Portugal had 128,694 professional male footballers in FIFA’s 2023 Professional Football Report, which is the number most directly tied to your query about Portugal’s professional footballers.

Quick Scoop

That FIFA report says there were 128,694 professional male footballers across 3,986 clubs in 135 countries worldwide, and Portugal is included in that global dataset.

Context

If you meant a different figure, such as:

  • all registered players in Portugal,
  • professional men and women combined,
  • or a more recent country-specific federation count,

the number can be different from FIFA’s professional-male total. The FIFA source is the cleanest match for “professional footballers” in Portugal.

Source note

The most relevant public source surfaced here is FIFA’s Professional Football Report 2023, which provides the global professional-men’s football count used above.