C.D. Atlético Marte

The history of Atletico Marte started at the end of the 1940s, when the San Salvadorian team España FC was dissolved.

Emilio Guardado and Carlos Carranza, leaders of the recent dissolved España FC, called a meeting with the players that remained of this team and others in the capital city of San Salvador to give life to another club called Alacranes F.C..

However, after a year playing under the name of Alacranes F.C., club president Colonel José Castro Melendez called another meeting at the old national gymnasium, and at the initiative of the player Conrado Miranda, they decided to change the name of the club to Atletico Marte.

The club was officially born on the 2 June 1950 thanks to the combination of military personnels such as José Castro Melendez, Fidel Quintanilla and Jesús Rodríguez and members of the public such as Emilio Guardado, José Santiago Avelar and Armando Carranza.

The original uniform colors were the ochre and beige, however with the passage of time the colors were changed to the current blue and white.

One of the most important historical dates in the history of Atetico Marte was a 2–0 triumph against Deportivo Saprissa in their own home soil, the first time an Salvadorian club had defeated a Costan Rican on their own soil. The goals were scored by Gustavo "el Bordador" Lucha y Raúl Peña.

The club had played in the Primera division for five years, however it wasn't until the 1955 season under the players-coaches of Conrado Miranda and Isaiah Choto they won their first title. This was done thanks to 1–0 victory over Leones de Sonsonate with the lone goal coming from Fernando "El Gato" Barrios.

The players included Manuel "Tamalón" Garay, Antonio Montes, Armando Larín, Rutilio Rivera, Luis Antonio Regalado "Loco" , Conrado Miranda, Gerónimo Pericullo (Argentina), Juan Bautista Pérez (Argentina), Raúl "Pibe" Vásquez (Argentina), Gustavo "el Bordador" Lucha, Fernando "el Gato" Barrios and René Pimentel.

Atletico Marte with the same core group of players from the previous campaign and the inclusion of Guatemalan Gabriel Urriolawere able to capture their second title consecutively, always under the command of Conrado Miranda and Isaiah Choto.

In 1956–57 campaign, the club was rejuvenated with players such as goalkeeper Francisco "Paco" Francés, Argentinian Rodolfo Baello, Guillermo "Loro" Castro, Julio César "Muñeca" Mejía, Mauricio "Pachín" González and many others. The club was able to win their 3rd title.

A winning title would escape the club for more than a decade until 1969 when they won their fourth title thanks to future world cup coach Chilean Hernán Carrasco Vivanco and star players Raúl "Araña" Magaña, Guillermo Castro, Argentinian Rodolfo Baello, José Antonio "Ruso" Quintanilla, Chilean Ricardo Sepúlveda and Sergio Méndez. This was followed up with their fifth title in 1970 making the second time the club had won back to back title, this time they were reinforced with players such as Francisco Roque, Ernesto Aparicio, Manuel Cañadas, Adonay Castillo, Fernando Villalta, Roberto Morales, Elenilson Franco and Brazilian Odir Jacques.

Atletico Marte once again went a decade without a title, until 1980, when under the technical direction of Armando Contreras Palma and a squad predominately made up of Salvadoran players such as Carlos Felipe Cañadas, Milton Campos, Alfredo Rivera, José Castillo, Jorge Peña, Manuel Ramos, Danilo Blanco, Ramón Fagoaga, Norberto Huezo, Jorge Salomón Campos and Miguel González were able to win their sixth title.

Atletico Marte under the technical direction of Armando Contreras Palma and assistant coach former world cup player Juan Ramón "Mon" Martinez the club was able to win their seventh title i 1982. The tournament was called President Alvaro Alfredo Magaña Cup, in honor of the current president of the republic El Salvador. This was thanks to a two-game series win over Independiente of San Vicente, the first game was 1–0 victory with a lone goal José Antonio "Tolín" Infantozzi and this was followed with a 2–0 victory with goals by José Antonio "Tolín" Infantozzi and Wilfredo "El Doctorcito" Huezo.

On the 25th of December 1985, Atlético Marte won their eighth and last primera division title. This was thanks to a 5–2 victory over Alianza with the goals of Atletico Marte coming from Salomón Campos Mezquita, Norberto Huezo, Mario Figueroa (2) and Wilfredo Huezo. The list of players that helped them win the title included José Luis Rugamas, Alfredo Fagoaga, Marcial Turcios, Santana Cartagena, Danilo Blanco, Guillermo Ragazzone, Nelson Escobar, Norberto Huezo, Salomón Campos, Mauricio Perla, Carlos Meléndez, William "el Pony" Rosales, Uruguayan Raúl Esnal and Mario Figueroa.[4]

On the international stage Atlético Marte had reached the final of the 1981 CONCACAF Champions Cup, however they lost the series to the SV Transvaal from Suriname. However, in 1991, the club was finally recognized internationally thanks to being crowned the champions of the CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup, a competition which was held in Guatemala and had strong clubs such as Universidad de Guadalajara from Mexico, Comunicaciones from Guatemala, Deportivo Saprissa from Costa Rica and Real Estelí from Nicaragua.[5] Atletico Marte finished first in the group with a record of 2 wins and 1 loss.

After several attempts to win another domestic title, by assembling top quality national and foreign players, Atletico Marte suffered a massive decline due to administrative mismanagement and eventually entered into economic crisis which led to poor results eventually getting the club relegated at the end of the 2002 season.

However, leaders of Atletico Marte never gave up on the team and there was always a well publicized effort to return it to the first division. It was not until 2004, that the mythical Raul Alfredo "spider" Magaña approached the directors, presenting a draft where it recruited new sponsors and new management.

After almost five years of work, the team won the Apertura 2008 title of the second division, which the winner of the Apertura will face the winner of the Clausura title to win direct promotion to the primera with the loser having to play the ninth place in the first division.

Atletico Marte failed to achieve direct promotion with winning by apertura and clausura, thanks to losing to Marte Soyapango in a penalty shootout in the semi-final.

However, on 14 June 2009 Atletico Marte achieved history by returning to the Dirst Division thanks to defeating AFI El Roble 1–0, at the Estadio Cuscatlan.

The lone goal of the historic victory was due to Roberto Maradiaga, and the technician that made possible the rise was the Argentine Ramiro Cepeda, a former player in Martian second division who in his first year working as a coach.

Atletico Marte's run in the primera division during 2009 and 2015 was a mix of little to moderate success, excluding the Apertura 2013 season where under the guidance of Guillermo Rivera the team finished first in the league (including a record 14 games undefeated) and reached the semi-final where they were eliminated by the tournament champion Isidro Metapan 3–2 on aggregate, the team was a middle to low table team.[6]

Although the emergence of talented players such as Gilberto Baires, Ibsen Castro, Otoniel Salinas, Javier Gomez, Anibal Parada, Chistopher Ramirez, Christian Esnal, Argentinian Gonzalo Mazzia and Uruguayan Mauro Aldave.

On the 3rd of May, 2015 after 7 years of top flight football, Atletico Marte were relegated to the second division despite a 4–1 victory over Dragon. They were knocked out by C.D. Pasaquina by one point.[7] However, on the 18th of June, 2015 the team purchased a franchise license in the new expansion of the primera division and will able to compete in the Primera Division for the Apertura 2015 season.[8] But one year later Atletico Marte were relegated at the end of 2016 clausura season[9]

On April, 2020, El Vencedor announced due to financial hardship they would be releasing their spot in the primera division to Atletico Marte. [10]

• Primera División and predecessors
  • Champions (8): 1955, 1956, 1957, 1969, 1970, 1980–81, 1982, 1985

• Segunda División and predecessors
  • Champions (1): 2008 Apertura[note 1]
  • Promotion Play-off Winners: 2008–2009

• CONCACAF Champions' Cup and predecessors
  • Runners-up (1): 1981

• CONCACAF Cup Winners Cup and predecessors
  • Champions (1): 1991

Pos.	Club	Season In D1	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	Dif.
TBA	Atlético Marte	65	1945	715	600	630	2872	2522	+350

Last updated: 17 July 2015