Cerro Porteño

Cerro Porteño
Nickname(s)	El Ciclón (The Cyclone) ; Club del Pueblo ; (The People's Team) ; La Mitad más Uno ; (The Half plus One)
Founded	October 1, 1912
Ground	General Pablo Rojas Stadium (La Olla),; Asunción, Paraguay
Capacity	45,000
Chairman	Juan José Zapag
Manager	Luis Zubeldía
League	Primera División
2018 Apertura	2nd
Website	Club website
Home colours	Away colours

Club Cerro Porteño is a professional Paraguayan football club, based in the neighbourhood of Barrio Obrero in Asunción. Founded in 1912, Cerro has won 32 Primera División titles and is one of the most popular football clubs in Paraguay. Its president is Juan José Zapag, from Paraguay, and the manager is Luis Zubeldía.^[1] Its main rivals are Olimpia and Libertad.

They play their home games at the General Pablo Rojas Stadium, also known as La Nueva Olla (The New Boiler).

History[edit]

Stamps of Paraguay

Cerro Porteño was founded on October 1, 1912 by Susana Núñez and a group of young people looking to create a new football club. At the time of Cerro's foundation the situation in Paraguay was tense with instability in the government caused by the fervent rivalries between the two leading political parties, the Partido Colorado (Colorado Party) and the Partido Liberal (Liberal Party). Because of the tensions, the founders of the club decided to use the colours of both parties, red (Colorados) and blue (Liberales), as the club's colours as a symbol of unity and friendship between Paraguayans. Later, white was used on the shorts to complete the colours of the Paraguayan flag.

The club owes its name to the battle fought between the forces of Buenos Aires, Argentina (The Porteños) and the Paraguayan army, in the neighbourhood of the Cerro Mbaé (Mbaé Hill) – named after that battle as the Cerro Porteño (Porteño Hill) – on 19 January 1811. During that battle, the troops of Paraguay (at that time a Spanish colony) were abandoned by the Spanish governor but continued to be led by the Paraguayan officials, who led them to a great victory against the Porteños troops. That battle is known as the "Battle of Cerro Porteño" and is a highlight of Paraguayan military history.

Cerro Porteño is known in Paraguay as el club del pueblo (the common people's team) because most of the fans are from lower social classes, as opposed to the fans from rival club Olimpia and Libertad whose fans are usually from the upper classes. Because of this, it is said that Cerro Porteño has the biggest number of supporters in Paraguay.

Over the years the club has won a significant number of national championships. However, to date, it has not won any international tournaments despite a few good runs in the Copa Libertadores including semi-final appearances in 1973, 1978, 1993, 1998, 1999 and 2011.

Osvaldo Ardiles joined the club as manager in May 2008 ^[2] but was sacked in August of the same year after a string of poor results and was replaced by Pedro Troglio.^[3]

In 2014, Cerro Porteño president Juan José Zapag spoke in reference to the corruption in Paraguayan football that various persons had complained to him about not buying games and that if his club were to win then they would not do it by buying and doping players to become champions.^[4]

Stadium[edit]

The Stadium of Cerro Porteño, originally called Gral. Pablo Rojas and also called "La Olla", is located at "Barrio Obrero" (Avenida Acuña de Figueroa 823). The stadium has the capacity of 45,000 seats, making it the biggest in Paraguay.

International record[edit]

Copa Libertadores: 38 appearances

Semi-finals (6): 1973, 1978, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2011

Copa Sudamericana: 9 appearances

Semi-finals (2): 2009, 2016

Honours[edit]

Primera División (32): 1913, 1915, 1918, 1919, 1935, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1950, 1954, 1961, 1963, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2009 Apertura, 2012 Apertura, 2013 Clausura, 2015 Apertura, 2017 Clausura
Torneo República (3): 1989, 1991, 1995

Ranking[edit]

World Club Ranking[edit]

As of 3 June 2018.^[5]

Rank	Country	Team
102		Newcastle United
103		Cerro Porteño
104		Al-Ahli

Players[edit]

First team[edit]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Antony Silva
2	DF	Raúl Cáceres
3	DF	Marcos Cáceres
4	MF	Hernán Novick
5	DF	Teodoro Paredes
6	DF	Álvaro Pereira
7	FW	Alfio Oviedo
8	MF	Juan Rodrigo Rojas
10	MF	Jorge Rojas
11	FW	Óscar Ruiz
12	GK	Ignacio Don
14	MF	Víctor Cáceres
16	MF	Marcelo Palau

No.	Position	Player
17	MF	Julio Irrazábal
18	FW	Nelson Valdez
19	FW	Diego Churín
20	MF	Silvio Torales
21	DF	Santiago Arzamendia
22	MF	Juan Aguilar
23	DF	Juan Escobar
24	MF	Willian Candia
25	GK	José Colman
26	DF	Marcos Acosta
29	DF	Ignacio Pallas
	DF	Adalberto Román

Notable players[edit]

To appear in this section a player must have either:

Played at least 125 games for the club.
Set a club record or won an individual award while at the club.
Been part of a national team squad at any time.
Played in the first division of any other football association (outside of Paraguay).
Played in a continental and/or intercontinental competition.

1980's

Justo Jacquet (1981–88), (1990), (1992-1993)

1990's

Francisco Arce (1991–94)
Carlos Gamarra (1991–92), (1993–95)
Faryd Mondragon (1993)
Julio César Yegros (1994)
Jorge Núñez (1996–99), (2002–03), (2007–08)
Ricardo Bitancort (1997)
Paulo da Silva (1998)
Delio Toledo (1998–99)
Fabián Caballero (1998–99)
Diego Gavilán (1998–99)

2000's

Julio dos Santos (2001–05), (2009–)
Édgar Barreto (2002–03)
Diego Barreto (2002–07), (2008), (2009–15)
Dante López (2003)
Diego Cabrera (2003)
Glaucineis Martins (2003–2005)^[6]
Juan Cardozo (2005–06)
Lorgio Álvarez (2005), (2007–08)
Roberto Ovelar (2006–07)
Marcelo Estigarribia (2006–08)(2016)
Pablo Escobar (2006)
Celso Ortiz (2007–10)
Rodrigo Burgos (2007–12)
Iván Piris (2008–11)
Roberto Nanni (2009–13)

2010's

Pablo Zeballos (2010)
Fredy Bareiro (2011)
Nelson Cuevas (2011)
Luis Núñez (2011)
Jonathan Fabbro (2011–13), (2014–)
Walter López (2012)
Rodrigo López (2012–13)
Fidencio Oviedo (2012–)
Williams Martínez (2013)
Paul Ambrosi (2013)
Miguel Almirón (2013–15)
José Ortigoza (2013), (2014–)
Jonathan Santana (2014–)
Mauricio Sperduti (2014–15)
Diego Lugano (2015)

Non-CONMEBOL players

Adriano Custódio Mendes (1988)^[7]
Jerry Laterza (1994–95)
William Inganga (1996)^[8]
Tobie Mimboe (1996)
Geremi Njitap (1997)
Cyrille Florent Bella (1998)
Kenneth Nkweta Nju (2000–01)^[9]
Nozomi Hiroyama (2001)
Froylán Ledezma (2001–02)
Diego Madrigal (2011)
Daniel Güiza (2013–15)
Luís Leal (2016–17)

Managerial information[edit]

Cerro Porteño coaching history from 1960 to present
Sinforiano García (1960) Luis Benítez Chilavert (1960) Rogelio Negri (1960–61) Vessilio Bártoli (1961–62) Mario Fortunato (1963) Modesto Bria (1964–65) Mario Fortunato (1966–67) Egidio Landolfi (1967–69) Salvador Breglia (1969) Sinforiano García (1969) Marcos Pavlovsky (1970–71) Darío Jara Saguier (1971) Gradim (1971) Salvador Breglia (1972) Néstor "Pipo" Rossi (1972) Salvador Breglia (1972) Marcos Pavlovsky (1973–74) Salvador Breglia (1974) Sinforiano García (1975) Mario González Benítez (1975–76) Egidio Landolfi (1976) Salvador Breglia (1976) Eliseo Báez Riveiro (1976–77) Salvador Breglia (1977–78) Egidio Landolfi (1980) Hugo González (1980) Egidio Landolfi (1980)	Hugo González (1981) Robustiano Maciel (1981) Hugo Arsenio Gonzalez (1982) Ramón Rodríguez (1983) Oscar Malbernat (1983–84) Silvio Parodi (1984) Saturnino Arrúa (1984) Hugo Arsenio González (1984) Cayetano Ré (1985) Saturnino Arrúa (1985) Peter Mucha (1986) Ferenc Puskás (1986–87) Valdir Espinosa (1987–88) Carlos Kiese (1988) Otacílio Gonçalves (1989) Sergio Markarián (1990–91) Paulo César Carpegiani (1991–92) Valdir Espinosa (1992) Paulo César Carpegiani (1993–94) Gerardo González (1994–95) Antônio Lopes (1995–96) Carlos Kiese (1996) Jorge Fossati (1997) Carlos Báez Vargas (1998) Julio Carlos Gómez Cáceres (1998) Jair Pereira (1999) Carlos Báez Vargas (1999)	Saturnino Arrúa (2000) Luis Cubilla (2000) Mario César Jacquet (2001–02) Carlos Báez Vargas (2002–03) Gerardo Martino (2003–04) Gustavo Costas (2005–07) Estanislao Struway (2007) Valdir Espinosa (2007) Javier Torrente (2007 – Dec 31, 2007) Blas Marcelo Cristaldo (2008) Osvaldo Ardiles (2008) Pedro Troglio (July 1, 2008 – June 5, 2010) Blas Marcelo Cristaldo (2010) Javier Torrente (Jan 28, 2011 – Feb 14, 2011) Blas Marcelo Cristaldo (2011) Leonardo Astrada (March 1, 2011 – Sept 26, 2011) Ernesto Corti (2011) Mario Grana (Sept 25, 2011 – April 12, 2012) Hugo Caballero (2012) Jorge Fossati (July 1, 2012 – Feb 23, 2013) Francisco Arce (March 4, 2013–Aug 14) Leonardo Astrada (Aug 28, 2014–15) Roberto Ismael Torres (2015) César Farías (2016) Gustavo Morínigo (2016–) Leonel Álvarez (2017–2018) Luis Zubeldía (2018-)