CONCACAF Champions Cup 2017

Lore & Background

Founded in 1906 as Unión Football Club, the club changed its name to Guadalajara Football Club in 1908, and then changed to its current name in 1923. Nicknamed Chivas, it was one of ten founding members of the first professional and national league in Mexico, named Liga Mayor (current Liga MX). Guadalajara is one of seven Mexican clubs that have never been relegated. Chivas is the only football club in Mexico that does not sign foreign or naturalized players unless they are of Mexican descent. The team has historically relied on home-grown (cantera) players and has been the launching pad of many internationally successful players, including Javier Hernández, Carlos Vela and Carlos Salcido, among others.

In Their Own Story

The bus pulls into the Estadio Omnilife parking lot at 18:40, and the sound hits before the sight does—a low, rolling thunder that is ten thousand voices chanting in unison. A young Chivero, maybe nineteen, presses his face to the bus window and watches the floodlights ignite the roof, turning the stadium into a white-hot cathedral. Inside the tunnel, the dressing room is quiet; the captain runs a hand over the rojiblancos crest on the kit and says nothing, because nothing needs saying. The players step onto the grass and the noise swallows them whole. Somewhere in the upper tier, an old man in a faded 1986 jersey weeps openly, remembering a continental final he watched on a black-and-white television in a Guadalajara apartment. The referee blows the whistle. The match is about to begin. But for the people in that stadium, the match already ended years ago, in 2010, in 2011, in every season where red and white meant that the world belonged to them. Tonight is just another chapter.

Reader's Guide

Domestically, CD Guadalajara is one of the most successful Mexican clubs, winning twelve Liga MX titles, four Copa MX titles, seven Campeón de Campeones and one Supercopa MX, and also holds the league record for the longest winning streak at the beginning of a season, with eight consecutive wins in the Bicentenario 2010. Internationally, it has won two CONCACAF Champions Cup/Champions League titles, and also finished as runners-up in the 2010 Copa Libertadores. According to a study of preferred football clubs in 2016, Guadalajara was the most popular Mexican club, with 44.2% of supporters in the country. In 2020, Forbes estimated that the club was the most valuable of the league, ranking sixth overall in the Americas, worth approximately $311.5 million.

Did You Know?

• The club was founded by a group of Belgian and French immigrants, with Edgar Everaert being one of several key figures.
• Guadalajara won its first championship during the 1956 season due to a last-minute header scored by Salvador Reyes.
• The team was nicknamed 'Chivas Locas' (Crazy Goats) during a game against Tampico in the 1948–49 season.
• Guadalajara is the only Mexican club that has never signed foreign or naturalized players unless they are of Mexican descent.