Portugal

When I’m not daydreaming about the history behind sports badges, I teach for a living. This year, we’ve introduced a new topic—the Portuguese Empire. You have probably heard of Vasco Da Gama sailing around the Cape of Africa, but the sheer extent of the Portuguese influence in the world is staggering. Not only that, but – there’s a sports badge link here too! Portugal’s football badge (and the wider flag) is packed with symbolism and meaning.

So, let’s #GetTheBadgeIn for the Portuguese.

At the heart of the badge is a shield, set within a crusader’s cross, that dates back to the 12th century. Inside the shield, there are five smaller blue shields arranged in a cross, each in turn dotted with five white spots. These spots are said to symbolize the miracles that King Afonso I received during his major win at the Battle of Ourique on July 25, 1139, where he defeated the five Moorish kings and pushed Islamic forces out of Portugal.

So, a giant cross upon which feature the badges of five defeated Islamic Kings - St. George flag waving loonies - eat your heart out.

If we look at the larger Portuguese flag, not just the cross element (which is where the football badge is taken), we can see more symbols of their incredible history. The shield seen on the flag is surrounded by seven red castles—each representing one of the key fortresses captured during the Reconquista (kicking out the Islamic forces from Portugal in the 12th century).

Behind that symbol is yet another one that alludes to the Portuguese spirit for exploration and conquest—the armillary sphere. The armillary sphere was a crucial tool for Portuguese explorers during the Age of Discovery. It's essentially a model made up of rings that represent the circles of the sky—like the horizon and equator—allowing sailors to determine their location by observing the stars. This old-school GPS became a symbol of Portugal's flair for navigation. See, navigating 'round the cape' wasn’t straightforward. There are constant and strong winds and currents that push you back the other way—for centuries, people had tried—and died—in the attempt.

The Portuguese realized there was a trick to it: sail down the African coast and then at the last moment, turn right—out into the Atlantic. This wasn't to find America (though that is how they bumped into Brazil); this was to dodge the winds and hitch a ride on a different current that zoomed you around the cape. That act of turning out into what most thought was a never-ending ocean, using only your navigational tools for direction, took some balls. Some armillary balls.

Before all this, Portugal wasn't exactly in Europe's economic hot zone. It was on the periphery, a backwater, away from the bustling Silk Roads that made central Europe and the Mediterranean rich. So, the Portuguese, with little choice, turned outward toward the Atlantic and the African Coast, aiming to find new lands and trade routes. When Vasco Da Gama returned having discovered India, the game was on.

Key to wealth at this time was the spice trade. The spices came from India, across the Indian Ocean, up the Red Sea, and into Cairo—from where Venetian traders would buy them and sell them on to the rest of Europe. Venice had become extremely rich and at each stage of the process people made profits, and the end price went up. The whole Islamic world, especially the Mamluks (modern Egypt), made a fortune.

But Portugal had just found their jugular. If they could go directly to India and cut everyone else out, not only could they bring back cheap spices and cash in—they could fatally undermine the Middle East (and the Venetians). This, Portugal did.

They built a network of trading ports and cities around the Indian Ocean—using the Monsoon winds to hitch a ride to India during one phase—and then return with it when the winds shifted. If the movie "Dune," with its large spice freighters, isn’t in part based on this story then… well, it is. It is based on this. The Portuguese had just captured Arrakis; the trade was theirs.

Could they hold on to it? Yes, just... for about a hundred years... but then the Middle East got its act together under the Ottomans and began to push them out—and other European powers, namely the Spanish and then the British, pushed them out from the other direction too.

So, the Portuguese were the trendsetters, the trailblazers, that ultimately paved the road that Britain would walk. They also ushered in a 500-year period of European global dominance, which is only now fading away.

Quite a badge. Crusades, Crosses, Castles, Commerce and Conquests.

Thankfully there is far more to Portugal than just Cristiano.