Full name | Engen Santos Football Club |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | The People's Team |
Founded | 1982 |
Ground | Athlone Stadium, Athlone, Cape Town |
Capacity | 34,000 |
Chairman | Goolam Allie |
Coach | Farouk Abrahams |
League | National First Division |
2014–15 | National First Division, 13th |
Website | Club home page |
Santos Football Club or simply Santos, also known under their sponsored title as Engen Santos, is a South African football club based in the Lansdowne suburb of the city of Cape Town that plays in the National First Division.
The club was established in Heideveld on the Cape Flats in 1982 and was originally known as Lightbodys Santos FC. During apartheid it was renowned for the insistence on non-racial inclusivity – hence the nickname The People's Team.
They played in the Federation Professional League (FPL), the only truly non-racial football body in the country from 1982 to 1990. They won the championship in 1983/4/6/7/8/90 before joining the National Soccer League.
The NSL became the PSL in 1996, with Santos earning promotion to the new league for the 1997–98 season. Santos tasted their first success in the new format of the league in 2001–02 when they surprisingly won the title under the mentorship of Gordon Igesund. This side featured players like Edries Burton, Andre Arendse, Musa Otieno and the club's all-time top goalscorer Jean-Marc Ithier. With the title win Santos became the first – and to date the only – team that was not a founder-member of the PSL to win the league.
They were also crowned Bob Save Super Bowl winners in 2001 and BP Top 8 winners in 2002.