José Alvalade

He was born into aristocracy, his parents were António Ferreira Roquette, paternal nephew of the 1st Baron of Salvaterra de Magos, and his wife Josefina Libânia Garin Holtreman, a native of Lisbon, who died when José Alfredo Holtreman Roquette, that would be widely known as José Alvalade, was still a child. His maternal grandfather was Alfredo Augusto das Neves Holtreman, 1st Viscount of Alvalade, a wealthy landlord and a lawyer established in Lisbon who worked for the Portuguese royal household in that capacity.[6][7] Interested in sport from a young age, José Alfredo Holtreman Roquette was part of a sports association in Campo Grande called Campo Grande Football Club. Despite the name, Campo Grande Football Club was particularly active in the organization of parties, picnics and social dance events rather than sporting events, and this state of affairs made José Alvalade grow dissatisfied with the club.[8] He studied medicine at Harvard Medical School for 3 years, dropping out of the medical school and eventually giving up a career in medicine, because he said he was too sensitive to deal with suffering and pain, as well as with blood.[9][10][11]

In April 1906, José Alvalade expressed the intention to form a new club, with the support of several members of Campo Grande Football Club and the financial help of his grandfather, the Viscount of Alvalade, who oversaw the creation of the new club and made the grounds available for the construction of the stadium at his Quinta das Mouras, that covered the current areas of Lumiar, Campo Grande and Alvalade in Lisbon. With the financial and logistical support of the Viscount of Alvalade, who was the first president, Sporting CP was founded on 1 July 1906. José Alvalade, founder of the club, was the first club member, being the vice-president and manager of sports. He was also a football, cricket and tennis player. In June 1910 he was named president, the club's third president until then, a position he held until November 1912. Two years later, he left the institution because of disagreements with members of the board of directors.[12][13][14]

New José Alvalade's image at Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon, Portugal, during the execution of a work of building renovation in 2023[15]

During the founding period, José Alvalade had the desire to make Sporting a "great club, as big as the biggest in Europe". Guided by the aspiration to open the way to sport in Portugal, when it was still at an embryonic stage of development and with very elitist characteristics, the first "sportinguistas" (Sporting CP supporters) founded Sporting Clube de Portugal pursuing the ideals of "Effort, Dedication, Devotion and Glory."[16][17]

José Alvalade died at the age of 33, on 19 October 1918, a victim of the pneumonic epidemic.[18][19]

In 1947, after a General Assembly of Sporting CP, it was decided that the stadium should adopt its current name, Estádio José Alvalade, in his honor, a name that was maintained by statutory imposition (according to Article 4(2) of the Statutes of Sporting Clube de Portugal) in Sporting CP's stadiums inaugurated on 10 June 1956 and 6 August 2003.[20]