Chivas vs Toluca: Jalisco Derby

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 team's nickname 'Chivas Locas' originated during a game against Tampico in the 1948–49 season, initially considered an insult but later adopted due to the club's popularity.

In Their Own Story

The bus pulls into the parking lot and the noise hits before the sight does — a wall of sound rolling off the concrete, the bass thrum of a hundred thousand voices chanting in unison. A young Chivero, maybe nineteen, clutches his scarf in both hands and stares up at the stands. His grandfather used to come to Estadio Jalisco in the old days, back when the seats were wooden and the floodlights made everything look like a painting. Now the stadium is modern, the seats are plastic, but the noise is the same. It is always the same. It is the sound of Guadalajara saying *we are still here, we are still fighting, and tonight Toluca will remember why you do not cross this line.*

He presses his forehead against the cold glass of the bus window and watches the Toluca bus pull in the other direction. Red. Always red. He swallows hard, feels the white-and-red of his own shirt pressed against his chest like a second skin, and whispers the words his grandfather taught him. The bus doors open. The roar swallows him whole. And for ninety minutes, the state of Jalisco belongs to no one but the players on the pitch and the people in the stands who will carry this memory into their bones for the rest of their lives.

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 (cantera) players. Domestically, it 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. 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.

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 in the league, worth approximately $311.5 million.
• The club's founder, Edgar Everaert, arrived in Mexico in 1906 and first named the team 'Unión' due to camaraderie among players of different nationalities.
• The club's first match was against Gimnasio Atlético Occidental, coached by member Rafael Orozco.