Club Deportivo El Nacional (until 2018 ''Club Especializado de Alto Rendimiento El Nacional'') is an

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

ian sports club from Quito, known best for their professional football team. The team currently plays in the

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

, the first-tier football league in the country after gaining promotion in 2022. El Nacional has thirteen national championships (one less than Emelec and three less than

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

). The club has participated in more Copa Libertadores than any other club in Ecuador with 22 appearances. Their best performance in the continental tournament was as a semi-finalist in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

. El Nacional was founded on 1 June 1964, and was administered by the Ecuadorian Military since the foundation until 2013, when the club celebrated its first ever democratic elections. The club has maintained a tradition of only playing Ecuadorian footballers, which has given them the nickname of ''Puros Criollos'' ("Pure Natives"). Rival clubs included crosstown clubs

LDU Quito Liga Deportiva Universitaria (), often referred to as Liga de Quito, LDU, is an Ecuadorian professional football club based in Quito. They play in the Serie A, the highest level of the Ecuadorian professional football league. They play their ho ...

, Deportivo Quito, Universidad Católica and the Guayaquileans

and Emelec. Their home stadium is

Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa () is a multi-purpose stadium in Quito, Ecuador. It is currently used primarily for football matches and has a capacity of 35,724. Overview Built in 1951, it sits at the intersection of the Avenida 6 de Diciembre an ...

. Other sports the organization participates in are

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

, Ecuavolley,

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

, and

shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles ...

History

The Bi-Tri Campeon

In the 1970s, El Nacional was able to achieve what no Ecuadorian team had done in the history of the league. In 1976, 1977, 1978 they were unbeatable champions. Fabián Paz y Miño stepped up as the leading goal scorer in the league in 1977 to help El Nacional during those three years of glory. In 1982, 1983, 1984 El Nacional repeated this feat to become double three-time championship winners. Their title count became eight. This was gained by help from two legendary players Jose Villafuerte and Ermen Benitez. In 1985 they accomplished their most important feat in international competition reaching semi-finals in the Copa Libertadores. One year later they added to their titles by being crowned for the ninth time in their history.

The 1990s

El Nacional produced some of the greatest players in Ecuador and won two more championships in 1992 and 1996 with the help of Cléber Chalá,

Agustín Delgado Agustín Javier Delgado Chalá (born 23 December 1974) is an Ecuadorian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Nicknamed ''Tín'', he was the all-time top scorer for the Ecuador national team with 31 goals in 71 games befor ...

, and Oswaldo Ibarra. They also disputed the semi-finals of the Copa Conmebol 1992 and the 1994 edition.

Present

The current success of the team has added two more championships in 2005 and 2006 bringing their total to 13 titles. El Nacional has brought up talented players such as

Antonio Valencia Luis Antonio Valencia Mosquera, known as Antonio Valencia (; born 4 August 1985), is an Ecuadorian former professional footballer who played primarily as a right-sided player throughout his career, initially as a right winger, before developin ...

, Segundo Alejandro Castillo,

Christian Benítez Christian Rogelio Benítez Betancourt (1 May 1986 – 29 July 2013), also known as Chucho, was an Ecuadorian professional footballer who played as a striker. He began his career with El Nacional in Ecuador and then joined Santos Laguna, with ...

and

Felix Borja Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

. There have been plans to build a new stadium but no official decision has been taken yet. Former coach Juan Carlos Burbano resigned after an unsuccessful first stage in the league.

Julio Asad Julio Daniel Asad (; born 7 June 1953) is an Argentine former football player and manager. He played as a midfielder, and participated with Argentina in the 1975 Copa América. Asad was nicknamed "El Turco" due to his Syrian and Lebanese eth ...

was appointed head coach on 16 July 2009.

Stadium

El Nacional play their home matches in the

. Plans have been enabled to build a new stadium, however no official decision has been taken. The management even showed the model of what the 42,000-seat stadium would look like.

Supporters

On 13 May 1998, a group of friends met and decided to form a highly dedicated fanbase called La Marea Roja (English: ''The Red Tide''). Over the years, they aimed to integrate more people, and becoming a better organized to be the largest fan group of El Nacional. It is made up of over 250 members, with members owning proper identification cards. La Marea Roja stands at the south part of the stadium for 90 minutes every game, which attracts adults, women and large numbers of children.

Honours

;National *

(13): 1967, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1992, 1996, 2005 Clausura, 2006. *

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

(1): 1979 E2.

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

World Cup players

The following players were chosen to represent their country at the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

while contracted to El Nacional. * Juan Carlos Burbano (2002) * Cléber Chalá (2002) * Ángel Fernández (2002) * Oswaldo Ibarra (2002) *

(2006) *

Félix Borja Félix Alexander Borja Valencia (born April 2, 1983) is an Ecuadorian footballer, who last played for El Nacional in the Ecuadorian Serie A. He is nicknamed the "kangaroo", or "the cobra of Ecuador", for the spring in his jump. His height make ...

(2006) * Segundo Castillo (2006) * Jorge Guagua (2006) * Christian Lara (2006) * Adrián Bone (2014)

Managers

Noted managers

The following managers won at least one trophy while in charge of El Nacional: * Vessilio Bártoli (won the 1967 Serie A) * Héctor Morales (first tenure, won the 1973 Serie A; second tenure, won the 1977 and 1978 Serie A) * Ernesto Guerra (won the 1976, 1982, and 1992 Serie A in three tenures) * Roberto Abruzzesse (won the 1983, 1984, and 1986 Serie A) * Paulo Massa (won the 1996 Serie A) * Ever Hugo Almeida (won the 2005 Clausura & 2006 Serie A)

References

External links

Official Website
{{Ecuadorian Serie B El Nacional, Club Deportivo El Nacional, Club Deportivo El Nacional 1964 establishments in Ecuador