Associação Académica da Praia is a football club that plays in the Premier division of the Santiago Island League (South) in Cape Verde. It is played along with Praia's three other famous teams in Estádio da Varzea, the club also practices at the stadium and over a kilometer east in Achada Grande Frente (or Leite). Its current president is Kiki and manager is Janito Carvalho who coached Sporting Praia in the previous season.
Académica Praia is one of the most successful football (soccer) club in the island of Santiago and the South Zone, having won about 11 official titles, 2 are national and the remaining 9 are regional titles. It won several championship titles before and after independence. The team never won any national championship titles since independence. It also had won five insular titles, three island cup title and a national cup title.
Académica da Praia is an affiliate of the Portuguese club Académica de Coimbra.
Its nicknames are "Mica", the short of Académica used in many of other Académica clubs around the world, "Briosa", which has recently become rarely used today and "Estudantes" which means students (students of the academy), used in several other Académica clubs elsewhere.
History
The club was founded on 15 December 1962 and a few months later, it became a registered club of the Santiago Regional Football Association, at the time the only two football organizations that existed before independence.
Académica won the first upper level title in 1965 by defeating FC Derby from Mindelo 3–2 in extra time, they would win the only national title won before independence. Later, the team won the 1968 Santiago regional title at the time included other islands after beating Os Garridos a gigantic 21–0, 9 of which were scored by Luís Bastos. They challenged against Mindelense and lost 0–1 in the final round. At the time, Toka was coach for Académica Praia.
Académica Praia won their first regional cup title in 1986. Académica celebrated their 25th anniversary in 1987. Two years later, Académica won their third regional title for the island and participated at the national championships where they failed to proceed into the upper stages.
Académica finished 7th with 19th points in the 2001–02 Santiago South Premier Division, they finished a position less which was 8th in 2003 with 13 points. Académica did way better for the 2003–04 season, they won their fourth regional title, also it was their first title for the South Zone in 2004 and finished with 45 points a club record, it was also the regional and national record held it until Sporting took it in 2005 with 49, also they finished with 14 wins, its wins were a club record, in points total, it stood as a club record from 2005 until 2018.. Académica was runner-up for the next two seasons, 43 points they finished and another season with 14 wins, their third one had 39 points, as Sporting won the 2006 national title, the club entered for the 2007 nationals. For the next two seasons, they scored a total of 40 goals, in 2009, they won their recent regional title. Their positions dropped for the net few seasons in 2010, they had 30 points in 2011.