Aragua Fútbol Club () is a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team based in the city of

Maracay Maracay () is a city in north-central Venezuela, near the Caribbean coast, and is the capital and most important city of the state of Aragua. Most of it falls under the jurisdiction of Girardot Municipality. The population of Maracay and its ...

, in the state of

Aragua Aragua State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains, jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular beaches are Cata and Choroni. It has Venezuela's first national par ...

. The club began its professional career playing in the

Venezuelan Segunda División Segunda División, officially known as Liga FUTVE 2, is the men's second professional football division of the Venezuelan football league system. The Venezuelan second division was established in 1979. List of champions Titles by Team Refer ...

a year after the club was founded. From 2005 to 2022, Aragua played in the

Primera División Venezolana Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera Ely Rafael Primera Ros ...

. The club's colors are yellow and red, although they were blue and white in the club's beginnings. Home games are played at the Olímpico Hermanos Ghersi in Maracay, with a 16,000 spectator capacity. Aragua won the 2005–06

and the 2007

Copa Venezuela The Copa Venezuela () is the national cup football competition of Venezuela. Organized by the Venezuelan Football Federation, it is contested in the second half of the season by the teams in the Primera División and Segunda División, excluding ...

History

For the 2002–03 season,

Deportivo Galicia Deportivo Galicia Fútbol Club (later Galicia de Aragua) was a traditional Football (soccer), football club from Venezuela that competed in Segunda División Venezolana. History Founded in Caracas, the club moved, in 2002, to Maracay, in the st ...

moved to the Estadio Olímpico Hermanos Ghersi and a new franchise named Aragua Fútbol Club was born. The team played in the

until the 2004–05 season, when they achieved promotion to the

Venezuelan Primera División The Primera División (; ), or Liga Venezolana (; ) is the top-flight professional football league of Venezuela. It was created in 1921 and turned professional in 1957. It is organized by the Federación Venezolana de Fútbol. Format Starting i ...

. Aragua F.C. made their debut in Primera División with a goalless tie against Trujillanos on 5 August 2005, and remained unbeaten during the first five games of the season. Rafael Mea Vitali scored Aragua's first goal in the top flight. Aragua ended up finishing the 2005–06 season in seventh place. At the start of the 2006–07 season, goalkeeper Renny Vega was called up by national team coach

Richard Páez Richard Alfred Mayela Páez Monzón known as Richard Páez (born 31 December 1953) is a Venezuelan football manager former coach of Deportivo Cuenca from Ecuador and of the Venezuela national football team. Playing career Club Born in Mér ...

to represent the

Venezuela national football team The Venezuela national football team (), nicknamed ''La Vinotinto'' ("The Red Wine"), represents Venezuela in men's FIFA, international association football, football and is controlled by the Venezuelan Football Federation, Federación Venezola ...

in a match against Colombia, making Vega the first player to receive an international call-up while playing for Aragua F.C. In 2008, led by manager Manolo Contreras, Aragua won the

and automatically qualified to participate in the 2008 edition of the

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

, where they were eliminated in the first round by

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

. At the end of the 2007–08 season, Salomón Rondón was awarded as Youth of the Year, marking the first time that an Aragua F.C. player received the distinction. Aragua played in Primera División until the 2022 season, in which it placed last and was relegated to Segunda División. On 3 March 2023, the club announced that it would not take part in the Segunda División season and would instead go on a one-year hiatus to solve its financial issues. On 9 March 2024, Aragua's return to the league was confirmed, joining the second tier for the 2024 season.

Titles

: 1 ::2005 *

: 1 ::2007

Performance in CONMEBOL competitions

: 1 appearance ::2008: First Round

Club culture

Supporters

The Aragua F.C. fans are known as ''Los Vikingos'' (The Vikings), and they traditionally occupy the western stand of the stadium, known as ''La Popular'' (The Popular). They are made up of several factions that represent different cities across the state: ''Artillería Aurirroja'' (Yellow and Red Artillery), ''Cagua Aurirroja'', ''Caña de Azúcar'', ''El Limón'', ''Turmero Aurirrojo'', ''Santa Rita'', and ''Santa Rosa Aurirroja''. As is the case with supporter groups of other Venezuelan teams, the factions only exist in theory, and in practice all the supporters act as a unified body.

Rivalries

The club's main rival is

Carabobo FC Carabobo FC is a Venezuelan professional football team playing at the top level, the Venezuelan Primera División. It is based in Valencia. History Stadium Their home stadium is Estadio Misael Delgado. Titles *Primera División Venezolana ** ...

, from the neighboring state of

Carabobo Carabobo State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela, located in the north of the country, about two hours by car from Caracas. The state capital city is Valencia, which is also the country's main industrial center. The state's area is and ...

. The fixture is popularly known as ''El Clásico de la Autopista'' (The Highway Classic). Due to the proximity of both states' capitals, Aragua-Carabobo rivalries exist in virtually every professional sport practiced in Venezuela. The classic is currently "on hold" since Aragua was relegated to the

after the 2022 season.

Notable managers

Raúl Cavalleri Raul, Raúl, Raül, and Raüll are forms of a common first name in Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Galician, Asturian, Basque, Aragonese, and Catalan. The name is cognate of the Anglo-Germanic given name Ralph or Rudolph and the French R ...

* Manolo Contreras * Kike García * Carlos Maldonado * Edson Rodríguez *

Rafael Santana Rafael Francisco Santana de la Cruz (born January 31, 1958) is a Dominican former Major League Baseball shortstop who won a World Series ring with the 1986 New York Mets. He currently serves as the Dominican Republic scouting and player develo ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aragua Fc Association football clubs established in 2002 Football clubs in Venezuela Sport in Aragua 2002 establishments in Venezuela