As part of our Language of Soccer World Cup series, The Athletic is speaking to supporters of all 48 nations competing at the 2026 edition to capture their unique football culture, distilled into a single phrase. You can read the articles in one place here.Forca Portugal — Come on PortugalWhat happened in 2016 changed everything.Portugal, a country of just 10 million people, conquered the continent against the odds to win the European Championship in France.From 1970 to 1998 they only reached one World Cup. In the first nine Euros (1960 to 1992) they qualified just once.Not only are Portugal now ever-present at major tournaments, reaching every World Cup since 2002 and every Euros since 1996, they have also started winning a few; the 2016 Euros, the Nations League in 2019 and again in 2025. Forca Portugal.Going from famine to feast, drought to monsoon, surviving on crumbs to chomping on a tray of pasteis de nata, does that change the mindset of a fanbase? It might depend on your age.There are a few generations who have experienced very different versions of Portugal, starting with those who grew up with or experienced Eusebio and then sat through barren decades from the 1970s to the 1990s.“For them, ‘Forca Portugal’ became literally an act of faith,” Portugal fan Luis Alves says, ‘forca’ meaning strength or, in this case, willing Portugal on (‘come on Portugal’).After that came a string of near misses, chiefly contriving to lose their home Euros to Greece in 2004, but also a World Cup semi-final defeat by France two years later (it remains the only time since 1966 Portugal have reached the last four at a World Cup) and another last-four loss to Spain on penalties at Euro 2012.“My generation lived through the transition, without World Cups at first but then watching the ‘Golden Generation’ of Luis Figo and Manuel Rui Costa emerge,” says Luis. “I lived through the Euro 2004 final (a collective trauma still felt today), the long parade of lost semi-finals, and then Euro 2016. We carry both mindsets at once: the distrust learned in the empty years and the recent memory of victory.Portugal fans endure – and then enjoy – the Euro 2016 final (Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images)“Younger fans born from the mid-1990s onwards grew up assuming Cristiano Ronaldo was the best player in the world and that Portugal could win things. They have a completely different starting point.”All generations have absorbed a level of melancholy and a readiness to suffer, Luis believes, although Portugal fans are hard to pin down as a collective group.