Nigerian entrepreneur Nneka Ede has purchased Portuguese club side Lusitano Ginásio Clube, Futebol, SAD.
Starting in June 2020, Mrs Ede has become the new owner of the 108-year-old club, which competes in the Campeonato de Portugal, the third division of Portugal’s football pyramid.
A statement from the club said: “After months of negotiations with different entities, an agreement has been reached with Mrs Nneka Ede, a sports enthusiast and entrepreneur from Nigeria, a country filled with people as passionate and fiery about football as us and which incidentally share the same green and white in their flags, towards the transfer of the ownership of the SAD to the latter that will help us in our mission to take Lusitano to the next level.”
New owner Mrs Ede, who becomes the first African woman to own a club in Europe, said: “I am excited about this opportunity and I hope that this new chapter will deepen the already great sporting relations between Nigeria and Portugal, continue with the rich history of Lusitano club and provide a pathway for young talent to develop and shine through.”
ABOUT LUSITANO SAD
Lusitano Ginásio Clube, Futebol, SAD, also commonly known as Lusitano 
SAD or Lusitano de Évora, is a Portuguese sports club incorporated as a shareholding company since 2016 based in Évora and competing in the Campeonato de Portugal, third tier of Portuguese football. Lusitano SAD is the result of the transformation in 2016 of the senior team of Lusitano Ginásio Clube, a well-known and popular club founded on 11 November 1911.
Lusitano has a long and rich history spanning over a century, the pinnacle of which was achieved in the 1950’s when the club competed for 14 consecutive seasons in the Primeira Divisão (First Division or tier 1), still holding a position among the 30 clubs in Portugal with more participation at tier 1 level in the country.
The name “Lusitano” is derived from Lusitania, the Roman name for the province corresponding to the current territory of Portugal south of the Douro river and to modern day Spanish region of Extremadura.
The club’s motto is Fazer Forte Fraca Gente (Portuguese for “Making the Weak Stronger”) and its currently and rightly advertised as the O Maior do Alentejo (Portuguese for “The Biggest in Alentejo”), the largest region in Portugal.
