Atlas Futbol Club de Guadalajara has its origins in the early years of the formation of professional soccer in Mexico. Founded on August 15, 1916, its name comes from the titan of Greek mythology "Atlas," in charge of carrying the world on his back. Juan José “Lico” Cortina, one of its founders once commented that they chose the name because they felt that the team “would have the support of the whole world”.
The team’s colors, red and black are due to the martyr San Lorenz, patron saint of Colegio Ampleforth, a school of British origin based in Guadalajara. Many of its founders were students of that school.
Without a doubt, the Rojinegros hadtheir first golden age in the 1940s. They were the first team from Guadalajara to win the Copa México, in the 1945-46 season. Success continued in that decade -- the team managed to win nine titles in total. The most important of them was aleague title in 1950-1951 campaign. Back then, nobody could have predicted that this would be his last league title for 70 years.
Despite not being able to add another league title to their trophy case, the red and black club has always been a leader of Mexican soccer. So much so, that during the 1970s, the team earned the nickname Los Zorros for the speed with which its players moved around the field. Another nickname by which the Atlas is well known is undoubtedly "the Academy". This nickname was given to the club for the enormous number of players that came from its youth teams to play for both domestic and foreign teams as well as the Mexican National Team.
To mention a few of these, we can name Andrés Guardado, Hugo Ayala, Oswaldo Sánchez, Jared Borgetti, Pável Pardo, José de Jesús Corona, Daniel Osorno, Miguel Zepeda, Juan Pablo Rodríguez, Mario Méndez and Rafael Márquez. These last six were part of the generation called the Niños Héroes, who in 1999 starred in what is considered by many to be the best final played in the history of Liga MX.
The youthful youth squad from Atlas took a Toluca team that was in the midst of its glory days in Liga MX to penalties. Although they ended up losing that final, that team left a mark that many people still remember for their energy and their aggressive and offensive style of play. It was a team that, many will argue, is even better remembered than the champions themselves.
After experiencing relegation, as well as the purchase and sale of the team, the team was finally bought in 2019 by Grupo Orlegui, who restructured the sporting and financial structure of the club to return it to the prominence it had lost in the 2010s. Under this new management, the roijnegros are currently experiencing what for many is the most glorious time in the team’s history. Having managed to break their seven decade drought of league titles, the team finished as not only champions for the first time since 1951, but also quickly won a third title to enter into aselect club of teams to have won both the Apertura and the Clausura in the same season.
The current champion of Liga MX now continues aproject which has led themto success in recent years and now hopes to expand those marks of glory to international tournaments such as the CONCACAF Champions League and of course, Leagues Cup and Campeones Cup.
