Final Invierno 2013 vs América
The Cement Machine of Mexican football.
Club de Futbol Cruz Azul S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Cruz Azul, is a Mexican professional football club based in Mexico City. The club competes in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football, and plays its home matches at Estadio Azteca. Founded in 1927 in Jasso, Hidalgo, as Club Deportivo, Social y Cultural Cruz Azul, A.C., the club relocated to Mexico City in 1971. It was renamed Cruz Azul Fútbol Club, A.C. in 2012, before adopting its current name in 2022. Cruz Azul are one of only seven Mexican clubs to have never been relegated from the top flight.
Quick Facts
- Key player (américa)
- Raúl Jiménez or Moisés Muñoz
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, athlete and dentist employed by the cooperative, advocated for football over baseball, and after a referendum on 22 March 1927, football was selected. The team was formally established on 22 May 1927, with Garcés López as its first manager. In 1931, the cooperative faced financial difficulties during the Great Depression and was acquired by La Tolteca, but 192 workers unionized and sued, eventually assuming control of the plant on 2 November 1931.
The governor of Hidalgo decreed the workers as collective owners on 21 May 1932, and the company reestablished as a cooperative on 29 January 1934. Between 1932 and 1943, Cruz Azul won 15 consecutive league titles in a local amateur league in Hidalgo. 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.
Reader's Guide
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 numerous distinctions, including being the club with the most league runner-up finishes (12), and the first team from CONCACAF to reach the final of the Copa Libertadores.
In 2026, Cruz Azul was named by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics as the 71st-best club in the world and the highest-ranked club in CONCACAF for the 2025 calendar year. Cruz Azul maintains a long-standing rivalry with América, a fixture commonly known as the Clásico Joven. According to several polls, Cruz Azul is the third-most popular team in Mexico, behind only América and Guadalajara. Within the Mexico City metropolitan area, it is generally regarded as the second-most supported club, behind América and ahead of Pumas UNAM. Together, these clubs are considered the Big Four of Mexican football.
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