António Nicolau d'Almeida

António Nicolau de Almeida (19 October 1873 – 21 February 1948) was a Portuguese football executive, who founded FC Porto on 28 September 1893 and then served as its first president until 1896, when he gave up from the club at the request of his wife.

Early years António Nicolau de Almeida was born on 19 October 1873 in the Portuguese city of Porto. He was a partner of his father in a company that exported port wine, but at the same time, he was also a sports lover, and his first passion was velocipedia. The oldest account of Almeida's sporting activity can be found in 1891, when together with Fernando Nicolau d´Almeida, Vieira da Cruz, Lacy Rumsey, Artur Rumsey, and George Dagge, he was part of a group of pedal lovers who were working hard in favor of velocipedia under the name Clube Excursionista, and then, in 1892, under the new name of Clube de Velocipedistas do Porto. They tried to carry out tours and excursions on bicycles, some races, making good publicity at the expense of their enormous enthusiasm, thus achieving a respectable number of members in a short period time, and thus drawing the attention of Velo Clube, who after absorbing the 44 members of the Clube de Velocipedistas do Porto, starts to use the name of Real Velo Clube do Porto, which had its premises in the .

Taça D. Carlos I On 25 October 1893, Almeida, who was the FC Porto president at the time, wrote a letter to the president of Club Lisbonense, Guilherme Pinto Basto, inviting them to a football match, scheduled for 2 November of the same year, with which he wished "to seal the definitive installation of Foot Ball Club do Porto". The patronage and sponsorship of the King was pivotal to attract a significant number of spectators, as football was practically an unknown sport in Portugal at the time. The match was thus the first major football event in Portugal and Lisbonense won 1–0, thus failing to win the very first cup awarded in Portuguese football.