Liga MX 1987

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. 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.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at the Estadio Jalisco hummed to life on a humid Guadalajara evening, the kind where the air over the Sierra Madre de Occidente hangs thick and the pitch glistens. The Chivería—thousands of red-and-white shirts packed into the stands—drummed a rhythm that you felt in your chest before you heard it. A corner kick swung in. The ball hung in the amber light. A header, a scramble, a thud against the net. The stadium detonated. Strangers embraced in the lower tier. On the touchline, the coach simply raised both fists, said nothing, and let the roar fill the silence. Somewhere in the crowd, a father lifted his daughter onto his shoulders so she could see the players sprinting in a huddle, red bibs flashing, and she would remember that night for the rest of her life. That was 1987. That was Chivas.

Reader's Guide

The club's most dominant era was 'El Campeonísimo' (1955–1970), during which it won seven league championships, two cups, three CONCACAF titles and seven Champion of Champions titles, and became the only team in Mexico's football history to win four league championships in a row (1958–59, 1959–60, 1960–61, and 1961–62). After a lean period in the 1970s and early 1980s, the team recovered in the mid-1980s. The source does not specify the exact years of league titles won after the Campeonísimo era, but notes that the club has won twelve Liga MX titles overall.

Did You Know?

• Chivas is the only football club in Mexico that does not sign foreign or naturalized players unless they are of Mexican descent.
• The club's nickname 'Chivas' originated from the name 'Chivas Locas' (Crazy Goats) given during a 1948–49 game against Tampico, initially meant as an insult but later adopted by the team.
• According to a 2016 study, Guadalajara was the most popular Mexican club, with 44.2% of supporters in the country.
• In 2020, Forbes estimated the club was the most valuable in Liga MX, worth approximately $311.5 million.