FBC Melgar

Foot Ball Club Melgar, known simply as FBC Melgar or Melgar, is a Peruvian professional football club based in Arequipa, Peru. It is one of Peru's oldest football teams, founded in 1915 by a group of football enthusiasts from Arequipa. The club currently plays in the Peruvian Primera División, the top tier of Peruvian football.

The team first participated in the Peruvian football league in 1919 in Lima and later was invited to the first true National football league, the Torneo Descentralizado, in 1966, when four teams from the provinces were invited to join the league. Joining them were Atlético Grau from Piura, Club Octavio Espinoza from Ica and Alfonso Ugarte from Trujillo. Previously, only teams from Lima and Callao had been allowed to compete for the national championship. Due to a low finish the first year, Melgar was dropped from the league after the first year. After winning the Copa Perú they returned to the First Division where they have remained to this day. Melgar won the Torneo Descentralizado for the first time in 1981. In the 1983 season the club finished first in the First Stage and at the end the top six teams played a play-off tournament to determine the year's champion, which Melgar finished in second.

FBC Melgar plays its home games at the Estadio Mariano Melgar, but since the Estadio de la UNSA was built in 1990 with a capacity of 60,370, it has used both. In recent years, Melgar have been considered the fourth best team in Peru.

History
FBC Melgar was founded on 25 March 1915 as Juventud Melgar by a group of young football fans in Arequipa. The name was chosen in honor of the poet Mariano Melgar. The club would take part in their first championship in 1918, the Liga Provincial de Arequipa. In 1919, the club travled to Lima to participate in friendlies where their performance was widespread across the city. Melgar won their first title in the 1921 Liga Distrital de Arequipa, defeating Independencia. They would win the championship again in 1923, 1925 and 1926. They later would be champions of Arequipa in 1928.

In 1930, Melgar would begin a tour across Chile, being their first international appearance. Their debut would be against Valparaíso which resulted in a draw. They would later meet again which resulted in a 5–0 loss. Melgar would later play against clubs such as Colo-Colo, Audax Italiano, Coquimbo, and Antofagasta. A year later, the Bolivian club Club Bolívar would visit Arequipa to play matches with the local clubs and clubs of nearby Mollendo. Melgar faced Bolivar and won for the first time against a foreign club. The win resulted in a rivalry between the two clubs. In the same decade, changes were made on the football of Arequipa, some of which reduced the amount of teams participated in the Primera Division and relegations. Melgar suffered from these reforms, not winning any titles and were relegated to the Segunda Division of Arequipa. They missed promotion in 1933 to Deportivo Ciclón. In the same years, Melgar sparked a rivalry with another club in Arequipa known as FBC Aurora. In 1939, Melgar got promoted back to the first division but did not win any titles. The club was relegated to the Arequipa second division again in 1957, where it stayed for four years until it defeated Independiente de Miraflores where it got promoted back to the first division. They would go on to win the Liga Distrital de Arequipa in 1962, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970. They were also champions of the Liga Departamental de Arequipa for 3 consecutive years since 1967 and won the Copa Perú in 1971. This championship allowed them to return to the First Division Campeonato Descentralizado where they currently remain.

Melgar won the National Championship in 1981 for the first time,  and Melgar was the runner-up of the national championship in 1983. They would beat giants such as Alianza Lima, Universitario and Sporting Cristal in the final. It was the first southern team of Peru to win the national championship. In both these years this qualified them to play in the Copa Libertadores of 1982 and 1984, where they got eliminated in the Group stage in both editions. In 2014, Juan Reynoso, who came from México, was appointed as the new manager. He signed players like Piero Alva, Nelinho Quina, Minzum Quina, Luis Hernández, Alejandro Hohberg, Lampros Kontogiannis and Edgar Villamarín to make an impressive campaign where Melgar was the best team during the whole season finishing 1st in the accumulated table, but due to some bad results in the final matches and the poor organization of the tournament they weren't able to dispute the Play-off for the championship and only qualified for the Copa Sudamericana, where there was an intense match with Deportivo Pasto, winning by four goals in the first game, but lost by five in the second, being eliminated in the qualifying round.

In 2015, the year of Melgar's centenary, and still with Reynoso as the manager, the team signed important players like Raúl Ruidíaz, Carlos Ascues, Johnnier Montaño, Rainer Torres and Daniel Ferreyra to make an impressive team and fight for the title. Then, Melgar won the national championship, besting Sporting Cristal with a score in the final minute by Bernardo Cuesta. As a result, they classified for the 2016 Copa Libertadores, and again in 2017, 2018, and 2019. In ally editions, they were eliminated in the second stage. Melgar classified for the 2022 Copa Sudamericana, which would be their best performance in an international competition. They were able to qualify for the Group stage after defeating rivals Cienciano in the qualifying round. They topped their group and went on to the Round of 16 and Quarter-finals, defeating large South american clubs such as Deportivo Cali of Colombia and SC Internacional of Brazil. They were then eliminated in the Semi-finals by Independiente del Valle of Ecuador. In the 2022 season, Melgar won the Torneo Aperture, classifying for the semi-finals, defeating Sporting Cristal and advancing to the final. They would meet Alianza Lima in the final, winning 1–0 at home but lost 2–0 away and lost the final. They would classify for the 2023 Copa Libertadores as a result and got eliminated in the Group stage. Melgar would again classify for the 2024 Copa Libertadores but were eliminated by debuting club Aurora from Bolivia, (not to be confused with Melgar rivals FBC Aurora) losing 2–1 on aggregate.

Stadium
Melgar plays most of their home games at Estadio Monumental Virgen de Chapi, also known as Estadio Monumental de la UNSA, or simply Estadio de la UNSA, but also plays at their second stadium, Estadio Mariano Melgar. Estadio de la UNSA was constructed in 1991 with a capacity of 60,370 by the National University of San Agustín, making it the second largest stadium in Peru. The stadium has hosted many tournaments, such as the 2004 Copa América, and the second leg of the 2003 Copa Sudamericana final, where Cienciano, another Peruvian club, won the tournament. Cienciano played at the stadium until their own Estadio Garcilaso was renovated. It was also going to be a venue for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup where Peru was initially hosts. The Peru national football team occasionally plays at the stadium.

Estadio Mariano Melgar, also known as Estadio de Cuarto Centenario, was Melgars first stadium and was built in 1954. The stadium is named after Mariano Melgar, a Peruvian poet and patriot. It has a capacity of 15,000 and is home to various clubs in Arequipa along with Melgar. It hosted the 2001 South American U-17 Championship along with Estadio Monumental de la UNSA where it was held in Arequipa. The stadium, along with Estadio de la UNSA, also has a running track for track and field events.

Supporters
Melgar is the largest and most popular team in Arequipa. Among all the other teams in Peru, Melgar is ranked fifth in strongest fanbase of the Peruvian Primera División along with rivals Cienciano of Cusco, in 2020. In 2017, the team was ranked number one in all of Peru, surpassing giants Alianza Lima and Universitario through digital fanbase. To find out the information, researchers found out and used the Cyber Hinchada 2017 and conducted a survey, where there are three factors that determine a teams fanbase, that being the number of likes, comments and posts, percentage of growth in followers, and the total number of followers, having a weight of 50%, 30% and 20% respectively. This was mostly contributed by Melgars second place in the 2017 season and win in 2015. Currently, the team is ranked fourth in terms of the largest fan base in 2023, after Alianza Lima, Universitario, and Sporting Cristal.

The team is nicknamed El Dominó, The Domino, which came from the teams iconic red and black shirts.

Rivalries
FBC Melgar has had a long-standing rivalry with Cienciano of Cusco, known as Clásico del sur. Melgars largest win against Cienciano in 1990 where they won 5–0. It is among the largest rivalries in the country. Melgar also has a long-standing rivalry with FBC Aurora, Sportivo Huracán, and FBC Piérola, called the Clásico Arequipeño. The rivalries with the other clubs in Arequipa, are not played much, as the teams are in different leagues.

Other titles
Titles won in lower divisions:

Performance in CONMEBOL competitions
A = appearances, P = matches played, W = won, D = drawn, L = lost, GF = goals for, GA = goals against, DG = difference goals, Pts = points.

Notable players

 * 🇦🇷 Bernardo Cuesta
 * 🇨🇴 Omar Fernández
 * Gustavo Bobadilla
 * 🇵🇪 Eduardo Márquez
 * 🇵🇪 Armando Palacios
 * 🇵🇪 Genaro Neyra
 * 🇵🇪 Ernesto Neyra
 * 🇵🇪 Raúl Obando
 * 🇦🇷 Horacio Orzán
 * 🇵🇪 Walter Zevallos
 * 🇵🇪 Ysrael Zúñiga

Historical list of coaches

 * 🇵🇪 Fernando Cuéllar (1997)
 * 🇵🇪 Freddy Ternero (1998)
 * 🇵🇪 Roberto Mosquera (2004–05)
 * 🇵🇪 Teddy Cardama (1 January 2006 – 31 December 2006)
 * 🇵🇪 Rafael Castillo (2006–07)
 * Gustavo Bobadilla (1 January 2008 – 24 September 2008)
 * (26 August 2008 – 30 August 2009)
 * 🇵🇪 Ernesto Vera (1 August 2009 – 31 December 2009)
 * Luis Flores (1 September 2009 – 20 February 2010)
 * Carlos Manta (5 January 2010 – 26 May 2010)
 * Carlos Jurado (31 May 2010 – 10 December 2010)
 * (1 January 2011 – 16 May 2011)
 * 🇵🇪 Wilmar Valencia (2 May 2011 – 10 January 2012)
 * 🇦🇷 Julio Alberto Zamora (13 December 2011 – 31 December 2012)
 * 🇦🇷 Fabián Marcelo Straccia (1 January 2013 – 11 March 2013)
 * 🇵🇪 Ricardo Medina (interim) (12 March 2013 – 31 March 2013)
 * 🇵🇪 Franco Navarro (1 April 2013 – 7 September 2013)
 * 🇵🇪 Juan Reynoso (8 January 2014 – 1 October 2017)
 * 🇲🇽 Enrique Maximiliano Meza (5 October 2017 – 30 April 2018)
 * 🇨🇴 Hernán Torres (24 May 2018 – 11 December 2018)
 * 🇦🇷 Jorge Pautasso(26 December 2018 – 21 May 2019)
 * 🇦🇷 Diego Osella(14 June 2019 – 27 October 2019)
 * 🇦🇷 Carlos Bustos(2 December 2019 – 24 September 2020)
 * 🇦🇷 Néstor Lorenzo(16 December 2020 – 7 July 2022)
 * 🇦🇷 Pablo Lavallén(3 July 2022 – 6 March 2023)
 * 🇦🇷 Mariano Soso (14 March 2023 – 21 November 2023)
 * 🇦🇷 Pablo de Muner (6 December 2023 – )