Liga MX 2010

Lore & Background

Founded in 1906 as Unión Football Club, the club changed its name to Guadalajara Football Club in 1908, and then 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. Guadalajara is one of seven Mexican clubs that have never been relegated. The club holds the league record for the longest winning streak at the beginning of a season, with eight consecutive wins in the Bicentenario 2010.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at Estadio Omnilife hummed with a low, electric buzz, the kind that settles into your chest before the first kick. The stands were a sea of red and white, scarves snapping in the October night air, and somewhere in the fourth row a grandmother pressed her palms together and whispered a prayer she'd been saying since 1944. The pitch smelled of cut grass and the faint tang of the new artificial turf they'd laid that summer. In the tunnel, the sound of boots on concrete echoed like a slow drumbeat. A young midfielder, no older than twenty, gripped the ball and felt the weight of eleven titles before his—not his own, but the ones stitched into the crest he was about to wear. The referee's whistle split the night. And for ninety minutes, the whole city held its breath, red and white, as one.

Reader's Guide

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 players and has been the launching pad of many internationally successful players, including Javier Hernández, Carlos Vela and Carlos Salcido. Domestically, CD Guadalajara has won twelve Liga MX titles, four Copa MX titles, seven Campeón de Campeones and one Supercopa MX. Internationally, it has won two CONCACAF Champions Cup/Champions League titles, and finished as runners-up in the 2010 Copa Libertadores.

Did You Know?

• 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 of the league, worth approximately $311.5 million.
• The club's nickname 'Chivas' originated from the name 'Chivas Locas' given during a 1948–49 game against Tampico.