CD TondelaThe route of CD Tondela from regional leagues to the Primeira Liga took only a decade or so. The club from the town of Tondela in Viseu District played regional football for decades and after 2004 began to climb the levels of the Portuguese league pyramid. It won promotion to the Segunda Liga on 3 June 2012 after a 1–1 draw with Fátima at home, its third promotion in eight years. Three years later, in 2014–15, as Liga 2 champions under coach Quim Machado, it earned a historic promotion to the top flight.
The club was founded on 6 June 1933 through the merger of two local sides: Tondela Football Club, founded in 1925, and Operário Atlético Clube, formed in 1932. For its first decades it was an organisation of strictly local reach, and its first silverware since 1986 was later the Taça AF Viseu, the cup of the regional association. The club then also won the regional AF Viseu Liga de Honra, which opened the way to further promotions.
From its Primeira Liga debut in 2015–16, Tondela competed for seven seasons against opponents with far greater budgets. Its best league finish is eleventh place in 2017–18, and its reputation as a hard side to beat was based on tactical discipline and a strong bond with the local community. In total the club has spent eight seasons in the top flight.
The most memorable match in the club's history was played in 2022. Tondela were relegated from the Primeira Liga that year but at the same time reached the final of the Taça de Portugal for the first time in their history. In the final at the Jamor they lost 3–1 to FC Porto. Because Porto won the domestic double that season, the team from Tondela, as cup finalists, qualified for the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira. It was a bittersweet year in which the club was both relegated and written into the history of the cup.
Tondela returned to the top flight after three years, in 2024–25, again as Liga 2 champions, this time under Luís Pinto. The return aroused huge interest, and in the second division the stadium drew more spectators than some Primeira Liga matches. Only the derby match played in Viseu against Académico de Viseu, the Dérbi das Beiras, in which two clubs of the Beiras region contest local supremacy, drew a bigger crowd. In 2025–26, however, the team finished seventeenth and were relegated from the Primeira Liga.
The team plays in yellow and green, the colours of the town, and the home kit is a yellow shirt with green stripes, black shorts and yellow socks. Behind the goals gathers an organised group of supporters, Febre Amarela (Yellow Fever), founded in 2009. Home matches are played at the Estádio João Cardoso, which holds almost five thousand spectators. The club has no record in European competitions, and its history rests on a domestic climb, from regional pitches to a final at the Jamor. CD Tondela remains a symbol of how a club from the interior of the country, without big budgets, can put itself permanently on the map of Portuguese football.