Unión Española
Chilean football club / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Club Unión Española S.A.D.P. is a professional football club based in the Independencia neighborhood, commune of Santiago, Chile. They currently participate in the Primera División de Chile. It has a branch of women's football, and competes in national tournaments with its lower categories. Acclaimed as one of the four great of Chilean football, it is one of the longest-lived teams in the country.
Full name | Unión Española S.A.D.P. | ||
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Nickname(s) | La Furia (The Fury) El Rojo (The Red) Hispanos (Hispanics) | ||
Founded | May 18, 1897; 127 years ago (1897-05-18) as Centro Español de Instrucción y Recreación | ||
Ground | Estadio Santa Laura | ||
Capacity | 19,000[1] | ||
Owner | Jorge Segovia | ||
Chairman | Arturo Juarros | ||
Manager | Miguel Ponce | ||
League | Chilean Primera División | ||
2023 | Primera División, 10th of 16 | ||
Website | Club website | ||
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Unión Española has won Primera División seven times, behind Colo-Colo (31), Universidad de Chile (18), Universidad Católica (14) and Cobreloa (8), as well as winning two Copa Chile titles. On the South American stage Unión has participated nine times in Copa Libertadores, one time in Copa Sudamericana and one time in the Copa Ganadores de Copa. Unión also was runner-up in the Copa Libertadores of 1975.
In July 2008, the club was purchased by the Spanish entrepreneur and owner of SEK University, Jorge Segovia. Segovia purchased all rights federative, the lower divisions, the pass of the players and the logo of the club, for a fee of 2.5 billion Chilean pesos (US$1.25 million).
Home games have been played at the Estadio Santa Laura since their 1922 opening. After Segovia's arrival in May 2008, the stadium was remodeled at a cost of 4 billion pesos. In 2009, the stadium was renamed as Estadio Santa Laura–Universidad SEK.
The club's traditional rivals are Palestino, a team founded by members of the Palestinian diaspora living in Chile and Audax Italiano, which originated from their local Italian counterpart. With Palestino and Audax, the team plays the so-called Clásico de Colonias ("Diaspora Derby"). Unión Española is also the second oldest club of the Primera División Chilena behind Santiago Wanderers that was founded in 1892.