Cosme Damião
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Cosme Damião (Lisbon, Portugal 2 November 1885 - Sintra, 11 June 1947) was a football player, as a midfielder, and a coach for SL Benfica. He will always be remembered as the main force beyond the birth of Benfica and one of the first great Portuguese football players.
He was educated at the Casa Pia, in Lisbon. Starting at a young age, Damião developed an enthusiasm for football. In 1903 he developed the idea to start a football team and in 1904 founded Sport Lisboa. Later the team merged with Sport Clube de Benfica and became Sport Lisboa e Benfica in 1906.
He played all his career in Benfica, as the capitan of the team, and often as player-trainer, from 1904/05 to 1915/16, when he retired from football, aged 30. He won the title of Regional Champion of Lisbon for the seasons of 1909/10, 1911/12, 1912/13, 1913/14 and 1915/16.
He had the misfortune of ending his career, before the first game of the Portugal National Team, but still played for the Lisbon Team and an unofficial National Team that played in Brazil, in 1913.
After putting an end to his career, he was responsible for the football department of Benfica, until 1926. He helped to found the Portuguese Football League in 1914, the predecessor of the Portuguese Football Federation. He was also the President of the Casa Pia Football Club and founder and director of the sports newspaper, O Sport Lisboa, from 1913 to 1931.
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