Atlético Junior

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Atlético Junior

Full name

Corporación Popular Deportiva Junior

Nickname(s)

Los Tiburones
(The Sharks)

Founded

1924

Ground

Estadio Metropolitano
Barranquilla

Capacity

60,000

Chairman

Antonio Char

Manager

Miguel Ángel "El Zurdo" López

League

Copa Mustang

2006 Clausura





Home colours





Away colours

Atlético Junior, also known as Corporación Deportiva Popular Junior, is a Colombian football team based in Barranquilla. The club was founded in 1924 Known as "Los Tiburones" (The Sharks), they have won the Colombian championship five times, the last one being in 2004, when they beat in a two-legged game their arch-rivals Atlético Nacional from Medellín.

The pride of Colombia's Caribbean coast, it had a golden age in the mid-90's, when under the conduction of Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama, it won two of its championsips, in 1993 and 1995. Thereafter, the club owners focused on creating talent from within, and following years of up and downs, the club became once again national champions in December 2004, after scoring in the last minute and beating Nacional in penalty kicks. The star of that season was the argentinian Omar Sebastian Perez, who earned the love and respect of the whole city not only for his great technique and high quality of play, but for the way he melted with the rest of the team.

They have participated several times in Conmebol's Copa Libertadores de América, a kind of Champion's League for South America, where they ended up in 3rd place In 1994. One penalty kick away from reaching the final, they ended up losing against Vélez Sarsfield, who would then become the tournament's ultimate champion.

Junior's home stadium is called the Estadio Metropolitano or Roberto Meléndez Stadium, which is also home to the Colombian national football team