Independiente Medellín

Full name

Deportivo Independiente Medellín

Nickname(s)

El Rojo Paisa (The Paisa Red),^[1]
El Poderoso de la Montaña (The Powerful of the Mountain),^[2]
Medallo, DIM,
El Equipo del Pueblo (The People's Team),
El Rey de Corazones (The King of Hearts),
El Decano del Fútbol Colombiano (The Dean of Colombian Football)

Founded

14 November 1913

Ground

Estadio Atanasio Girardot
Medellín, Colombia

Capacity

40,043

Chairman

Eduardo Silva Meluk

Manager

Leonel Álvarez

League

Categoría Primera A

2015

2nd

Website

Club home page

Home colours

Away colours

Third colours

Deportivo Independiente Medellín, also known as DIM, is a professional Colombian football team based in Medellín, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Atanasio Girardot stadium.

Medellín has won the national league known as Categoría Primera A five times: in 1955, 1957, 2002-II, 2004-I and 2009-II. Its best performance at international level was in 2003, when the team achieved the third place in the Copa Libertadores de América.

Rivalries

Medellín's greatest rival is with the city's other major club Atlético Nacional, with whom they share the home stadium Atanasio Girardot. The team is dubbed "El Poderoso de la Montaña" or the powerful of the mountain due to Medellín's geographical location high in the Andean mountains. The rivalry is especially strong due to each team's main support club, Rexixtenxia Norte for Medellín and Los Del Sur for Atlético Nacional. The two clubs are named with the location that they occupy in the stadium where Rexixtenxia occupies the section behind the northern goal and Los Del Sur occupy the section behind the southern goal.

In 2004 Medellín and Nacional classified to the final of the Mustang Cup; in Antioquia everybody was very excited because this was the first "Paisa" final of the history of the short tournaments. This system requires 2 games to be the champion, in the first game, Medellín won 2–1 with a goal of Rafael Castillo in the 87 minute after the goals of Jorge Serna (DIM) and Carlos "Chumi" Alvarez in the first half. The final game was in the 27 June, and it ended 0–0 and Medellín became the champion of the Colombian National League.

Controversies

Medellín won its third league title after 45 years of agony. However, there were two seasons where Medellín had the title within its reach only to lose it amid great controversy. From its foundation until 2002, the Colombian First Division League had adopted a league format commonly used in European leagues. The format was a year-long tournament where the team at then end of the year in best standing was declared the winner. This format was changed in 2002 to an Apertura-Clausura format where two separate seasons are played during the year to determine two winners. In 1993 during the last game of the year, Medellín and Atlético Junior were fighting for a tight first place. Junior was playing América de Cali at home in Baranquilla while simultaneously Medellín played hometown rivals Atlético Nacional. The games were to start and end at the same time. A Medellín win with a Junior loss or draw would have given Medellín the title. Medellín beat Nacional 1–0 while awaiting the 2–2 game in Baranquilla to end. Medellín players were celebrating with a victory lap and giving interviews with reporters waiting for the final whistle in Baranquilla. After Oswaldo Mackenzie to score an extremely late goal (45 minutes and 5 seconds of the second half) giving Junior the win 3–2 and the title. This was not the first time Medellín had a heartbreaking season, in 1989 a year where Medellín had one of the best teams in the league and was expected to win the title but Junior with legendary players such as Valderrama, Mackenzie, Pacheco and Valenciano. A tragic event occurred in Colombian soccer. During the final games of the season, Medellín tied América de Cali 0–0 at home. During the game, the linesman Álvaro Ortega made a mistake and annulled a Medellín goal. Afterwards, a Medellín sympathizer hunted down the linesman and assassinated him. In response, the Colombian Soccer Federation decided to cancel the rest of the season leaving the 1989 league without a winner.

Honours

Amateur

Copa Jimenez Jaramillo (1): 1923^[3]
Campeonato Nacional (7): 1918, 1920, 1922, 1930, 1936, 1937, 1938^[3]
Campeonato Departamental (8): 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 y 1945^[3]

National Honours

Official national tournaments

Categoría Primera A (5): 1955, 1957, 2002-II, 2004-I, 2009-II
Copa Colombia (1): 1981
Runner-up Categoría Primera A (9): 1959, 1961, 1966, 1993, 2001, 2008-II, 2012-II, 2014-ll, 2015-I
Runner-up Copa Colombia (1): 1955–56.

Friendly Tournaments

Copa Club Unión: 1942^[4]
Triangular ‘Trofeo Coltejer’: 1955^[5]
Torneo "Medellín sin tugurios": 1983^[6]
Copa Montreal (Cánada): 1992
Copa DC United: 1994
Copa Ciudad de Popayan: 2005
Copa Gobernación de Antioquia: 2008 y 2010
Copa del Pacífico: 2009^[7]
Runner-up Copa Movilco – Gobernación del Meta: 2009
Runner-up Copa del Pacífico: 2010^[8]

Internationals Participations

Copa Libertadores de America

1967: First Round

1994: Quarter-finals

2003: Semi-finals (Third Place)

2005: First Round

2009: Second Round

2010: Second Round

Copa Sudamericana: 0

2006: First Round

Copa Conmebol: 0

1995: First Round

Players

Current squad

As of 1 February 2016

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	Luis Erney Vásquez
2	DF	Hernán Pertúz
3	DF	Luis Tipton
4	DF	Andrés Mosquera
5	DF	Matías Cahais
6	MF	Didier Moreno (on loan from Santa Fe)
7	FW	Juan David Pérez (on loan from Boyacá Chicó)
8	MF	John Hernández
9	FW	Juan Fernando Caicedo
10	MF	Brayan Angulo
15	MF	Cristian Restrepo
16	MF	Daniel Torres

No.	Position	Player
17	MF	Cristian Marrugo
20	MF	Mauricio Molina
21	MF	Hernán Hechalar
22	GK	David González
24	FW	Charles Monsalvo
25	MF	William Arboleda
26	DF	Jorge Enrique Arias
27	FW	Alfredo Morelos
28	MF	William Parra
–	DF	Marlon Piedrahita
–	MF	Johan Arango
–	FW	Leonardo Castro

Out on loan

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

No.	Position	Player
–	GK	Carlos Bejarano (at América)
–	DF	Javier López (at Rionegro Águilas)
–	DF	Jhonny Mena (at Atlético)

No.	Position	Player
–	DF	Lewis Ochoa (at Millonarios)
–	MF	Javier Calle (at New York City)
–	MF	Víctor Moreno (at Atlético)

Top scorers

As of 16 August 2015^[9]

No.	Name	Goals
1	José Vicente Grecco	92
2	Carlos Castro	90
3	Felipe Marino	77
4	Jorge Serna	75
5	Diego Álvarez	69
6	Uriel Cadavid	65
7	Perfecto Rodríguez	64
8	Jackson Martinez	56
9	Jaime Castrillón	55
10	Germán Cano	52

Most games played