Club Deportivo Universidad Católica

CD Universidad Católica

Full name	Club Deportivo Universidad Católica
Nickname(s)	'UC Cato La Católica (The Catholic) Los Cruzados (The Crusaders) Caballeros Cruzados (The Crusader Knights)
Founded	21 April 1937
Ground	Estadio San Carlos de Apoquindo Santiago
Capacity	14,118[1]
Chairman	Juan Tagle
Manager	Beñat San José
League	Campeonato Nacional
2017 Transición	11th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Club Deportivo Universidad Católica is a professional football club based in Santiago, Chile, which plays in the Primera División.

Universidad Católica is one of the most successful and popular Chilean football clubs and considered one of the Chile's "Big Three".

Its traditional rival is Universidad de Chile. They contest the Clásico Universitario. Colo-Colo is the other big rival of the club.

Overview

Universidad Católica 1939.

Universidad Católica 1949.

While the club was born as one of the many sport branches of the Universidad Católica de Chile, officially founded in 1937, it began, strictly speaking, around 1910, when students of the University would reunite to play football matches, frequently facing historical rival Universidad de Chile. In time, the idea of creating a professional club emerged, and on 21 April 1937, the club officially and legally began. It made its professional debut, in the second division, against the Universidad de Chile. Rivalry, both in sports and in academic issues, made these matches between the universities become more and more important, eventually reaching the national status of "Universities' Derby". The rivalry maintains itself until today, with each match between these teams being considered a must-see for every football fan in the country.

The Universidad Católica has attained fame as a favorite of the higher classes, because of many factors, which range from the location of the club's stadium, San Carlos de Apoquindo (in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods of the capital) and Headquarters, although there are "UC" fans all around the country, including popular regions or towns. For this reason, is planned to build a new stadium in a more popular place of Santiago. Due to the neighbourhood's strong influence (wealthy families), the club has been unable to be approved for projects to enlarge the stadium and thus draw larger crowds. Only until in recent years the club was allowed by the commune of Las Condes, to host their clasicos matches against Universidad de Chile and Colo-Colo in their own stadium. Although just a limited number of its rivals' supporters are allowed to be present at these matches due to security reasons inside the stadium and around its high-end neighborhood.

The club has reached notoriety, both in a national and South American level, as owner of one of the best infrastructures and training centers in the continent. As such, it is a good source of young talents, which occasionally rise to stardom in the club. Its most recent youth academy produced player known worldwide is Gary Medel, currently playing for turkish side Beşiktaş J.K., among other clubs such as Boca Juniors, Sevilla and Internazionale, as well as playing a big role in Chile's 2010 and 2014 World Cup squads.

The club has won 12 national tournaments, and one international cup: Inter-American cup. Also, in 1993, Universidad Católica was the runner-up in the most important international tournament in South America: the Copa Libertadores de América, losing in the finals against the biggest club in Brazil and defending Libertadores' Champion São Paulo They lost to what was considered the best team of the decade, a team that defeated Johan Cruyff's Barcelona Dream Team in 1992 and the Mighty Milan of Fabio Capelo em 1993. Between the two legs after a heavy defeat away la Catolica won the second leg but lost the title on aggregate. In 1997 the club celebrated its 60th anniversary with a friendly tournament where they beat Ajax Amsterdam 3–2 in the Copa 60º Aniversario de Universidad Católica.^[2]

In recent years, the club has been reemerged in international competition, advancing to the 2005 Copa Sudamericana semifinal before being knocked out by the powerful Boca Juniors from Argentina, who would go on to win the tournament. In 2006 the team made a good presentation in the Copa Libertadores, but was eliminated at the last minute by Tigres UANL of Mexico and failed to advance beyond the group stage. Universidad Católica did not qualify for the 2007 Copa Libertadores.

Católica again played Copa Libertadores in 2008 with no luck, being eliminated in group stage by goal difference by River Plate and América. In 2010, their performance was no better, finishing third in group stage behind Universidad de Chile and Flamengo.

In the 2011 edition, Católica finished first on the round robin, and then advanced to the quarter-finals, knocking out Grêmio of Brazil on the best 16 round, and falling to Peñarol of Uruguay 2–0 in Montevideo and winning their home match 2–1, which was not enough to advance.

In 2012 the club, under coach and former player Mario Lepe, finished last on the group stage, winning only 1 home game and losing on their away games in Colombia and Bolivia.

Honours

• 
  Trophy International Tournament of Pascua
• 
  Segunda División 1956
• 
  República Cup 1983
• 
  Trophy Ciudad de Palma 1984
• 
  Primera División 1987
• 
  Primera División 1997-A
• 
  Trophy Huemul de Plata
  Primera División 2010
• 
  Copa Chile 2011
• 
  UC Cup U-17
• 
  Manchester United Premier Cup U-15
• 
  2016-C, 2016-A and Supercopa de Chile

Players

The Chilean Football Federation rules allow a maximum of seven foreign players per team, but only five can be on the pitch at any one time. Currently Católica has six foreign players.

Current squad

Current squad of Club Deportivo Universidad Católica as of 1 July 2018 (edit)
Sources: Universidad Católica official website

No. Position Player 1  ARG GK Matías Dituro 2  CHI DF Germán Lanaro 3  ARG DF Germán Voboril 4  CHI DF Cristián Álvarez 5  CHI DF Branco Ampuero 6  CHI MF César Fuentes 7  ARG FW Sebastián Sáez 8  CHI MF Jaime Carreño 9  CHI FW Andrés Vilches 10  CHI MF Diego Rojas 11  ARG MF Luciano Aued 12  CHI GK Marcelo Suárez 13  CHI DF Benjamín Kuščević 14  CHI FW David Llanos 15  CHI DF Yerco Oyanedel

No. Position Player 16  CHI FW Marcos Bolados 18  ARG MF Diego Buonanotte 19  CHI FW José Pedro Fuenzalida 20  CHI MF Carlos Lobos 21  CHI DF Raimundo Rebolledo 23  CHI FW Brian Leiva 24  CHI MF Ignacio Saavedra 25  CHI GK Miguel Vargas 27  CUB FW César Munder 28  CHI DF Carlos Salomón 29  CHI DF Stefano Magnasco 30  CHI FW Diego Valencia 31  CHI DF Enzo Ferrario 33  CHI FW David Henríquez

Coach: Beñat San José

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player — GK Cristopher Toselli (at Everton) — GK Álvaro Ogalde (at Deportes Limache) — DF Fabián Monilla (at Malleco Unido) — DF Juan Carlos Espinoza (at O'Higgins) — DF Benjamín Vidal (at Palestino) — DF Vicente Fernández (at Unión La Calera) — MF Kevin Medel (at Everton)

No. Position Player - MF Andrés Souper (at Deportes Valdivia) — MF Fabián Manzano (at Palestino) — MF Manuel Reyes (at Rangers) — MF Gonzalo Jara (at Barnechea) — FW Sebastián Pérez (at Rangers) — FW Diego Vallejos (at Palestino) — FW José Luis Muñoz (at Palestino)

2018 Winter transfers

In

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 17 FW Martín Dagnino (from San Lorenzo)

No. Position Player

Out

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 11 DF Fernando Cordero (to San Martín de Tucumán) 30 GK Álvaro Ogalde (loaned to Deportes Limache) 34 MF Andrés Souper (loaned to Deportes Valdivia)

No. Position Player -- GK Christopher Toselli (loaned to Everton) -- MF Gonzalo Jara (loaned to Barnechea) -- DF Vicente Fernández (loaned to Unión La Calera)

Current coaching staff

Position	Name
Manager	Beñat San José
Assistant Manager	Patricio Ormazábal
Academy team Manager	Andrés Romero
Fitness coach	Gastón Lloveras
Goalkeeping coach	Mauro Machado
Director of Football	José María Buljubasich

Notable coaches

Other sports

• 
  Trophy Bernardo Salamovich, Basket
• 
  Riding
• 
  Athletics
• 
  Athletics
• 
  Field hockey U-12, U-14 and U-16 2015
• 
  Metropolitan Youth Championship, Athletics

See also

• Universidad Católica (sports club)
• Universidad Católica de Chile

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Club Deportivo Universidad Católica.

• (in Spanish) Official site
• CDUCatolica.com
• Los Cruzados
• Ceatolei