Club Atlético Colón

For other football clubs, see Colón.

Colón

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Full name	Club Atlético Colón
Nickname(s)	Los Sabaleros
Founded	5 May 1905
Ground	Estadio B.G. Estanislao López, (Cementerio de los Elefantes), 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 5 May 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. 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 9 July 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. 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.

File:Colon 1965.jpg

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 6 May 1966. After the first season in the top level Colón finished 16th, 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.

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. In December 1997 Colón defeated Independiente 1–0 to qualify for the Copa Libertadores 1998.

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.

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.

Honours

National

• Primera B: 1965
• Copa de Honor de Primera B – "Juan Domingo Perón": 1950

Regional

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

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 20 April, 2016 (edit)
Sources: [1]

No. Position Player 1 ARG GK Jorge Broun 2 ARG DF Santiago Villafañe 3 ARG DF Clemente Rodríguez 4 ARG DF Luis Castillo 5 ARG MF Gerónimo Poblete 6 ARG MF Franco Leys 7 ARG MF Diego Lagos 8 ARG MF Luis Garnier 9 ARG FW Pablo Vegetti (on loan from Gimnasia) 10 ARG MF Alan Ruiz (on loan from San Lorenzo) 11 ARG MF Federico Ruiz 12 ARG GK Ignacio Chicco 13 ARG DF Lucas Landa 14 ARG DF Pablo Cuevas 15 ARG FW Nicolás Silva 16 ARG MF Victor Figueroa (on loan from Newell's Old Boys)

No. Position Player 17 COL FW Cristian Palomeque (on loan from Atlético Nacional) 18 ARG MF Mauricio Sperduti (on loan from Cerro Porteño) 19 ARG MF Adrián Bastía 21 ARG GK Andrés Bailo 22 ARG FW Franco Mazurek 23 ARG DF Cristian Saín 24 ARG FW Santiago Biglieri 25 ARG MF Mateo Hernandez 26 ARG MF Federico Boasso 27 ARG MF Pablo Ledesma 29 PAR DF Ismael Benegas (on loan from Club Libertad) 30 ARG DF Germán Conti 31 ARG DF Raúl Iberbia 33 ARG DF Osvaldo Barsottini 35 ARG GK Andrés Mehring

Manager: Dario Franco

Managers

• Ondino Viera (1969)
• Enzo Trossero (1995–97)
• Jorge Fossati (2001–02)
• Gerardo Martino (2005)
• José del Solar (2005)
• Julio César Toresani (2006)
• Julio César Falcioni (2006–07)
• Leonardo Astrada (2007–08)
• Antonio Mohamed (2008–10)
• Fernando Gamboa (2010–11?)
• Mario Sciaqua (2011?–12)
• Roberto Sensini (2012–13)
• Rubén Forestello (2013)
• Diego Osella (2014)

External links

• Official Site (Spanish)