Liga MX 1957

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 afternoon sun hung low over Estadio Jalisco, casting long amber shadows across the worn grass. The stands were a sea of red and white, thousands of scarves and flags swaying in the dry breeze off the Sierra Madre. The final whistle had only just sounded, and for a heartbeat the noise was a single, sustained roar that shook the concrete. Then the players began to run—not toward the bench, not toward the tunnel, but toward the fans, arms wide, shirts drenched, faces streaked with dirt and joy. A young boy in the lower tier, no more than eight, was lifted onto his father's shoulders and screamed a word he had not known until that moment: *campeón*. Around him, strangers embraced, bottles of cold beer arced through the air, and the red-and-white banner above the goal began to unfurl in the wind. Guadalajara had waited fifty-one years. It had waited long enough.

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?

• Guadalajara won its first league championship during the 1956–57 season (often referred to as 1957), with a header scored by Salvador Reyes in the 89th minute of the final match on January 13, 1957.
• The club won four league championships in a row during the 1958–59, 1959–60, 1960–61, and 1961–62 seasons.
• The team was nicknamed 'Chivas Locas' (Crazy Goats) during a game against Tampico in the 1948–49 season.
• Guadalajara played several matches in Europe in 1964 against teams such as FC Barcelona, Werder Bremen, and Lille Olympique.