The Portuguese Sports Association Capdenac (ASPC) celebrated 40 years of football with great fanfare. Ninety adults and a handful of children, most of them former players or managers, responded to the union’s call and gathered, with good humour, at the Kabdenac Leisure Center late into the night to share an aperitif dinner full of nostalgia.
The association was founded in 1981, around a grassroots group organizing the Easter Ball. If initially its headquarters were on rue Jean Jaurès, the association subsequently rented premises on rue Lamartine before the city council of Capdinac offered it a small house on Embas Poloncio. The association has just purchased this property from the municipality.
The Portuguese community in Capdinac has approximately 200 people and still organizes an Easter ball, a February koala and a famous football tournament, roasting chicken over the embers of the Portuguese Ascension. This Saturday, it was the current president, Octave Lopez, who gave a welcoming speech recalling the commitment of many volunteers to keep this association alive. It will then be up to José Travanca, president of the Football Committee, to present the history of this club with its continued development in the second or third division. He will cite the first seasons (83 and 84) with two successive promotions, and 5 years ago, the Aveyron Cup quarter-final loss to Druel. Those who have served the club for 36 years will thank everyone who has invested in “this great adventure”. He will specify that this season in D3 they aim to maintain it and will conclude, “Our greatest victory is to still be present after 40 years.”
