[1] Founded on 17 May 1939,[2] its football team currently plays in Primeira Liga and hold home games at the Estádio António Coimbra da Mota, with a seating capacity of 8,015.

[2] Since the club's establishment, the senior football team has won nine secondary trophies, with the most recent being the 2011–12 Liga de Honra.

[2] The club's principal promoter was Fausto Cardoso de Figueiredo, the wealthy owner of the Lisbon-Cascais railway, the English hotels of the city, Paris and the Palace, the bath building, and the Estoril Casino.

[2] When the club was initially established it began to play in the Campeonato de Lisboa which was a league competition contested by teams from Lisbon.

Four years after its establishment, the club has reached the Taça de Portugal final in the 1943–44 season in which they lost to Benfica 8–0 at the Campo das Salésias in Lisbon.

In the 1998–99 Liga de Honra season, the club suffered relegation to the third tier of Portuguese football for the first time in their history.

[12] In the 2011–12 season, the club was promoted to first division by winning the Liga de Honra five points ahead of second place Moreirense.

With new owners and under the management of Marco Silva who halfway through the season took over from Vinícius Eutrópio, the team claimed the second Liga de Honra title in the club's history.

In the 2013–14 season, Estoril finished in fourth place, marking its best performance ever in the Portuguese first division, qualifying directly to Europa League's Group Stage.

American investor David Blitzer, through his company Global Football Holdings, purchased a majority stake in the club in May 2019.