Cerro Porteño

Cerro Porteño

Nickname(s)	"El Ciclón" o "Club del Pueblo"
Founded	October 1, 1912
Ground	General Pablo Rojas Stadium (La Olla), Asunción, Paraguay
Ground Capacity	37.400
Chairman	Juan José Zapag
Manager	César Farías
League	Paraguayan Primera División
2015 Apertura	1th
Home colours Away colours

Club Cerro Porteño is a professional Paraguayan football club, based in the neighbourhood of Barrio Obrero in Asunción. Founded in 1912, Cerro has won 31 Primera División titles and is one of the most popular football clubs in Paraguay.^[1] Its main rivals are Club Olimpia and Club Libertad.

They play their home games at the General Pablo Rojas Stadium, also known as La Olla (The Boiler).

History

Stamps of Paraguay

Cerro Porteño was founded on October 1, 1912 by Susana Núñez and a group of young people looking to create a new football club. At the time of Cerro's foundation the situation in Paraguay was tense with instability in the government caused by the fervent rivalries between the two leading political parties, the Partido Colorado (Colorado Party) and the Partido Liberal (Liberal Party). Because of the tensions, the founders of the club decided to use the colours of both parties, red (Colorados) and blue (Liberales), as the club's colours as a symbol of unity and friendship between Paraguayans. Later, white was used on the shorts to complete the colours of the Paraguayan flag.

The club owes its name to the battle fought between the forces of Buenos Aires, Argentina (The Porteños) and the Paraguayan army, in the neighbourhood of the Cerro Mbaé (Mbaé Hill) – named after that battle as the Cerro Porteño (Porteño Hill) – on 19 January 1811. During that battle, the troops of Paraguay (at that time a Spanish colony) were abandoned by the Spanish governor but continued to be led by the Paraguayan officials, who led them to a great victory against the Porteños troops. That battle is known as the "Battle of Cerro Porteño" and is a highlight of Paraguayan military history.

Cerro Porteño is known in Paraguay as el club del pueblo (the common people's team) because most of the fans are from lower social classes, as opposed to the fans from rival club Olimpia and Libertad whose fans are usually from the upper classes. Because of this, it is said that Cerro Porteño has the biggest number of supporters in Paraguay.

Over the years the club has won a significant number of national championships. However, to date, it has not won any international tournaments despite a few good runs in the Copa Libertadores including semi-final appearances in 1973, 1978, 1993, 1998, 1999 and 2011.

Osvaldo Ardiles joined the club as manager in May 2008 ^[2] but was sacked in August of the same year after a string of poor results and wash replaced by Pedro Troglio.^[3]

Stadium

The club's home stadium is officially called Estadio General Pablo Rojas, after the club president who was the main proponent of the work, but is better known as La Olla Azulgrana. It has a capacity of 32,000. Originally, the stadium was supposed to be larger but the plan had to be scaled down due to a shortage of funds available to complete the work.

International holdings

• Copa Libertadores: 38 appearances

Semi-finals (6): 1973, 1978, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2011

• Copa Sudamericana: 9 appearances

Semi-finals (1): 2009

Honours

• Primera División (31): 1913, 1915, 1918, 1919, 1935, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1950, 1954, 1961, 1963, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2009 Apertura, 2012 Apertura, 2013 Clausura, 2015 Apertura
• Torneo República (3): 1989, 1991, 1995

Ranking

World Club Ranking

As of 12 January 2016.^[4]

Rank	Country	Team
150		Cerro Porteño
152		Johor Darul Ta'zim
153		Deportes Tolima
153		Southampton

Players

First team

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Rodolfo Rodríguez 2 DF César Benítez 3 DF Bruno Valdez 4 DF Junior Alonso 7 FW Cecilio Dominguez 8 MF Jonathan Santana 9 FW José Ortigoza 10 MF Sergio Díaz 11 MF Carlos Bonet 12 GK Cristian Álvarez 13 DF Victor Mareco 14 MF Juan Franco 16 MF Fidencio Oviedo 17 FW Jonathan Fabbro

No. Position Player 18 MF Juan Rodrigo Rojas 19 DF Guillermo Beltrán 20 MF David Mendieta 21 MF Blas Cáceres 22 FW Enrique Borja 28 DF Júnior Alonso 29 DF Teodoro Paredes 30 MF Néstor Ramírez – MF Jorge Rojas (on loan from Benfica) – GK Antony Silva – MF Silvio Torales (on loan from UNAM) – FW Luís Leal – MF Marcelo Estigarribia (on loan from Atalanta)

Notable players

To appear in this section a player must have either:

• Played at least 125 games for the club.
• Set a club record or won an individual award while at the club.
• Been part of a national team squad at any time.
• Played in the first division of any other football association (outside of Paraguay).
• Played in a continental and/or intercontinental competition.

Non-CONMEBOL players

• Adriano Tomás Custodio Mendes (1988)^[5]
• Jerry Laterza (1994–95)
• William Inganga (1996)^[6]
• Tobie Mimboe (1996)
• Geremi Njitap (1997)
• Cyrille Florent Bella (1998)
• Kenneth Nkweta Nju (2000–01)^[7]
• Nozomi Hiroyama (2001)
• Froylán Ledezma (2001–02)
• Diego Madrigal (2011)
• Daniel Güiza (2013–2015)
• Luís Leal (2016–)

Managerial information

Records

'Most appearances for the club (in all competitions):

1. Julio Dos Santos: 267
2. Jorge Achucarro: 257
3. Aldo Bobadilla: 265
4. Estanislao Struway: 227

Most goals for the club (in all competitions):

1. Virgilio Ferreira: 90
2. Erwin Ávalos: 70
3. Saturnino Arrua: 88
4. José Vinsac: 58

'Most appearances for the club (in league):

1. Salvador Breglia: 225
2. Jorge Achucarro: 215
3. Julio Dos Santos: 212
4. Blas Marcelo Cristaldo: 201

Most goals for the club (in league):

1. Virgilio Ferreira: 67
2. Erwin Ávalos: 64
3. José Vinsac: 58
4. Saturnino Arrua: 55

'Most appearances for the club (in international cup):

1. Aldo Bobadilla: 67
2. Estanislao Struway: 64
3. Virgilio Ferreira: 61
4. Blas Marcelo Cristaldo: 57

Most goals for the club (in international cup):

1. Virgilio Ferreira: 23
2. Santiago Salcedo: 15
3. Celino Mora: 14
4. César Ramírez: 13

Women

The women's team has won the Paraguayan women's football championship four times, in 2007 and 2012 to 2014.^[8] The team then played in the Copa Libertadores Femenina.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Club Cerro Porteño.

• Official Website
• Cerro Porteño web site
• Foro de Cerro Porteño site