Chaves

Full name	Grupo Desportivo de Chaves
Nicknames	Flavienses Valentes Trasmontanos
Founded	27 September 1949; 76 years ago (27 September 1949)
Ground	Estádio Municipal Eng. Manuel Branco Teixeira
Capacity	8,400
Owner	GLS Promotoría del Deporte
Chairman	Dante Elizalde Gómez[1]
Manager	Vítor Martins
League	Liga Portugal 2
2025–26	Liga Portugal 2, 9th of 18
Website	gdchaves.pt
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

Grupo Desportivo de Chaves ( Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈʃavɨʃ] ^ⓘ), commonly known as Chaves, is a Portuguese professional football club from Chaves, who are playing in the Liga Portugal 2. They were founded in 1949 and currently play at Estádio Municipal Eng. Manuel Branco Teixeira. Their home kit is red-and-blue striped shirt with blue shorts and socks, and the away kit is all white. Their current president is Bruno Carvalho and their manager is Moreno. Chaves have competed in the Portuguese First Division 18 times and had their best finish of fifth-place in the 1989–90 season. They went to Europe in the 1987–88 season, where they played in the UEFA Cup, beating Romanian side Universitatea Craiova in the first round and losing to Hungarian team Budapest Honvéd in the next round.

Grupo Desportivo de Chaves was founded on 27 September 1949 and is one of the most experienced teams in the Portuguese Second Division, not just because of its old culture, but also many years in the top-flight Primeira Liga, doing quite well and playing in European tournaments, such as the UEFA Cup. Their best ever finish was in the Primeira Liga when they finished fifth in both 1986–87 and 1989–90. In the 1986–87 season, meanwhile, they had fantastic results, beating Sporting Clube de Portugal 2–1 at home in a memorable night at the Estádio Municipal de Chaves. After those fantastic seasons, they finished sixth, seventh and ninth before getting relegated in the 1992–93 season to the Liga de Honra. They returned for another few seasons but then again suffered relegation to the Liga de Honra until 2007, where they eventually got relegated to the Portuguese Second Division: Série A. In the previous season of 2007–08, they finished in fourth place, just missing out on promotion.

After a series of great results in 2008–09 that granted the team the lead of Série A, Chaves finally achieved promotion to the second-flight Liga de Honra with an aggregate 1–0 win over Penafiel, the winner of the Portuguese Second Division: Série B in a semi-final playoff. In the playoff final, it was between Chaves and Fátima, in which both were guaranteed promotion to the Liga de Honra, with the final set to determine the champions. Fátima won the match 2–1.^[2] Chaves spent the following three years in the third division before being crowned Segunda Divisão champions in 2012–13, thus gaining promotion back to the Segunda Liga. After missing out on promotion to the first division during a thrilling final day of the 2014–15 season, Chaves were promoted the following season back to the top-flight Primeira Liga for the first time in 17 years.^[3]

In September 2025, G.D. Chaves was purchased by the Mexican company GLS Promotoría del Deporte, owned by tequila entrepreneur Arturo Lomelí. This company also owns Atlético La Paz, club of the Liga de Expansión MX, the second tier of Mexican football.^[4] After the purchase, Francisco José Carvalho stepped down as club president, which was then taken over by Mexican lawyer Dante Elizalde, who had previously presided over Santos Laguna in Liga MX.^[1]

Estádio Municipal Eng. Manuel Branco Teixeira is a multi-use stadium in Chaves. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of G.D. Chaves. The stadium is able to hold 8,400 people.^[5] The stadium normally holds the Portugal national team youth games and also some under-21 games, and also very rarely the senior team. This stadium is famous because it is where Cristiano Ronaldo made his senior international debut with Portugal.^[6]

• Portuguese Second Division
  • Champions (2): 2008–09, 2012–13
• Taça de Portugal
  • Runners-up (1): 2009–10

As of 5 June 2026^[7]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  CPV Vozinha 3 DF  ESP Aarón Romero 4 DF  POR Bruno Rodrigues 5 DF  POR Kiko Pereira 7 FW  ESP Jorge Delgado (on loan from Real Valladolid) 8 MF  POR Pedro Pinho 9 FW  SRB Uroš Milovanović 11 MF  POR Pedro Pelágio 14 MF  CRC Roan Wilson 15 DF  POR Carraça 17 FW  POR Roberto 18 FW  POR Henrique Pereira (on loan from Santa Clara) 19 DF  POR Tiago Almeida 20 MF  BRA Ktatau

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 FW  BRA Wellington Carvalho 22 DF  MLT Zach Muscat 23 GK  SRB Marko Gudžulić 25 DF  POR Francisco Lino 26 MF  POR Gabi Rodrigues 27 FW  NED Robyn Esajas 29 DF  MLI Mamadou Tounkara 33 DF  POR Tiago Simões 34 DF  POR Ricardo Alves 44 MF  EQG Federico Bikoro 71 FW  BRA João Pedro 94 GK  POR Thiago Pereira 97 MF  POR João Teixeira

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 10 FW  BRA Paulo Victor (at América Mineiro until 31 December 2026) 31 GK  BRA Rodrigo Moura (at Persijap until 30 June 2026) 87 MF  POR Rodrigo Melro (at Trofense until 30 June 2026)

Name Nationality Years Raul Águas  Portugal 1984–1988 João Fonseca  Portugal 1988–1989 José Romão  Portugal 1989–1990 Manuel Barbosa  Portugal 1990–1991 José Romão  Portugal 1991–1992 Henrique Calisto  Portugal 1992–1993 Carlos Garcia  Portugal 1993 António Jesus  Portugal 1993–1994 Vítor Urbano  Portugal 1994–1995 José Romão  Portugal 1995–1996 Joaquim Teixeira  Portugal 1996 José Romão  Portugal 1996–1997 Manuel Correia  Portugal 1997–1998 Porfírio Amorim  Portugal 1998 Álvaro Magalhães  Portugal 1998 Horácio Gonçalves  Portugal 1998–1999 Augusto Inácio  Portugal 1999 Diamantino Bráz  Portugal 1999 Francisco Vital  Portugal 1999–2000 Dito  Portugal 2000 António Jesus  Portugal 2000–2001 António Borges  Portugal 2001–2002 Rogério Gonçalves  Portugal 2002–2003 José Alberto Costa  Portugal 2003 Manuel Correia  Portugal 2003–2004 Daniel Ramos  Portugal 2004 António Amaral  Portugal 2004–2005

Name Nationality Years Vítor Maçãs  Portugal 2005 António Caldas  Portugal 2005–2006 Ricardo Formosinho  Portugal 2006 António Borges  Portugal 2006–2008 Leonardo Jardim  Portugal 2009 Emerson Carvalho  Brazil 2009 Ricardo Formosinho  Portugal 2009 Nuno Pinto  Portugal 2009–2010 Tulipa  Portugal 2010 Jorge Regadas  Portugal 2010 Luís Miguel  Portugal 2010–2011 João Eusébio  Portugal 2011 Filipe Casanova  Portugal 2011 Jorge Regadas  Portugal 2011–2012 Eduardo Oliveira  Portugal 2012 Hélder Fontes  Portugal 2012 Pedro Monteiro  Portugal 2012–2013 João Pinto  Portugal 2013 João Eusébio  Portugal 2013 Quim Machado  Portugal 2013–2014 Norton de Matos  Portugal 2014 Carlos Pinto  Portugal 2014–2015 Vítor Oliveira  Portugal 2015–2016 Jorge Simão  Portugal 2016 Ricardo Soares  Portugal 2016–2017 Luís Castro  Portugal 2017–2018 Daniel Ramos  Portugal 2018

Name Nationality Years Tiago Fernandes  Portugal 2018–2019 José Mota  Portugal 2019 César Peixoto  Portugal 2019–2020 Carlos Pinto  Portugal 2020–2021 Vítor Campelos  Portugal 2021–2023 José Gomes  Portugal 2023 Moreno  Portugal 2023–2024 Filipe Martins  Portugal 2025–2026 Vítor Martins  Portugal 2026–

Season	Cup	Round	Opponent	Result	(1st leg)	Result	(2nd leg)	Aggregate	Notes
1987–88	UEFA Cup	1st round	Universitatea Craiova	2 – 3	Away (16/09)	2 – 1	Home (30/09)	4 – 4 (a)
		2nd round	Budapest Honvéd	1 – 2	Home (24/10)	1 – 3	Away (04/11)	2 – 5

The football section has 13 presences at the top level of Portuguese football. Its best position was two fifth-place finished, in the 1986–87 and 1989–90 seasons, the first earning Chaves its only presence in the European cups.

• Official website (in Portuguese)