MundoAndino Home : Colombia Guide at Mundo Andino
Atletico Junior
Corporacion Deportiva Popular Junior, known simply as Junior or by its old name Atletico Junior, is a Colombian football team based in Barranquilla. The club was founded in 1924 Known as "Los Tiburones" (The Sharks), or "El Equipo Tiburon" (The Shark Team) they have won the Colombian professional football championship five times . Famous players before 1985 included Heleno de Freitas, Garrincha, Juan Ramon Veron, Efrain Sanchez, and Julio Cesar Uribe.
The pride of Colombia's Caribbean coast, it had a golden age in the mid-90's, when under the conduction of Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama, it won two of its championships, in 1993 and 1995. The team also included players such as Alexis Mendoza, Victor Danilo Pacheco, Miguel "Niche" Guerrero, Cristian Montecinos and Ivan Rene Valenciano, which is the all-time scorer of the team with 158 goals.
Thereafter, the club owners focused on creating talent from within, and following years of up and downs, the club became once again national champions in December 2004, after scoring in the last minute and beating Atletico Nacional from Medellin in penalty kicks. The star of that season was the Argentine Omar Sebastian Perez, who earned the love and respect of the team's fans not only for his great technique and high quality of play, but for the way he melted with the rest of the team. Currently the team is still one of the most populars in Colombia and led by Uruguayan born coach Julio Comesana. Its best current players are Giovanni Hernandez, Teofilo Gutierrez, Luis Yanes, Emerson Acuna, and Ricardo Ciciliano.
They have participated several times in Conmebol's Copa Libertadores de America, where they ended up in 3rd place In 1994. One penalty kick away by Ronald Valderrama (Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama 's brother) from reaching the final, they ended up losing against Velez Sarsfield, who would then become the tournament's champion that year.
Junior's home stadium is called the Estadio Metropolitano or Roberto Melendez Stadium, which has also been home to the Colombian national football team
Honors
National Honors
Futbol Profesional Colombiano
* Winners (5): 1977, 1980, 1993, 1995, 2004-II
* Runners-Up (6): 1948, 1970, 1983, 2000, 2003-I, 2009-I
International
Reebok Cup
* Winners (1): 1997
Performance in CONMEBOL competitions
Copa Libertadores: 9 appearances
Best: Semi-Final in 1994
Copa Sudamericana: 1 appearance
2004: Quarter-Final
Copa CONMEBOL: 1 appearance
1992: Second Round
Current squad
As of January 28, 2010
(captain)
(vice-captain)
2010 Transfers
In:
Out
Selected Former Players
Martin Arzuaga
Efrain "El Caiman" Sanchez
Roberto "El Flaco" Melendez
Jose Kaor Doku
Rigoberto "Memuerde" Garcia
Alfredo Arango
Didi Alex Valderrama
Dida
Victor Ephanor
Julio Comesana
Carlos Babington
Juan Carlos Delmenico
William Martinez
Edgardo Bauza
Garrincha
Heleno de Freitas
Omar Sebastian Perez
Victor Danilo Pacheco
Carlos Valderrama
Ivan Valenciano
Juan Ramon Veron
Jose Daniel Ponce
Carlos Ischia
Alexis Mendoza
Jorge Bolano
Julio Cesar Uribe
Giovanni Hernandez
External links
Official Web site of Corporacion Popular Deportiva Junior
Fuerza Tiburona Supporter's Team Website
Junior Pasion
Need more information for your travel research or homework?
Ask your questions at the forum about Colombian football clubs or help others to find answers.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Atletico Junior
