Millonarios F.C.
Millonarios Fútbol Club, known simply as Millonarios, is a Colombian professional football club based in Bogotá, that competes in the Categoría Primera A, top flight of football in Colombia.
It is one of the most successful and iconic clubs in Colombia, making it one of the largest sports entities in the country and one of the most important in South America. The team's origins date back to the 1920s, but it began to be called Los Millonarios in 1937 when its name was Club Deportivo Municipal. It was officially founded on 18 June 1946, as Club Deportivo Los Millonarios, and later as Millonarios Fútbol Club on 20 April 2011, when it was reconstituted as a public limited company. Since 1938, the team has played their home games at Estadio El Campín which currently holds a 36,343 capacity.
Millonarios has participated in the Categoría Primera A since its inception in 1948, being one of only three teams to have participated in all of its tournaments, along with Independiente Santa Fe and Atlético Nacional. Millonarios competes in the Clásico Capitalino against home-town rivals Independiente Santa Fe, Clásico Colombiano with Atlético Nacional and the Clásico Añejo against Deportivo Cali and also has a strong rivalry, under the name of Clásico de las Estrellas with América de Cali.
Millonarios won their first local title in 1949 and shortly afterwards formed a team known as the "Ballet Azul", which was a reference of great importance worldwide during the first part of the 1950s, being considered by various South American and European specialists as the best team in the world when it achieved a large number of triumphs and international achievements of great importance for the time. Alfredo Di Stefano, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, joined Millonarios in 1949 and played for the team until 1953. During this period, Millonarios won the Copa Colombia in 1951 and the Colombian league championship in 1949, 1951, and 1952. Among its accomplishments, the team won the first edition of the Small World Cup of Clubs in 1953, the Golden Wedding Championship against Real Madrid in 1952, which the team won at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, and the Duelo de Campeones Trophies in 1950 and 1951. Their participations at these tournaments gave rise to the team's nickname of "Ambassador" as the club was representing Colombia at these tournaments.
It is the second most successful team in Colombian football with 23 official titles, including national and international championships. The team has won 16 championships in the local Colombian League, 3 Colombian Cup titles, and 2 Colombian Super Cup titles. It also won the Small Club World Cup in 1953, the Copa Simón Bolívar continental championship in 1972 and the last edition of the Copa Merconorte in 2001.
According to the IFFHS, Millonarios is the fourth-best Colombian club of the 20th century and the ninth-best Colombian club of the 21st century. It has been included in lists of the best football clubs of all time made by major international sports media, being the only Colombian team present on them. By CONMEBOL's standards, Millonarios is the third-best Colombian club in international tournaments, with 396.85 points, and ranks 51st in the official ranking of Copa Libertadores clubs. It is recognized by FIFA as one of the Classic Clubs of the World and named by the organization as the First Ambassador of Colombian Football.
History
Foundation
In 1937, a group of students from the private Catholic school Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé, located in Bolivar Square, the historic center of Bogotá, decided to form a football team with the goal of playing against teams from other parts of the city. The team's first matches were played on the grounds of the "La Merced" estate owned by the college at the time, where the current Colegio San Bartolomé la Merced and La Merced neighborhood now stand. Some of the young players wanted to name the team "Unión Juventud", while others preferred "Unión Bogotana". As the team began to gain popular support despite having no official backing, they alternated between the two names for each match. Eventually, they settled on the name "Juventud Bogotana," which combined both names.Within a year, the team had won the hearts of many fans due to their impressive victories. In a surprising turn of events, all of the players, led by their spokesperson Ignacio "Nacho" Izquierdo, were called up to form Colombia's first-ever national team. The team made their debut in February of that year at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Panama City, where they won the bronze medal in a stellar performance. Upon returning from Panama and with the team on the brink of disbandment, Izquierdo saw an opportunity in the upcoming first edition of the Bolivarian Games to be held in Bogotá. He rallied the initial group of players and formed a more structured team, which once again represented the Colombian national team. The Colombian government had hired the team's coach Fernando Paternoster, a former player for the Argentine national team and runner-up in the 1930 FIFA World Cup, to coach Colombia. The team also received support from the city and was acquired by the Municipal Government and Council of Bogotá, receiving economic aid. They were then called Club Municipal de Deportes, becoming the official team of Bogotá and adopting the official colors and crest of the city.
Despite their sporting successes, the Municipality suspended their aid due to problems between the founders of Juventud Bogotana and Álvaro Rozo, the President of Club Municipal. The team was then taken over by the managers Manuel Briceño Pardo, Antonio José Vargas, and Santander businessman Alberto Lega, who restored the team's stability. Without official economic support and without colors in their uniforms, the managers changed the team's name several times: Municipal La Salle, Municipal Deportivo, and later Municipal Deportivo Independiente. However, the press simply referred to them as the Bogotá team or selection.
On 28 January 1939, the team made their debut with the three Argentine players against the Antioquia team, winning 5–4 with goals from Lucífero, Carvajal, and "Nacho" Izquierdo. This was a significant moment for football in the city, as it marked the first time that a team from Bogotá had played with foreign players. This was also the last year the team played under the name "Deportivo Independiente." Despite facing financial difficulties and internal conflicts among the team's founders and supporters, the Municipal Deportivo Independiente continued to compete in various tournaments, representing Bogotá and garnering significant public support. In 1946, the team merged with Club Deportivo Municipal and changed their name to Club Deportivo Los Millonarios.
Birth of the name Millonarios
In 1939, the nickname "Los Millonarios" was born when Vicente Lucífero met with the team's board of directors every Thursday to negotiate payments. At that time, the Argentine players did not have annual contracts. However, Lucífero demanded high compensation not only for the Argentinians but for the entire team. He wanted to ensure that the Colombian players' salaries matched those of the foreigners, which caused Luis Camacho Montoya, the sports editor of El Tiempo newspaper, to strongly criticize the team for its disassociation from the municipality. Montoya gave the team's leaders the label of "new rich," "Los Millonarios," because they intended to maintain the entire team with all its foreign players, requiring a lot of money.Montoya stated, "The Argentines are very demanding; they will charge this and that amount. This is a club of millionaires; the Municipalists are now millionaires." Thus, the nickname was born, which would become its definitive name since people started to know and call the team more by the nickname "Los Millonarios" than by its actual name. In 1932, seven years prior, the Argentine club River Plate had already adopted the same nickname for making big signings at that time.
On 13 August 1939, in a meeting at the "El Gato Negro" café, the team officially adopted the name "Los Millonarios" as part of a relaunch and re-founding of the club, which took place on that date when they defeated Deportivo Barranquilla 6–0 with goals from Luis Timón, Martínez, Ruiz Díaz, Zapata, and an own goal by López. During this game, they debuted their current blue uniform with grey socks, copied from the Argentine team Tigre, which had recently graced the cover of El Gráfico magazine and was the team Fernando Paternoster supported. This uniform remained the same, with the only change suggested by the leader Manuel Briceño Pardo for the next game. It consisted of changing the shorts to white and the socks to blue and establishing it definitively as the team's official uniform, which was further consolidated years later with the colors used by Independiente Santa Fe.
The first team to be called Millonarios consisted of: Carlos Álvarez, Antenor Rodríguez, Ignacio "Nacho" Izquierdo, Alfredo Cuezzo, Alfonso "Che" Piedrahíta, Óscar Sabransky, Vicente Lucífero, Antonio Ruiz Díaz, Luis Timón, José Antonio "Mico" Zapata, and Antonio Martínez.
Since its creation, Millonarios has become one of Colombia's most important teams by winning titles in amateur league tournaments, international matches, and various tours throughout the country, achieving significant triumphs. The team became the great favorite for the title from the moment the first Colombian Professional Football Championship began in 1948.
After being structured and leaving behind its past as a city select team, Millonarios entered the A.D.B. championship in 1940, which was the second-tier tournament in the Cundinamarca football league. In the same year, they won the title and ascended to the first category, in which they participated from 1941 to 1945, winning four titles.