Club Atlético Colón

Colón

Full name	Club Atlético Colón
Nickname(s)	Los Sabaleros[1]
Founded	5 May 1905[2]
Ground	Estadio B.G. Estanislao López, (Cementerio de los Elefantes),[3] Santa Fe
Ground Capacity	47,000
Chairman	Eduardo Vega
Manager	Dario Franco
League	Primera División
2015	19th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Club Atlético Colón (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkluβ aˈtletiko koˈlon]), commonly referred to as Colón de Santa Fe [koˈlon de santa ˈfe], is a sports club from Santa Fe, Argentina. The football team plays in the first division of the Argentine football league system, the Argentine Primera División. Other activities hosted by the club are basketball, boxing and field hockey.

History

The club was founded on May 5, 1905, as "Colón Football Club" by a group of friends that were enthusiastic about football. The name of the club was inspired in Genoese conqueror Christopher Columbus ("Cristóbal Colón" in Spanish), whose biography was being studied by one of the boys at the time.^[4] Colón started playing in the local league of Santa Fe ("Liga Santafesina") in 1910, winning the first tournament contested in 1913. The team also finished undefeated at the end of the season. Colón would win the tournaments of 1914, 1916, 1918, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1929, 1930, 1937, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947.

On July 9, 1946, the club inaugurated the Estadio Estanislao López, named "Eva Perón" by then. In 1955 this would be renamed to its current name. Colón affiliated to the Argentine Football Association in 1947. In 1959 the team was relegated to Primera C, where it lasted until 1964. That year Colón achieved a victory over Pelé's famous team Santos by 3–2. One year later, Colón won the Primera B championship, thus promoting to the Primera División for the 1966 season. Colón proclaimed champion after defeating Nueva Chicago by 2–1 in Santa Fe.^[4] Medina and Oberti scored the goals. The line-up was: Tremonti, Néstor Cardozo, Raúl Cardozo, Gisleno Medina, Sebastián García, Jorge Sanitá, Luis Tremonti, Orlando Medina, Néstor Canevari, Alfredo Oberti, Alejo Medina.^[5]

The 1965 team that won the Primera B title promoting to Primera División.

The first game played by Colón in Primera was v Chacarita Juniors on May 6, 1966. After the first season in the top level Colón finished 16th,^[6] but the following year the structure of Argentine football was changed so as there were two championships each season, the Metropolitano and the Nacional, with entrance to the latter originally only available to the higher placed Metropolitano teams. Colon did not qualify for the Nacional until 1968, although the squad did then managed a 6th place finish.

Colón finished 2nd in their group in the 1972 Nacional.^[7]

In 1975 the team made a good campaign in the Metropolitano, finishing in 6th place. This got better two years later, when Colón finished 5th in the Metropolitano, although the team then struggled in the Nacional. In 1978 Colón reached the knockout stages of the Nacional but was beaten in the quarter-finals by Independiente.

Colon was relegated from the Metropolitana in 1981 having won only 6 games that season It was to take 14 years for Colón to return to the top division (for the 1995–96 season). During the intervening period the team came close to promotion on a number of occasions, and lost Promotion Play-off games in 1988–89 to arch-rivals Union 3–0 on aggregate, and in 1992–93 Colón lost the championship play-off, being defeated by Banfield and then failed to qualify through the secondary play-offs.

After a few mid-table finishes Colón was placed 2nd in the 1997 Clausura tournament, which is team's highest placed finish to date. As River Plate won both titles that season, a play-off was required between the two runners-up.^[8] In December 1997 Colón defeated Independiente 1–0 to qualify for the Copa Libertadores 1998.^[8]

South American Tournament Qualification

Colon made their South American debut in the Copa CONMEBOL 1997 against Universidad de Chile. They subsequently reached the semi-finals where they lost to fellow Argentine side Lanús.

They made their debut in South America's most prestigious club tournament (Copa Libertadores) the following season. Their first game in the group stage was a 1–2 home defeat to River Plate, although they were still to qualify for the knockout stages. After beating Olimpia on penalties they were again drawn to play River Plate, but were defeated 5–2 on aggregate in the quarter-final.

In 2003, they qualified for their 3rd different continental competition (Copa Sudamericana), and they defeated Vélez Sársfield before losing to Boca Juniors.^[9]

Stadium

The club's current stadium is the Estadio Brigadier General Estanislao López, which holds 33,500 spectators. The ground was inaugurated in 1946, and received a renovation in 2002.^[3]

Honours

National

• Primera B: 1965
• Copa de Honor de Primera B – "Juan Domingo Perón"^{[lower-alpha 1]}: 1950 ^[11]

Regional

• Liga Santafesina de Fútbol (15): 1913, 1914, 1916, 1918, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1929, 1930, 1937, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947 ^[4]

Players

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Current squad of Club Atlético Colón as of May 27, 2015 (edit)
Sources: Official website and Argentine Soccer

No. Position Player 1  ARG GK Jorge Broun 2  ARG DF Franco Lazzaroni 3  ARG DF Guillermo Ferracuti 4  ARG DF Luis Castillo 5  ARG MF Gerónimo Poblete 6  ARG MF Matías Ballini 7  ARG MF Gustavo Villarruel 8  ARG MF Luis Garnier 9  ARG MF Alan Ruiz 10  ARG MF David Ramírez 11  ARG DF Mariano Bíttolo 12  ARG GK Ignacio Lovera 13  ARG DF Lucas Landa 14  ARG DF Pablo Cuevas 15  ARG MF Víctor Casado 16  ARG MF Cristian Llama

No. Position Player 17  ARG MF Braian Romero 18  ARG MF Marcos Fernández 19  ARG DF Clemente Rodríguez 20  ARG FW Pablo Vegetti 21  ARG FW Raúl Becerra 22  ARG FW Cristian García 23  ARG DF Cristian Saín 24  ARG MF Daniel Pérez 26  ARG FW Cristian Guanca 27  ARG MF Pablo Ledesma 28  ARG FW Exequiel Gómez 29  PAR DF Ismael Benegas 30  ARG DF Germán Conti 32  ARG MF Franco Leys 33  ARG DF Emiliano García 35  ARG GK Andrés Mehring

Manager: Javier López

Managers

• Antonio Mohamed (2008–10)^[12]
• Fernando Gamboa (2010–11?)^[13]
• Mario Sciaqua (2011?–12)^[14]
• Roberto Sensini (2012–13)^[15]
• Rubén Forestello (2013)^[16][17]
• Diego Osella (2014)^[18][19]

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Club Atlético Colón.

• Official Site (Spanish)