Independiente Medellín

Independiente Medellín

Full name	Deportivo Independiente Medellín
Nickname(s)	El Rojo Paisa (The Paisa Red),[1] El Poderoso de la Montaña (The Powerful of the Mountain),[2] Medallo, DIM, El Equipo del Pueblo (The People's Team), El Rey de Corazones (The King of Hearts), El Decano del Fútbol Colombiano (The Dean of Colombian Football)
Founded	14 November 1913 (1913-11-14)
Ground	Estadio Atanasio Girardot Medellín, Colombia
Ground Capacity	40,043
Chairman	Eduardo Silva Meluk
Manager	Leonel Álvarez
League	Categoría Primera A
2015	2nd
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Deportivo Independiente Medellín, also known as DIM, is a professional Colombian football team based in Medellín, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Atanasio Girardot stadium.

Medellín has won the national league known as Categoría Primera A five times: in 1955, 1957, 2002-II, 2004-I and 2009-II. Its best performance at international level was in 2003, when the team achieved the third place in the Copa Libertadores de América.

Rivalries

Medellín's greatest rival is with the city's other major club Atlético Nacional, with whom they share the home stadium Atanasio Girardot. The team is dubbed "El Poderoso de la Montaña" or the powerful of the mountain due to Medellín's geographical location high in the Andean mountains. The rivalry is especially strong due to each team's main support club, Rexixtenxia Norte for Medellín and Los Del Sur for Atlético Nacional. The two clubs are named with the location that they occupy in the stadium where Rexixtenxia occupies the section behind the northern goal and Los Del Sur occupy the section behind the southern goal.

In 2004 Medellín and Nacional classified to the final of the Mustang Cup; in Antioquia everybody was very excited because this was the first "Paisa" final of the history of the short tournaments. This system requires 2 games to be the champion, in the first game, Medellín won 2–1 with a goal of Rafael Castillo in the 87 minute after the goals of Jorge Serna (DIM) and Carlos "Chumi" Alvarez in the first half. The final game was in the 27 June, and it ended 0–0 and Medellín became the champion of the Colombian National League.

Controversies

Medellín won its third league title after 45 years of agony. However, there were two seasons where Medellín had the title within its reach only to lose it amid great controversy. From its foundation until 2002, the Colombian First Division League had adopted a league format commonly used in European leagues. The format was a year-long tournament where the team at then end of the year in best standing was declared the winner. This format was changed in 2002 to an Apertura-Clausura format where two separate seasons are played during the year to determine two winners. In 1993 during the last game of the year, Medellín and Atlético Junior were fighting for a tight first place. Junior was playing América de Cali at home in Baranquilla while simultaneously Medellín played hometown rivals Atlético Nacional. The games were to start and end at the same time. A Medellín win with a Junior loss or draw would have given Medellín the title. Medellín beat Nacional 1–0 while awaiting the 2–2 game in Baranquilla to end. Medellín players were celebrating with a victory lap and giving interviews with reporters waiting for the final whistle in Baranquilla. After Oswaldo Mackenzie to score an extremely late goal (45 minutes and 5 seconds of the second half) giving Junior the win 3–2 and the title. This was not the first time Medellín had a heartbreaking season, in 1989 a year where Medellín had one the best teams in the league and was expected to win the title but Junior with legendary players such as Valderrama, Mackenzie, Pacheco and Valenciano. A tragic event occurred in Colombian soccer. During the final games of the season, Medellín tied América de Cali 0–0 at home. During the game, the linesman Álvaro Ortega made a mistake and annulled a Medellín goal. Afterwards, a Medellín sympathizer hunted down the linesman and assassinated him. In response, the Colombian Soccer Federation decided to cancel the rest of the season leaving the 1989 league without a winner.

Honours

Amateur

• Copa Jimenez Jaramillo (1): 1923^[3]
• Campeonato Nacional (7): 1918, 1920, 1922, 1930, 1936, 1937, 1938^[3]
• Campeonato Departamental (8): 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 y 1945^[3]

National Honours

Official national tournaments

• Categoría Primera A (5): 1955, 1957, 2002-II, 2004-I, 2009-II
• Copa Colombia (1): 1981
• Runner-up Categoría Primera A (9): 1959, 1961, 1966, 1993, 2001, 2008-II, 2012-II, 2014-ll, 2015-I
• Runner-up Copa Colombia (1): 1955–56.

Friendly Tournaments

• Copa Club Unión: 1942^[4]
• Triangular ‘Trofeo Coltejer’: 1955^[5]
• Torneo "Medellín sin tugurios": 1983^[6]
• Copa Montreal (Cánada): 1992
• Copa D. C. United: 1994
• Copa Ciudad de Popayan: 2005
• Copa Gobernación de Antioquia: 2008 y 2010
• Copa del Pacífico: 2009^[7]
• Runner-up Copa Movilco – Gobernación del Meta: 2009
• Runner-up Copa del Pacífico: 2010^[8]

Internationals Participations

• Copa Libertadores de America

1967: First Round

1994: Quarter-finals

2003: Semi-finals (Third Place)

2005: First Round

2009: Second Round

2010: Second Round

• Copa Sudamericana: 0

2006: First Round

• Copa Conmebol: 0

1995: First Round

Players

Current squad

As of 1 February 2016

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 Luis Erney Vásquez 2 DF Hernán Pertúz 3 DF Luis Tipton 4 DF Andrés Mosquera 5 DF Matías Cahais 6 MF Didier Moreno (on loan from Santa Fe) 7 FW Juan David Pérez (on loan from Boyacá Chicó) 8 MF John Hernández 9 FW Juan Fernando Caicedo 10 MF Brayan Angulo 15 MF Cristian Restrepo 16 MF Daniel Torres 17 MF Cristian Marrugo

No. Position Player 20 MF Hernán Hechalar 21 MF Julián Guillermo 22 GK David González 24 FW Charles Monsalvo 25 MF William Arboleda 26 DF Jorge Enrique Arias 27 FW Alfredo Morelos 28 MF William Parra Sinisterra – DF Marlon Piedrahita – MF Johan Arango – MF Mauricio Molina – FW Leonardo Castro

Out on loan

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

No. Position Player – GK Carlos Bejarano (at América) – DF Javier López (at Rionegro Águilas) – DF Jhonny Mena (at Depor)

No. Position Player – DF Lewis Ochoa (at Millonarios) – MF Javier Calle (at New York City) – MF Víctor Moreno (at Depor)

Top scorers

As of 16 August 2015^[9]

No.	Name	Goals	Country
1	José Vicente Grecco	92
2	Carlos Castro	90
3	Felipe Marino	77
4	Jorge Serna	75
5	Diego Álvarez	69
6	Uriel Cadavid	65
7	Perfecto Rodríguez	64
8	Jackson Martinez	56
9	Jaime Castrillón	55
10	Germán Cano	52

Most games played

As of 16 August 2015^[9]

No.	Name	Games	Country
1	Héctor Echeverri	457
2	Ricardo Calle	418
3	Roberto Carlos Cortés	351
4	Ponciano Castro	342
5	John Restrepo	335
6	José Zárate	318
7	Álvaro Escobar	315
8	Carlos Alberto Castro	283
9	Uriel Cadavid	277
10	Jaime Castrillón	276

Managers

Presidents ^[3]

References

1. ↑ http://www.elcolombiano.com/al-final-al-rojo-paisa-le-faltaron-ideas-y-goles-1-LM952782
2. ↑ http://www.rcn.com.co/locales/noticias/todo-esta-listo-en-medellin-para-la-final-entre-el-poderoso-de-la-montana-y-el
3. 1 2 3 4 "DEPORTIVO INDEPENDIENTE MEDELLÍN ,EL PODEROSO", es una publicación de El Colombiano Ltda. en Cia SCA.
4. ↑ Medellín ganó la Copa Club Unión (Spanish)
5. ↑ Fernando Paternoster primer técnico campeón con Nacional (Spanish)
6. ↑ Torneos amistosos en RSSSF (Spanish)
7. ↑ DIM se llevó la Copa del Pacífico – CRE Satelital Ecuador (Spanish)
8. ↑ http://www.santafecd.net/Prensa/Centro_de_Prensa/Noticias/El_clasico_de_rojos_y_la_Copa_Movilco_fue_para_Santa_Fe_269-52168.html (Spanish)
9. 1 2

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Corporación Deportiva Independiente Medellín.

• Official website