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Club Deportivo Guadalajara, often simply known as Guadalajara and by their nickname Chivas ("Goats"), is a Mexican professional football club based in the Guadalajara metropolitan area, Jalisco, Mexico. The team competes in the Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football. Guadalajara is one of the ten founding members of the Primera División (Liga MX) and is one of seven teams that have never been relegated.

Guadalajara have played their home matches at Estadio Akron in Zapopan since 2010, having previously played at Estadio Jalisco. Guadalajara is the only football club in Mexico that does not sign foreign players. 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. The team's three colors (red, white, and blue) symbolize "Fraternity, Union, and Sports". The team adopted the colors that linked them back to their founder's hometown, Bruges. Chivas supporters use a flag identical to the French flag to support their team.

Chivas is one of Mexico's most successful teams with 12 league titles, and holds the league record for the longest winning streak at the beginning of a season, with 8 consecutive wins. Internationally, Guadalajara has won two CONCACAF Champions Cup/League titles, and is the best Mexican side to compete in Copa Libertadores having reached the semifinals twice (2005 and 2006) and being runner-ups in the 2010 edition.

According to a 2016 study of preferred football clubs Guadalajara is the most popular team in Mexico, with 44.1% 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.

Early history


The team was founded by Edgar Everaert, who arrived in Mexico in 1906. Their kit was modeled on that of the founder's favourite team, the Belgian Club Brugge K.V., borrowing the vertical stripes and colour scheme of the Brugge strip in that era (Brugge has since changed their team colours). Some historians assert that the colours came from the French Tricolour because some of the club's first players were French. The first team comprised Mexican, Belgian, and French players. First named "Union" because of the camaraderie between the players of different nationalities, most of whom were employees of the Fábricas de Francia store, with founder Everaert as coach. A few Spanish and English also became members of the Unión Football Club.

On a tour of Europe, Everaert noticed that European teams named after their respective town or city seemed to generate more support from fans in their communities. So, in 1908, with the approval of Everaert and the players, Club de Futbol Union was renamed as Club Deportivo Guadalajara to engender a sense of loyalty within the city's population. In 1908, it was also decided that the team would only field Mexican-born players because of the growing sense of oppression Mexican nationals felt towards non-Mexican nationals. Following the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution, amateur football tournaments throughout the country flourished and Guadalajara was always involved. Between 1906 and 1943 (the amateur era of Mexican football and the Primera Fuerza), Guadalajara won 13 amateur titles, the first in 1908. Also during this period, the oldest rivalry in Mexican football began to form, between Guadalajara and America.

Professional Era "El Ya Merito" (1943–1953)
In 1943 the Liga Mayor was founded after the merging of several regional leagues and the era of professional football began. Guadalajara struggled during the early years, with the exception of the 1948–49 season when they finished third. This same year Guadalajara was given the name "Chivas Locas" (Crazy Goats) during a game against Atlas. The name was initially considered an insult, but later adopted as the team's nickname due to the overwhelming popularity of the club. During the 1951–52 and 1954–55 seasons, the team finished as runner-up in the league, leading to the nickname "Ya Merito" ("Almost There!").

El Campeonísimo (1955–1970)
During the 1956 season, players such as Salvador "Chava" Reyes, Jaime "El Tubo" Gomez, Isidoro Díaz, and José Villegas were part of what is considered one of the finest teams in Mexican football history, El Campeonísimo. Guadalajara won its first championship during this season due to a last minute goal scored by Salvador Reyes. Led by coaches such as Donaldo "Pato" Ross and Javier de la Torre in subsequent years, the team won seven league championships, two cups, three CONCACAF titles and seven Champion of Champions titles. It was the only team in Mexico's football history to win four league championships in a row, during the 1958–59, 1959–60, 1960–61, and 1961–62 seasons. El Campeonísimo became internationally recognized and, in 1964 played several matches in Europe against such teams as FC Barcelona, Werder Bremen, and Lille Olympique, resulting in two victories, four draws and four losses for the team.

The Dark Era (1971–1983)
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Guadalajara struggled. In the 1970–71 season, the team finished very close to the relegation zone. The best they could manage to reach was the play-offs twice, with a fifth-place finish in 1971–72 and a sixth-place finish in 1976–77. They began to be nicknamed "Las Chivas Flacas" (The Lean Goats), due to their lean athletic performances. During the 1980–81 season, on 14 February 1981, the bus transporting the team to a match in Puebla was hit by a trailer, taking the life of midfielder Jose "Pepe" Martínez. During 1980–81 season, the team reached a third-place ranking. Eleven years after their near-relegation in 1971, Guadalajara managed to escape it yet again in the 1981–82 season by just one point.

Recovery (1983–1991)
Improvement came soon after the hiring of coach Alberto Guerra, who had been a player for Guadalajara during the mid '60s. During the 1982–83 season, Guadalajara finished seventh in the league and qualified for the playoffs, going on to eliminate Atlante F.C. in quarter-finals and Club América in Semifinals. The team reached the finals for the first time since the playoff format was introduced in the '70s, where they would go on to lose to Puebla F.C. in a penalty shootout. Guadalajara would once again reach the Finals in 1983–84, only to lose to America by an aggregate score of 5–4. The club would continue being competitive the rest of the '80s and early '90s., with their very best performance in the 1986–87 season, where they would finish 1st in the regular season and win the Championship against Cruz Azul in the final. Their best players during this time were Benjamín Galindo, Eduardo de la Torre, José Manuel de la Torre, Fernando Quirarte, and Javier Aguirre among others.

"La Promotora" Era (1992–2002)
By the end of the 1980s, Guadalajara began to experience financial troubles. Team directors decided to create a special financial sector that would be known as La Promotora Deportiva. The team would be "sold" for 10 years starting in 1992 to a petroleum executive named Salvador Martinez Garza, who would be in charge of the Promotora and of team operations. Before Guadalajara began its new era under the Promotora, the team began the 1990s in average form, reaching the Semifinals in 90–91, reaching the Quarterfinals in 91–92, and finishing in thirteenth place in 92–93.

The new directors decided to bring back Guadalajara's champion coach of the 1986–87 season Alberto Guerra and purchase many players that would become icons for Guadalajara in the early '90s: Missael Espinoza, Alberto "Guamerú" Garcia, and Alberto Coyote. The team also relied on young talent from the youth academy. Such talent included Paulo Cesar "Tilon" Chavez and Joel "Tiburon" Sanchez. At the beginning of the 93–94 season, the press and fans dubbed the new and improved team Las Superchivas. However, despite expectations, the team was eliminated early on in the playoffs. The 94–95 season would bring about more change for the team. The club directors sold all television rights of the team to Mexican giant Televisa, a move that was heavily criticized by fans because of Televisa's ownership of Club América. Guadalajara would end the 1993–1994 regular season as the leader in the league table, but was narrowly defeated by Club Necaxa in the Semifinals. The 96–97 season saw the exit of coach Alberto Guerra, being replaced by the Dutchman Leo Beenhakker. The team failed to make the playoffs that season.

By 1996, the Primera División de México season format would be changed to two short seasons per year. The first of the seasons, [[Primera