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Club Deportivo Los Millonarios
Note: This is a translation in progress.
Club Deportivo Los Millonarios, is a Colombian football team, based in Bogota. As of 2007, Millonarios is the team which has won the most Futbol Profesional Colombiano championships, 13 in total, although they haven't won this tournament since 1988. It's also the third colombian team to achieve a major international title, the Copa Merconorte in 2001. The team was initially created in 1937 by students from 2 schools of Bogota: "Colegio San Bartolome" and "Instituto La Salle". Millonarios, as the team it is now, was officially founded in June 18th, 1946, thanks to the efforts of Alfonso Senior Quevedo, Millos' first chairman. From the beginning of the Colombian Soccer Tournament, Millos won many domestic tournaments.
History
Millos had its first glory in the early 1950s in what is known as the El dorado era. During this time it was considered one of the best teams in the world, with players such as Alfredo Di Stefano (widely considered one of the four best players in the history of world soccer), Adolfo Pedernera, Nestor Raul Rossi and Julio Cozzi ("The Century's Goalkeeper"). With this group of stars that the team became widely known as "The Millionaires" (in a way a little similar to that of the Galacticos). With that team, Millonarios won 4 Colombian leagues . The blues then won 5 titles in six years: 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964. During the 70's Millonarios won two championships, 1972 and 1978. In the 1980s, Millonarios was tied to Colombian drug dealer Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. During this decade the team won titles in 1987 and 1988.
Throughout its history, Millonarios has had famous players, including: Juan Gilberto Funes, "El Bufalo", Willington Ortiz, Arnoldo Iguaran, Daniel "Tito" Onega, Fernando Arean, Carlos Valderrama, Carlos Angel Lopez, Alfredo Castillo, Sergio Goycochea, Delio "Maravilla" Gamboa, Miguel Angel Converti, Jaime Moron, Amadeo Carrizo, Alejandro Brand, Mario Vanemerak, and Pedro Alberto Vivalda. Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama was actually expelled from Millonarios as the Coach and Board of Directors thought he was not good enough for football.
During the 2000's, Millonarios has endured a financial crisis in the wake of the death of Rodriguez Gacha who was killed by the Colombian National Police. The club had two of their worst crises in 2 seasons: In 2002 the club had their worst financial situation, to the point that many people feared the possibility of Millos coming to an end. After a decent 2003 performance, chaos reappeared in later 2004 (while playing the Copa Mustang II), when Millos had their worst league campaign, finishing second from bottom. Millos also played in the Copa Sudamericana 2004, where they were knocked out by Atletico Junior in the preliminary phase.
From this point, Millonarios began a slow process to recover their former glory, managing to get again into the cup's group stage in 2006, something they didn't do at the previous tournament. Millos had further improvement when former Manchester City F.C. assistant manager Juan Carlos Osorio was appointed as the new Millonarios' Manager, which led the club to 3rd position in the League Stage of the Mustang Cup, and 5th in the addition of all the year's performance, taking Millos again into the Copa Sudamericana, while the financial situation of the team also had a notable recovery. In July 2007, Osorio left Millonarios to manage Major League Soccer side Chicago Fire, and he was replaced with Martin Lasarte; after a brief, but very unsuccessful period with Lasarte, Millonarios then hired Argentinian Mario Vanemerak as their new manager. Under Vanemerak, Millonarios began to shine again, most notably in the Copa Sudamericana 2007, where they eliminated several powerful teams, most notably Brazilian champions Sao Paulo FC in the quarter-finals, thanks to two goals from Ricardo Ciciliano. As of October 25, 2007, Millonarios has qualified for the Copa Sudamericana semi-finals, although they had a less impressive performance in the Colombian Copa Mustang II 2007 so far (their current league position is 13th). The club currently is involved in a bankruptucy process that promises to cancel the team's debts and start a new chapter in Colombian football.
Current Squad 2008
As of March 13, 2008.
First team players
Reserve & Youth Squad
{| class="wikitable"Transfers 2008
;In
Diego Cochas comes fromLa Equidad
Luis Asprilla comes fromEmelec/ECU
Martin Garciacomes from Necaxa/MEX
Julio Cesar Tobar comes from Atletico Huila
Santander Ospina comes from Chico
Fernando Monroy comes fromDeportivo Tulua
Roberto Carlos Cortes comes from Independiente Medellin
Ariel Carreno comes fromSan Martin de San Juan/ARG
Rodrigo Astudillo comes from America de Natal/BRA
Luis Alfonso Paez comes fromAtletico Bello
David Mcallister Silva return of Deportivo Pereira
Omar Guerra return ofDeportivo Quito/ECU
Tommy Tobar return of Giradot F.C.'''
External links
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Club Deportivo Los Millonarios
