Académica (Praia)
| Full name | Associação Académica da Praia |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Micá, Briosa, Estudiantes |
| Founded | 15 December 1962 |
| Ground |
Estádio da Varzea Praia |
| Capacity | 8,000 |
| Chairman |
 Kiki |
| Manager |
Janito Carvalho |
| League | Santiago Island League (South) |
| 2016–17 | 4th |
| Website | Club website |
Associação Académica da Praia is a football club that plays in the Premier division of the Santiago Island League (South) in Cape Verde. It is played along with Praia's three other famous teams in Estádio da Varzea, the club also practices at the stadium and over a kilometer east in Achada Grande Frente (or Leite). Its current president is Kiki and manager is Janito Carvalho who coached Sporting Praia in the previous season.
Académica Praia is one of the most successful football (soccer) club in the island of Santiago and the South Zone, having won about 11 official titles, 2 are national and the remaining 9 are regional titles. It won several championship titles before and after independence. The team never won any national championship titles since independence. It also had won five insular titles, three island cup title and a national cup title.
Its nicknames are "Mica", the short of Académica used in many of other Académica clubs around the world, "Briosa", which has recently become rarely used today and "Estudiantes" which means students (students of the academy), used in several other Académica clubs elsewhere.
Today's uniform has now added stripes and changed its home sock color to black.
Académica won the first upper level title in 1965 by defeating FC Derby from Mindelo 3–2 in extra time, they would win the only national title won before independence. Later, the team won the 1968 Santiago regional title at the time included other islands after beating Os Garridos a gigantic 21–0, 9 of which were scored by Luís Bastos. They challenged against Mindelense and lost 0–1 in the final round.
Académica Praia won their first regional cup title in 1986. Académica celebrated their 25th anniversary in 1987.
The club won their first title for the South Zone in 2004 and finished with 45 points a club record, it was also the regional and national record held it until Sporting took it in 2005 with 48, also they finished with 14 wins. Académica was runner up for the next two seasons, 43 points they finished and another season with 14 wins, their third one had 39 points, as Sporting won the 2006 national title, the club entered for the 2007 nationals. For the next two seasons, they scored a total of 40 goals, in 2009, they won their recent regional title. Their positions dropped for the net few seasons in 2010, they had 30 points in 2011. Académica celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2012.
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Wikipedia