El Clásico Tapatío: Chivas vs Atlas
The only Mexican club that fields only players of Mexican descent.
Club Deportivo Guadalajara S.A de C.V., simplified as CD Guadalajara, and also known as Chivas de Guadalajara, is a Mexican professional football club based in the Guadalajara metropolitan area, Jalisco. The club competes in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football, and plays its home matches at Estadio Akron. 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.
- Rivalry name
- El Clásico Tapatío (The Tapatío Derby)
- City / State
- Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
- Chivas founded
- 1906
- Atlas founded
- 1936
- Chivas nickname
- El Rebaño Sagrado (The Holy Flock)
- Atlas nickname
- Los Rojinegros (The Red and Blacks)
- Defining Chivas trait
- Fields only Mexican-born players — a policy unique in world football
Lore & Background
The rivalry with Atlas, known as the Clásico Tapatío, began after Atlas was founded and joined the league, becoming a powerhouse in Tapatío football winning 4 tournaments from 1918 to 1921, with Guadalajara finishing runners-up twice. Guadalajara would win the 1922 tournament as well as in 1923 and 1924, with Atlas finishing runners-up all thrice. The competitiveness and the socioeconomic differences of the clubs created one of the oldest and fiercest rivalries in Mexican football.
In Their Own Story
The bus arrives at the stadium in a murmur of diesel and applause. The Chivería is already a living thing — scarves the colour of the sun, drums that have been passed down from father to son, the smell of elote and copal smoke drifting from the lower tiers. Across the pitch, Atlas fans in their red-and-black stripes raise their own wall of sound, and for a moment the two reds blur into a single, impossible shade of Guadalajara. A grandmother in the third row presses her hand to the railing and whispers a prayer to the Virgen de Guadalupe. Her grandson, seven years old, copies her. The referee's whistle splits the air, and the city, for ninety minutes, belongs to the ball.
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 and has been the launching pad of many internationally successful players, including Javier Hernández, Carlos Vela and Carlos Salcido, among others. 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.
Did You Know?
- 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.
- The club was founded by Edgar Everaert, who arrived in Mexico in 1906.
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