Clube Sportivo Mindelense (Capeverdean Crioulo, ALUPEC or ALUPEK: KS Mindelensi (KS – Klubi Sporting), São Vicente Crioulo: KS Mindelense (KS – Klube or Clube (CS))) is a football club that plays in the Premier division of the Interisland League in Cape Verde. It is based in the city of Mindelo in the island of São Vicente. Mindelense is the oldest club in Cape Verde. It is the team won the most cups before and after independence especially in the 1950s and the 1970s with nine titles before independence and eleven after independence. Their first participation in the national division before independence was unofficially in 1938 and officially in 1954, Mindelense first appeared after independence in 1980. Since 30 April 2017, they are one of three unrelegated clubs in the island along with Batuque and Derby. Its current chairman is Daniel de Jesus. The club's nickname is Leões Encarnados or the Incarnated Lions. A nickname that is used less often is the Red Devils or the Diablos Vermelhos.
Overall, Mindelense has 77 honors won and forms one of the highest in the world. Of which Mindelense has 12 national and major titles and 65 regional titles. Mindelense is the top 10 clubs having the most regional titles in the world.
Logo Its logo color (or colour) is light orange with an orange lion in the middle. The letters C and S representing CS is aligned separately at the top and the M representing Mindelense.
Uniform Its home uniform is red with white shorts and its visitor uniform is white with red socks. Today, the uniform features white stripes on the shirt's side for home games and its shorts became red. Its clothing are done by Nike and sponsored by Cabo Verde Telecom. In the early 2010s, they were done by Lacatoni and sponsored by JBRN.
History The club was founded in 1919, it would be officialized on May 25, 1922. One of the first greatest players was Adérito Carvalho da Sena who appeared in the 1930s, he would have the stadium named after him. In 1969, Mindelense celebrated its 50th anniversary of the club's foundation. The club was the first in Cape Verde to achieve the professional status in July 1984.
In 2019, CS Mindelense celebrated the 100th year of the club's foundation.
National Appearances In 2009, Kadú had the most goals at the national championships with seven, in 2011, Fufura had it with a lower number of five, in 2013, it was Dukinha with 6.
Mindelense appeared for the 2017 season and made their 45+ appearance at the highest level. Mindelense won the first match which was on 14 May defeating Paulense 0–1 in Ponta do Sol.
Mindelense will be present at the 2018 National Division and play in Group A, other participants will be the Académicas of Praia and Porto Novo, the latter from across the island and Boa Vista's Sport Sal Rei Club.
Playoff participation Their first time in the playoff participation was in 1954 before independence and 1976 after independence in which won their first eight titles. In their first colonial championships, they defeated Praia's Travadores to get their first title, it was shared with Académica do Mindelo until Mindelense won another title in 1956, from that time, the club possessed the most provincial titles. In 1960, Mindelense won their third after another victory over Travadores, their fourth was in 1962, fifth in 1966, Mindelense got their sixth in 1968 after defeating Académica da Praia in 1968, their 1969 provincial appearance was unsuccessful as they lost to Sporting Praia, a year later as the 1970 edition did not take place, they won their final provincial title and was their last appearance before independence.
Their first national title after independence was in 1976 after defeating Botafogo from Fogo, their second was in 1977 after defeating Sporting Praia. In 1978, Mindelense challenged with Académica Operária from the island of Boa Vista and defeated that club and headed up to the scheduled finals, after Sporting was unawarded in their semis match with Botafogo, the championship finals matches did not take place. Their chance for the fourth one did not claim as Académico Sal Rei beaten CS Mindelense 2–0 in 1983 and was the first Battle of Barlavento, not until 1988 when in both two legs beat Sporting Clube da Praia 2–0 in the first and finally 0–1 in the last., the sixth title was claimed after beating CD Travadores from Praia. The team won the most national titles between 1980 and 2008, Sporting tied it for one year and surpassed Mindelense in 2009 which would last until 2011 when Mindelense tied it once again as they won their eight title defeating Sporting 1–0 in the second finals match, their first match was scoreless. Sporting surpassed Mindelense once more for their third year with the most national titles alone (fourth year with the most national titles) in 2012. It would be broken the following year as Mindelense defeated 3–0 against Académica from Porto Novo in the neighbouring island, the second match was tied at 2 apiece and therefore won their ninth title and once again tied Sporting Praia with the most national titles, Mindelense would win their tenth title a year later beating Académica of the island of Fogo, the club won 2–1 in their first match and scoreless in their second, the 2013–14 CS Mindelense season would become having the nation's most titles with ten titles, again in six years one more than Sporting Praia and their second in a row. The 2014–15 CS Mindelense season would be successful once again and this time challenged Paulense from Paúl, lost one in the first and won two in the second and advanced to the finals and challenged the city's other rival FC Derby by having a single point in each of the two matches, the match went on to penalty kicks and scored 4–3 to claim their third straight national title totalling eleven and two more than Sporting Praia, Mindelense was second and recent in winning consecutive titles in a row numbering three ahead of two (1976–77) by the same club and behind of four by Sporting Praia (2006–09). Mindelense faced Académica from Porto Novo from the neighbouring island northwest, it was the second match ever that was won on penalty kicks and Mindelense defeated Académica Porto Novo the second time and the club won their fourth consecutive national title for the 2016 season, now tied with Sporting Praia with fourth consecutive but a record 12 national titles won, three ahead of Sporting Praia. Also the two final matches were the last at the national championships.
So far Mindelense appeared 13 times at the finals, played 23 finals matches and scored 23 goals at the championship finals.
Upper appearances Their first appearance in an African competition was during the 1993 season and challenged ASEC Ndiambour, a club from Senegal and lost 3–2 in all of the two preliminary matches, it was the first appearance of a Cape Verdean club to the continental level. They did not appear in the 2012, 2014, 2015 2016 and lastly the 2017 competitions.
Mindelense's appearances in the Portuguese Cup At the time, a colonial or provincial champion competed into the quarterfinal stage of the Portuguese Cup competitions for most of the times from 1961 up to independence in 1975. Mindelense competed in the first cup competition, the Portuguese Cup in 1966 and faced C.S. Marítimo of the Madeira Islands, Mindelense lost both of them, the first 2–4 and the second leg 0–7. Later in their last appearance in the 1971 during the final years of colonial rule, Mindelense challenged against Sporting CP which was played in the island in 1971 and lost 0–21 in their final competition, the worst defeat of the club. Mindelense was the only Cape Verdean club to compete.
Regional championships Mindelense has a total of 49 island titles, the most of any club of each regional leagues in the nation. The team were the first club to win a title in the first island championships in 1932, they won five straight titles up to 1936 (then the only in Cape Verde to do so and the only one during Portuguese rule), then four straight up to 1943, after a two-year drought, the club won two consecutive titles in 1947, between 1949 and 1952, Mindelense won four consecutive titles and later seven consecutive between 1954 and 1960, Mindelense won one in 1962 and the next one four years later, Mindelense later won four consecutive titles between 1968 and 1971. Later they won eight island titles in a row (seven after independence) from 1974 until 1982. After winning their 1977 1979 and 1982 titles, Mindelense did not compete in the nationals due to the cancellations of the competition, the latter was due to the 1982 Amílcar Cabral Cup that took place at Estádio Municipal da Praia. In 1980, when they won their sixth straight titles, it was the only club who did that until the following season when Botafogo won six straight, Brava's Nô Pintcha did that in 1998 and Académica do Porto Novo in 2016.
Mindelense would later have six titles in a row from 1988 until 1994, with the 1991 season where no championship was held. Mindelense won three back to back titles between 1996 and 1998, it would also be their last titles won in a row for the next seventeen years. Their next titles would be achieved in 2006, 2009, 2011 and in 2013 since 2015, Mindelense won three consecutive titles.
Other records that Mindelense has at the regional championships had 34 matches without any losses that started from March 29, 2014 with the loss to Derby and lasted up to April 16, 2016 with the loss Amarante, the longest was without any wins at home and numbered 18 which started from January 12, 2014 with the loss to Amarante to April 24, 2016 with the loss to Derby, the shortest was without any wins away (or away-alternative) that lasted from March 29, 2014 to April 16, 2016, this was a regional record.
In 2008, Kadú came to Mindelense from Académica Mindelo to participate in the club for a season, Bock, originally from Sporting Praia also played but a season more. Sténio played for Mindelense in 2010 and a season later played with a Portuguese club Feirense, even Rambé who came from Batuque was in the club. For the 2012 season, the club had Vozinha and Calú. Fredson played in 2014.
An almighty regional success came once more, it first came as the other club Académica Mindelo fielded a fake goalkeeper. One of the five was the April 14 match where the club was awarded 3–0 by the regional association over Académica Mindelo, the original result was 0–1. Mindelense claimed their third consecutive regional title and finished with 32 points, won 9 matches, yet again, not a single loss was made and scored 27 goals. Mindelense returned to the nationals not as title winner but as automatic holders.