Carlos A. Mannucci

Carlos A. Mannucci, known simply as Mannucci, is a professional football club based in Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru. The club is the most important in the city having represented Trujillo in the first division of Peruvian football in multiple occasions since the late 1960s. Its greatest accomplishment are its back-to-back Copa Perú championships and the three Regional Championships of Peru, Northern Zone (1985, 1987, 1991-I). The club has a long rivalry with Alfonso Ugarte, and matches between the two teams are known as El Clásico Trujillano. In recent years, it has also developed a rivalry against the other professional club in the city, Universidad César Vallejo.

Establishment
Carlos A. Mannucci was founded as a multi-sport club on November 16, 1959 at the request of a group of female volleyball players that had until then been sponsored by Trujillo's Victor Lazarte Hospital. They requested the patronage of local businessman Carlos José Mannucci Vega and his mother Laura Vega de Mannucci who created the club in honor of their late father and husband Carlos Alberto Mannucci Finochetti.

The club first competed in local volleyball and basketball competitions with funding from the Carlos A. Mannucci Company. Eventually the club started participating in local football competitions after buying the spot of Club Mariscal Ramón Castilla. Its first season of competition was 1967.

Back-to-back Copa Perú titles
Just a year later, Los Carlistas reached the 1968 Copa Perú final in Lima and obtained promotion to the first division that same year. The last game on the final group stage was against Melgar from Arequipa. It defeated the Arequipa-side by 1–0 with a goal by Carlos Avalos.

The club's first spell on the top flight was short-lived as relegation during the 1968 Torneo Descentralizado consisted of one club from Lima and one from outside Lima. Out of the four provincial teams, Mannucci finished last in ninth place and was thus relegated back to the Copa Perú. The highlight of that campaign was a victory on the road against tournament favorites Alianza Lima by 1–2. Curiously, that game was played at Alianza Lima's rivals' stadium, Estadio Teodoro Lolo Fernández.

Their time away from the first division was short. Mannucci, with Paraguayan Miguel Ortega as coach defeated Melgar by 2–0 to win the 1969 Copa Perú, with goals from Jorge García and Alejandro Zevallos.

National tournaments
They were one of the eight teams added to the national top-level for the 1974 season. They won the Regional (Norte) stage of the national championship in 1985, 1987, and 1991 (first tournament).

The club's final relegation would come in 1994. The relegation battle would play until the last match-day. Cienciano managed a scoreless draw against Unión Minas which gave it an extra point over the Trujillo-side which earlier that day defeated Melgar, with two goals by Fabían Arias, but wasn't able to avoid relegation.

Relevant Copa Perú campaigns
Los Grifos were not able to obtain promotion since 1994 participating in the Copa Perú for most of the 1990s and all of the 2000s. While the team was always strong enough to overcome the local Trujillo district and provincial leagues, it found itself at an impasse in the Regional stage of the tournament which it was unable to overcome some nine times.

The club's best season of all its years in the Copa Perú was the 2009 season under the leadership of club president Daniel Salaverry. That year Mannucci overcame the Regional stage by defeating Ramón Castilla, Deportivo Municipal de San Ignacio, and Unión Tarapoto in group B. Its biggest challenge was San Francisco de Asis in the Round of 16. The first leg was for San Francisco de Asis which defeated Mannucci in Trujillo by 1–0. The second leg was played in Bagua. At the 75th minute, Juan Paico scored in a very even match. Two minutes later Luis Noriega scored a second to give the Trujillo-side the advantage necessary to move on to the quarter-finals.

Second Division spell
Carlos A. Mannucci did not reach the Copa Perú national stage again for another five years until 2013. It defeated Unión Deportiva Chulucanas in the Round of 16 but was unable to overcome Willy Serrato in the quarterfinals. Yet because of the team's great performance that season, it was invited to participate in the Second Division tournament for the first time in its history.

The club finished in 3rd place with 56 points in the 2014 season. It was deducted three points because it showed political advertisement for politician Joaquín Ramírez.

2018 Promotion to the First Division
The Peruvian Football Federation took control of the local domestic league from the Professional Football Sports Association, the tournament organizers, in 2018 and announced that the Peruvian first division tournament would be re-branded for 2019. With this re-branding, the tournament was expand from 16 to 18 teams. At the beginning of the 2018 season, it was announced that the teams that finished 2nd and 3rd in the bottom two tiers of the Peruvian football league system would compete on the promotion play-offs at the end of the year to decide which two teams would receive the expansion slots.

Kits and crest
The first kit worn by Carlos A. Mannucci consisted of a black jersey and black shorts without any markings or crest. This style was used approximately until 1968. Since then the team's kits have been blue with white and red highlights which represent the colors of the city of Trujillo. The team's away kit is predominantly white with blue and red highlights.

Stadium
Their home stadium is Estadio Mansiche, which has a capacity of 25,036. They share the stadium with rivals Club Universidad César Vallejo. The stadium is part of the Mansiche Sports Complex and has hosted multiple events, most notably the 2004 Copa América, 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship. It was also the primary venue for the 2013 Bolivarian Games.

Current squad
As of 31 January, 2024

League

 * Cuadrangular de Ascenso:
 * Winners (1): 2018
 * Peruvian Segunda División:
 * Runner-up (1): 2018
 * Copa Perú:
 * Winners (2): 1968, 1969

National Cup

 * Copa Bicentenario:
 * Runner-up (1): 2021

Regional

 * Región II:
 * Winners (4): 1968, 1969, 1973, 2009
 * Runner-up (1): 2013
 * Liga Departamental de La Libertad: 
 * Winners (10): 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1982, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2010, 2012
 * Runner-up (6): 1982, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013
 * Liga Provincial de Trujillo: 
 * Winners (5): 1968, 1973, 1982, 1996, 2000, 2008
 * Runner-up (5): 2002, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2013
 * Liga Distrital de Trujillo: 
 * Winners (11): 1967, 1973, 1980, 1982, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013
 * Runner-up (3): 1965, 1981, 2009

Performance in CONMEBOL competitions

 * Copa Sudamericana: 1 appearance
 * 2021: First Stage

Women’s football

 * Liga Femenina: 
 * Runner-up (1): 2022

Managers

 * 🇵🇪 Julio César Uribe (1993-1994)
 * 🇵🇪 José Fernández Santini (1994)
 * 🇵🇪 Juan Caballero (1994)
 * 🇵🇪 Luis Pau (1994)
 * 🇦🇷 Sergio Pereyra (1994)
 * César Cubilla (1994-1995)
 * 🇵🇪 Fernando Cuéllar (1995)
 * 🇦🇷 Sergio Pereyra (1996)
 * 🇵🇪 Ramón Mifflin (1996)
 * 🇵🇪 Jorge Jaramillo (1996-1997)
 * 🇵🇪 Ramón Mifflin (1997)
 * 🇵🇪 Miguel Ángel Guzmán (1997)
 * 🇵🇪 Dagoberto Olivares (1998)
 * 🇵🇪 Carlos García (1998)
 * 🇵🇪 Ramón Mifflin (1998-1999)
 * 🇵🇪 Carlos Delgado (1999-2000)
 * 🇵🇪 Óscar Villalobos (2000)
 * 🇵🇪 Salomón Paredes (2001)
 * 🇦🇷 Mario Villegas (2002)
 * 🇵🇪 Alejandro Mallqui (2003)
 * 🇦🇷 Héctor Arias (2003-2004)
 * 🇦🇷 Miguel Ángel Fullana (2004)
 * 🇵🇪 Pedro Cruz (2005-2006)
 * 🇵🇪 Carlos Delgado (2007)
 * 🇵🇪 Rufino Bernales (2008)
 * 🇵🇪 Roberto Arrelucea (2009)
 * 🇵🇪 Rufino Bernales (2010)
 * 🇦🇷 🇵🇪 Horacio Baldessari (2011)
 * 🇵🇪 Christian Muñoz (2012)
 * 🇵🇪 Ramón Mifflin (2012)
 * 🇵🇪 Eusebio Salazar (2013)
 * 🇵🇪 Roberto Arrelucea (2013-2014)
 * 🇵🇪 José Soto (2014-2015)
 * 🇵🇪 Mitchell Silva (2015)
 * 🇵🇪 Carlos Delgado (2015)
 * 🇵🇪 Elke Cárdenas (2015)
 * 🇵🇪 Julio García (2015-2016)
 * 🇵🇪 Juan Carlos Cabanillas (2016)
 * 🇵🇪 Teddy Cardama (2016-2017)
 * 🇵🇪 Rafael Castillo (2017)
 * 🇵🇪 José Soto (2018-2019)
 * Pablo Peirano (2019)
 * 🇦🇷 Juan Manuel Llop (2020)
 * Pablo Peirano (2020-2021)
 * 🇲🇽 Enrique Maximiliano Meza (2021-2022)
 * Mario Saralegui (2022)
 * 🇵🇪 Óscar Gambetta (2022)
 * 🇦🇷 Jorge Pautasso (2022)
 * Mario Viera (2023)