Portuguese League Cup in Legends XI: 19 seasons, with the winner and runner-up of each.
Season
Winner
Runner-up
2025-26
Vitória de Guimarães
SC Braga
2024-25
SL Benfica
Sporting CP
2023-24
SC Braga
Estoril Praia
2022-23
FC Porto
Sporting CP
2021-22
Sporting CP
SL Benfica
2020-21
Sporting CP
SC Braga
2019-20
SC Braga
FC Porto
2018-19
Sporting CP
FC Porto
2017-18
Sporting CP
Vitória de Setúbal
2016-17
Moreirense
SC Braga
2015-16
SL Benfica
Marítimo
2014-15
SL Benfica
Marítimo
2013-14
SL Benfica
Rio Ave
2012-13
SC Braga
FC Porto
2011-12
SL Benfica
Gil Vicente
2010-11
SL Benfica
Paços de Ferreira
2009-10
SL Benfica
FC Porto
2008-09
SL Benfica
Sporting CP
2007-08
Vitória de Setúbal
Sporting CP
The icon eleven
The Portuguese League Cup is Portugal's domestic cup competition, created in 2007-08 and played as single-leg knockouts. It's also a competition with no perfect-campaign badge: it has no group stage, it can be won in as few as three matches, and three matches don't carry the same weight as the thirteen of a perfect Champions campaign — so it goes without an N-0. Its pantheon has a signature of its own: of the twelve places reserved for this competition's rarest cards — the 100 and the eleven icons — nine belong to Benfica and two to Sporting de Braga; only the 100 card escapes both, and it belongs to Sporting CP. And because the real competition has never awarded a best player of the final or of the tournament, that criterion plays no part in choosing who is here: only records, honours and output within the competition itself count.
The competition's all-time great
Paulinho — 2022-23
Paulinho is the Portuguese League Cup's all-time top scorer: 21 goals, when the runner-up has 12, and he was the competition's top scorer three times. The 100 card is from the 2022-23 season, by then at Sporting CP, where he once scored 8 goals in a single edition — a competition record. He isn't a name with fame across European football; he's the undisputed king of this cup, and that's exactly why he's here: this game's criterion measures what each player did in that competition, not the fame he brought from elsewhere.
GK
Quim — 2009-10
Quim is the most decorated goalkeeper in Portuguese League Cup history: three titles, more than any other goalkeeper who has played in the competition. The card is from the 2009-10 final, which Benfica won 3-0 against FC Porto without conceding a goal.
RB
Maxi Pereira — 2010-11
Maxi Pereira has six titles and six finals played in the Portuguese League Cup — no other full-back in the competition comes close to those numbers. The card is from the 2010-11 season.
CB
Luisão — 2013-14
Luisão has seven Portuguese League Cup titles and seven Final Four appearances. The card is from the 2013-14 season, the one with the goal that closed out that year's final.
CB
Jardel — 2015-16
Jardel has four Portuguese League Cup titles — only Luisão, the other centre-back in this eleven, has more — and the longest spell in the competition among centre-backs. The card is from the 2015-16 season.
LB
Fábio Coentrão — 2010-11
Fábio Coentrão won the Portuguese League Cup every time he played it: three titles in three appearances, the best record among the competition's left-backs. The card is from the 2010-11 season.
CDM
Rúben Amorim — 2009-10
Rúben Amorim has three Portuguese League Cup titles, and one of them carries his signature from the very start: the goal that opened the 2009-10 final, in the 10th minute.
CM
Pizzi — 2016-17
Pizzi has 37 Portuguese League Cup appearances, 9 goals, among the competition's twelve all-time top scorers, seven finals played with three different clubs — Paços de Ferreira, Benfica and Sporting de Braga — and three titles, won with two of them: Benfica and Sporting de Braga. The card is from the 2016-17 season, by then at Benfica.
CAM
Pablo Aimar — 2010-11
Pablo Aimar has four Portuguese League Cup titles and five final-stage appearances, won during Benfica's run of four in a row. The card is from the 2010-11 season.
RW
Ángel Di María — 2024-25
Ángel Di María has three titles and seven goals in the Portuguese League Cup. The card is from the 2024-25 season.
LW
Ricardo Horta — 2019-20
Ricardo Horta is the face of Sporting de Braga in the Portuguese League Cup: 8 goals, 36 appearances and seven finals played in the competition. The card is from the 2019-20 season, in which he was the edition's top scorer and champion.
ST
Paulinho — 2019-20
Paulinho is the Portuguese League Cup's all-time top scorer, with 21 goals — and this icon card is from the season he lifted the trophy with Sporting de Braga, in 2019-20. This player's 100 card is a different one: the 8-goals-in-a-single-edition season with Sporting CP, three seasons later.