El Invierno Azul, 1990-1996

Lore & Background

Cruz Azul was founded in the late 1920s in Jasso, Hidalgo, where cement company Cooperativa La Cruz Azul fostered a connection with football. Carlos Garcés López, a footballer and dentist employed by the cooperative, advocated for football over baseball. A referendum on 22 March 1927 selected football, and the team was formally established on 22 May 1927. The club won 15 consecutive league titles in a local amateur league between 1932 and 1943. In 1961, the club was granted official registration as a professional club after competing in the Copa de la Segunda División. Cruz Azul earned promotion to the Primera División in the 1963–64 season.

Reader's Guide

The club achieved a continental treble in the 1968–69 season by winning the Primera División, Copa México and CONCACAF Champions' Cup, becoming the first CONCACAF club and third worldwide to accomplish this feat, and later the first club worldwide—and one of only five—to have won the continental treble twice. Domestically, the club has won ten league titles, four Copa MX, four Campeón de Campeones, and holds the joint-record with one Supercopa de la Liga MX and one Supercopa MX. In international competitions, with seven titles, the club holds the joint-record for the most successful club in the history of the CONCACAF Champions Cup/Champions League. Cruz Azul also holds the record for the most league runner-up finishes (12), and was the first team from CONCACAF to reach the final of the Copa Libertadores.

Did You Know?

• The club's first manager was Carlos Garcés López, who had previously played for América and Mexico's national team.
• In 1931, workers of the cooperative took ownership of the plant after a legal battle, reestablishing it as a cooperative in 1934.
• The club was named the 71st-best club in the world and the highest-ranked in CONCACAF for the 2025 calendar year by the IFFHS in 2026.