Leones F.C.

Leones F.C., also known as Itagüí Leones, is a professional Colombian football team based in Itagüí playing in the Categoría Primera B starting from 2019. They play their home games at the Estadio Metropolitano Ciudad de Itagüí.

Leones F.C.
Full nameItagüí Leones Fútbol Club
Founded15 February 1944 (1944-02-15)
GroundEstadio Metropolitano Ciudad de Itagüí
Itagüí, Colombia
Capacity12,000
ChairmanCarlos Murillo
ManagerÁlvaro Hernández
LeagueCategoría Primera B
20196th

History

Founded as Deportivo Rionegro in 1944, Leones Fútbol Club participated in all seasons of the Categoría Primera B from 1991 to 2017, when the team was runner-up of the tournament and was promoted to Categoría Primera A for the first time.

The team played for almost forty years in the amateur league. The team's first president was Libardo Sanchez and his first manager was Alfonso Piedrahita. Thanks to its performances and achievements in the 80s the club was admitted in the first edition of the Categoría Primera B, the second-tier of the professional Colombian league, played in 1991. In 1993, with the direction of manager Carlos Augusto Navarrete, Rionegro managed to be among the five best of the tournament. The team got its best performance in 2001, when they were runners-up under the direction of manager Orlando Restrepo.

In 2008 Deportivo Rionegro, with René Higuita as their captain and star and with Óscar Aristizábal as manager, managed to win the first tournament of the year, defeating Unión Magdalena in the final, but in the second half failed to reach the final, so they had to fight for the title of the Primera B against Real Cartagena, losing on aggregate by 2-4. They played the promotion matches against Envigado F.C., but lost by a score of 3-1 on aggregate. In 2014 Deportivo Rionegro moved to Bello and changed its name to Leones Fútbol Club. The following year they moved to Turbo where they stayed for another year before moving to Itagüí in 2016.

Leones ended as runners-up in the 2017 Primera B, winning the Torneo Finalización and then going on to lose the final to Boyacá Chicó on penalty kicks. However, since they ended the season as the best team in the aggregate table, they earned promotion to the Categoría Primera A for the 2018 season, the first time the team will play in the first division.

Stadium
Further information: Estadio Metropolitano Ciudad de Itagüí

Honours
Runners-up (1): 2017

Players

Current squad
As of 10 June 2020

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  COL Cristian Arroyave
2 DF  COL Eder Munive
3 DF  COL Jhon Palacios
4 DF  COL Miguel Arboleda
5 DF  COL José Luis Mosquera
7 MF  COL Carlos Echeverri
8 MF  COL David Loaiza
9 FW  COL Leonel García
10 MF  COL Mateo Muñoz
11 FW  COL Felipe Gómez
12 GK  COL Juan Pablo Montoya
14 DF  COL Denis Mena
15 MF  COL Deiver Hinojosa
17 FW  COL Faber Gil
No. Pos. Nation Player
18 FW  COL Jefferson Rivas
19 DF  COL Juan Diego Ceballos
20 MF  COL Mateo Serna
21 DF  COL Yoni Mosquera
24 DF  COL Duván González
26 DF  COL Nicolás Gil
28 FW  COL Kevin Viveros
29 FW  COL Rivaldo Correa
30 FW  COL Juan Asprilla
— GK  COL César Giraldo
— DF  COL Carlos Mosquera
— DF  COL Hadier Borja
— MF  COL Luis Vélez
— MF  COL Yiran Puerta

Notable players
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