Deportivo Táchira F.C.

In 1970, Italian-born Gaetano Greco founded an amateur club called Juventus in San Cristóbal, named after the Juventus FC. In 1974, Greco noticed that there were no professional football clubs in Táchira, so he decided to found a club in Táchira based on the amateur Juventus club. He and twelve other people founded the club on January 11 of that year, which they named San Cristóbal Fútbol Club. Most of the club's players came from the Juventus club. Initially, the club's colors were blue and white, similar to the Italian national football team kits.

In January 1975, the club changed its colors to yellow and black, because those colors better represented the Táchira state and were the preferred colors of the Uruguayan manager José "Pocho" Gil, as they were the colors of the Uruguayan team Peñarol.

In the 2016 season, Deportivo Táchira drew an average home league attendance of 5,595 in the Apertura and 4,033 in the Clausura, the highest in the domestic league.[1]

The club's home stadium is Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, located in San Cristóbal. It has a maximum capacity of 42,500 people.

The team's supporters are known as aurinegros ("gold-and-blacks"). The supporters are mainly divided into three groups; La Torcida Aurinegra , La Avalancha Sur, and Comando Sur.

Several of the team's supporters have committed violent acts in the past towards the supporters of opposing teams. One of the most tragic events took place on December 17, 2000, when the club and Caracas drew 2–2, which gave the Copa República Bolivariana de Venezuela's title to Caracas, causing angry supporters of Deportivo Táchira to burn the Caracas team bus.[2]

Games between Deportivo Táchira and Estudiantes de Mérida are known as the Clásico de Los Andes (meaning Andes' Derby). However, in recent years games between Deportivo Táchira and Caracas have been known as the modern derby, because of the successful performance of both teams. A former rival of Deportivo Táchira in the 1980s and early 1990s was Marítimo de Venezuela, a former team from Caracas.

Deportivo Táchira's shirt has black and yellow vertical stripes, with black shorts and socks.

• Primera División Venezolana: 8

1979, 1981, 1984, 1986, 2000, 2007–08, 2010–11, 2014–15

• Copa Libertadores: 21 appearances

• Copa Sudamericana: 2 appearances

2002: Preliminary Round

2012: Preliminary Round

• Copa CONMEBOL: 3 appearances

1993: First Round

1996: First Round

1997: First Round

• Deportivo Táchira is the Venezuelan club with the most Copa Libertadores appearances and the most runner-up finishes in the Venezuelan league. It has won seven national championships.
• The club's best Copa Libertadores participation was in 2004, when the club became the second team to qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition without losing a match, having played against strong teams such as River Plate (Argentina), Libertad (Paraguay), Deportes Tolima (Colombia), and Nacional (Uruguay), before facing São Paulo (Brazil) in the quarter-finals.

As of 2018

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  VEN José Contreras 2 DF  VEN Diego Araguainamo 3 DF  VEN Jonathan España 4 DF  VEN Daniel Benítez 5 MF  VEN Luis Melo 6 MF  PAN Luis Ovalle 7 FW  VEN Darwin Gómez 8 MF  VEN David Zalzman 9 FW  ARG Sergio Oscar Almirón 10 MF  VEN Joel Infante 11 MF  VEN Johan Moreno 12 GK  VEN Beycker Velásquez 13 DF  VEN Manuel Granados 15 MF  VEN Franklin González

No. Pos. Nation Player 16 GK  VEN Cristopher Valera 17 FW  VEN César Martínez 18 MF  VEN Jeizon Ramírez 19 FW  VEN Duglar Angarita 20 MF  VEN Angel Lezama 21 FW  VEN Edgar Pérez Greco 22 DF  VEN Héctor Noguera 23 DF  VEN Joyner Rivera 24 MF  VEN Luis Chacón 25 DF  PAN Jan Carlos Vargas 26 MF  VEN José Rafael Reyes 30 GK  VEN Rafael Sánchez 36 DF  VEN Daniel Sánchez

• Tomás Rincón (2008) First Venezuelan player to play in an important international soccer team such as Juventus FC in 2017. He currently for Torino FC in Italy.
• Cesar "El Maestrico" Gonzalez Important player with a big important career in different teams around South America such as River Plate, Coritiba, San Luis and other teams of the First Venezuelan league. Currently, he plays in Deportivo La Guaira in Venezuela.

• Luis Miloc (1977–78)
• Marcos Calderón (1983)
• Carlos Horacio Moreno (1987–89)
• Richard Páez (1991)
• Walter Roque (1999–01)
• César Farías (2003–05)
• Manuel Plasencia (2005–07)
• Carlos Maldonado (July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2010)
• Jorge Luis Pinto (July 1, 2010 – May 30, 2011)
• Jesús Vera (July 1, 2011 – Dec 20, 2011)
• Jaime de la Pava (Jan 16, 2012 – April 24, 2012)
• Manuel Contreras (April 26, 2012 – Dec 20, 2012)
• Daniel Farías (Jan 1, 2013 – Dec 20, 2015)
• Carlos Maldonado (2015–2016)
• Santiago Escobar (2016-2017)
• Francesco Stifano (2017- )

• Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Spanish-language Wikipedia article (retrieved January 15, 2004).

• Deportivo Táchira's official website