a group of Britons, organised by Guilherme Pinto Basto, was played in January 1889, in Lisbon, at the present location of the Campo Pequeno bullring.
"This can be considered to have been the first proper match in Portuguese history, in that it had markings and goalposts, followed the rules, and lasted 90 minutes," according to The British Impact.
Some of the players in the British team came from the cable station at Carcavelos and Graham's Textile and General Trading firm based in Lisbon at Braça da Prata.
The cable station was installed, in 1870, for the services of the Eastern Telegraph Company, responsible for the administration of the submarine cable, according to Cultura Cascais. It played a key role in the transfer of sports from England to Portugal because the British workers participated in several sports at the station in Quinta Nova. Currently, the quinta's manor house is home to St. Julian's School, a British international school founded in 1932.
With the 1890 British Ultimatum, under pressure from Cecil Rhodes, co-founder of De Beers Consolidated Mines (1888) and Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (present-day South Africa) (1890-1896), the British government demanded the withdrawal of Portuguese troops from Mashonaland and Matabeleland (both in present-day Zimbabwe) and the Shire-Nyasa region (present-day Malawi), where Portuguese and British interests overlapped in Africa, according to Lord Salisbury’s 1890 Ultimatum to Portugal and Anglo-Portuguese Relations (2006). Despite the popular uproar, Portugal acquiesced to British demands.
The British Ultimatum was considered to be a breach of the Portuguese-British Alliance (1372), the world's oldest diplomatic alliance, and a national humiliation by republicans. It soured Portuguese-British relations for some time, creating tension between the British residents and their hosts in Portugal for decades, according to The British Impact.
Therefore, matches between a Portuguese and British team were competitive and attended by thousands cheering for Portugal. The Carcavelos team team was unbeaten from 1894 to 1906.
When Sport de Lisboa, now Benfica F.C., beat Carcavelos 2-1, in February 1907, an estimated 8,000 spectators went wild.
Cristiano Ronaldo
In view of the link between football and Vista Alegre, it is fitting that Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal’s world-renowned footballer, bought 10 percent of Vista Alegre in the 200th year of the fine ceramics and glass firm, reported SIC Notícias (June 14, 2024).
For Vista Alegre, the “large factory for crockery, porcelain, glassware and chemical processes” granted to José Ferreira Pinto Basto by royal license began operating in 1824. However, before porcelain was produced there successfully, it took 11 years of painstaking work and experiments, some of which were carried out in a laboratory in the founder’s Lisbon home, in Largo do Chiado, according to Sábado (July 15, 2023).
At this time, the manufacture of porcelain was still unknown to the Portuguese.
Today, the company produces tableware and decorative porcelain, glass, stainless steel cutlery and high-quality crystal, under the Vista Alegre Atlantis banner.
“The possibility of being able to support the globalization strategy of the Vista Alegre brand as a luxury lifestyle brand is a source of pride for me as a Portuguese,” said the Madeira native, according to a company statement reported by SIC Notícias (June 14, 2024).
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