President Bruno de Carvalho and Cape Verde's Minister of sport, Fernando Elísio Freire de Andrade, celebrate deal

Alvalade hosted a contingent from Cape Verde this weekend, to sign an agreement with Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Bruno de Carvalho led the Sporting CP delegation at the ceremony and the Alvalade president was keen to highlight the importance of the protocol: "One of our main objectives is to strengthen our bond with Portuguese speaking countries. The relationship between Sporting CP and Cape Verde has been developing for years now and we are all very proud of what we have achieved. What we are doing now is strengthening our partnership even more. We will do what we now best and we really like to see sport developing in a country like Cape Verde, where we recently opened an academy. Now we have taken an important step with the Cape Verdean government and a club like Sporting CP has to have this kind of protocols with governments."

Cape Verde's Minister of sport, Fernando Elísio Freire de Andrade, also gave his backing to the protocol, affirming the role Sporting CP can play in the country: "This is an extraordinary protocol. Cape Verde wants sport to be open to our whole society. Sporting CP is a brand on the world stage, with a lot of influence in Cape Verde. It is a club that has enjoyed a lot of success in a lot of sports, particularly in the way the club integrates young athletes and helps them develop. That is what we want to happen in our country and I want to thank Sporting CP and president Bruno de Carvalho for their availability."