Club Nacional is a Paraguayan professional

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 ...

club based in the neighbourhood of Obrero in

Asunción Asunción (, ) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of Asunción in the north ...

. Founded in 1904, the club currently plays in the

Paraguayan Primera División The División Profesional de la Paraguayan Football Association, Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol (; "Professional Division of the Paraguayan Football Association"), also known as the Primera División (; "first division"), or due to sponsorship ...

, and holds its home games at Estadio Arsenio Erico. Internationally, the club is referred to as Nacional Asunción, in order to distinguish itself from Uruguay's Nacional and Colombia's Atlético Nacional.

History

The club was founded on 5 June 1904, by a group of

alumni Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. Th ...

of the

Colegio Nacional de la Capital Colegio Nacional de la Capital "Gral. Bernardino Caballero" (or simply CNC) is a public high school in Asuncion, Paraguay. The school is one of the most prestigious in Paraguay. Many personalities have studied there. History The CNC was establi ...

, one of the oldest public schools in

. The club was originally named Nacional Football Club, taking the name from "Club Nacional de Football" the Uruguayan club, whose shield and three colors were taken to associate the national origin. It is also referred as related to the school the founders attended. Its first president was Víctor Paredes Gómez and white was selected as the team color because that was the color of the Nacional de la Capital School uniform. For the emblem of the club, the colors of the Paraguayan flag were chosen. Nacional is one of the traditional teams in the Paraguayan league and they have won a total of nine championships so far. Their nickname "La Academia" () was given to them because of their excellent youth system that produced great players such as Arsenio Erico, who is considered as the best Paraguayan footballer of all time. In

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Nacional won their first league title in 63 years. In

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, Club Nacional made history by reaching the Copa Libertadores final for the first time ever since its foundation, and by being only the second Paraguayan club to reach the final (after Olimpia). The club began the campaign with a runner-up finish in the group stage. In the knockout stages, they defeated Argentine clubs Vélez Sarsfield and

Arsenal de Sarandí Arsenal Fútbol Club (), usually referred as Arsenal de Sarandí , or simply Arsenal, is an Argentine sports club from the Sarandí district of Avellaneda Partido, Greater Buenos Aires. The football team currently plays in Primera Nacional, t ...

. In the semi-finals, they beat Uruguayan club

Defensor Sporting Defensor Sporting Club is a sports club based in Montevideo, Uruguay. Founded in 1913, Defensor has several sports sections, with football and basketball being the most important and the ones in which the club has achieved significant achievement ...

2–1 on aggregate to set up a final with San Lorenzo. The first leg of the final was played in Asunción and ended 1-1. However, San Lorenzo won the second leg 1–0 at Estadio Pedro Bidegain and took the title with a 2-1 aggregate victory.

Youth

One of the club's youth teams played at the 2009 Torneo di Viareggio, the 2010 Torneo di Viareggio, the 2011 Torneo di Viareggio, the 2012 Torneo di Viareggio and the 2013 Torneo di Viareggio.

Honours

National

* Primera División ** Winners (9): 1909,

1911 Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are added to the Commonwealth of Australia. * January 3 ** 1911 Kebin earthquake: An earthquake of 7.7 m ...

''(undefeated)'', 1924,

1926 In Turkey, the year technically contained only 352 days. As Friday, December 18, 1926 ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Saturday, January 1, 1927 '' (Gregorian Calendar)''. 13 days were dropped to make the switch. Turkey thus became the ...

1942 The Uppsala Conflict Data Program project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 4.62 million. However, the Correlates of War estimates that the prior year, 1941, was th ...

1946 1946 (Roman numerals, MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1946th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 946th year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th year of the 20th centur ...

, 2009 Clausura, 2011 Apertura, 2013 Apertura * Plaqueta Millington Drake ** Winners (4): 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946 * División Intermedia ** Winners (3): 1979, 1989, 2003

Current squad

''As of 24 January, 2024''

Notable players

:To appear in this section a player must have either: * Been part of a national team at any time. * Played in the first division of any other football association (outside Paraguay). * Played in a continental and/or intercontinental competition. 2000's * Óscar Cardozo (2004–06) * Cristian Bogado (2005–07) * Glacinei Martins (2005–2006, 2007–2009) * Juan Cardozo (2008) 2010's *

Fredy Bareiro Fredy José Bareiro Gamarra (born 27 March 1982) is a Paraguayan former association football, footballer. Bareiro is one of very few footballers to have participated in back-to-back finals of the Copa Libertadores, playing for Club Olimpia, Oli ...

(2014) * Julio Santa Cruz (2014–15) * Brian Montenegro (2014) * Ignacio Fideleff (2016–) * Roberto Nanni (2016–) Non-

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

players * Christopher Cristaldo (2016) * Zé Turbo (2019)

Managers

* Ever Hugo Almeida (1992) * Daniel Raschle (July 1, 2008 – June 30, 2009) * Ever Hugo Almeida (July 1, 2009 – April 15, 2010) *

Juan Manuel Battaglia Juan Manuel Battaglia (born 11 June 1957) is a former Association football, football midfielder and forward. Battaglia started his career in 1977, in Paraguayan side Club Nacional (Paraguay), Nacional before moving to Cerro Porteño. He then w ...

(April 1, 2010 – Dec 31, 2011) * Javier Torrente (Jan 1, 2012 – April 19, 2012) * Gustavo Morínigo (April 16, 2012–15) * Ricardo Dabrowski (2015) * Daniel Raschle (2015–2016) * Ever Hugo Almeida (2016–)

References

External links

Club Nacional de Paraguay
– official website
Club Nacional de Paraguay
– unofficial website {{DEFAULTSORT:Nacional Football clubs in Paraguay Football clubs in Asunción Association football clubs established in 1904 1904 establishments in Paraguay