C.D. Cobreloa

Club de Deportes Cobreloa S.A.D.P. (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkluβ ðe ðeˈpoɾtes koβɾeˈloa] ), commonly referred to as Cobreloa, is a Chilean football professional club based in Calama, Región de Antofagasta, Chile. They compete in the Primera B. The club's home ground is the Estadio Zorros del Desierto, His coach is César Bravo
Founded on 7 January 1977, by the initiative of various local groups and the Chilean state-owned enterprise, CODELCO. This club was created starting from the Legal Personality of the local club, Deportes El Loa. On 30 March 2006, the club changed to a Limited sports company with the unanimous approval of 56 of its socios (members). According to the 2018 year public report, the capital of the club is $4.534 billion CLP ($6.697.624,8 USD) spread on 1.000.000 shares of stock without nominal value, mostly owned by the socios (members of club) with 999,999 of them and the chairman of the club with 1 share. In 2018 the first team budget was $100 million CLP.
The club's professional debut in Segunda división professional de Chile was in 1977, achieving the promotion to Primera División in the same year. The club has won the Primera División title 8 times, and the 1986 Copa Polla Lan Chile. Some of its rivalries are with Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo team in the Clásico Albo-Loíno, Club de Deportes Cobresal who dispute the Clasico del Cobre and Deportes Antofagasta in the Clasico de la región de Antofagasta.
In 2019, The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation sorted out in the 71st position in the Worldwide Historical Ranking of Clubs. In CONMEBOL Libertadores Ranking 2021 it is in 68th position.
On 1 January 1948, 'Club Social Deportivo Deportes El Loa' was founded in Calama, Chile. This club was the first legal personality of the team and the first team in Calama in have this type of personality. In 1951, the team played in the association with a second team with the name 'Cóndor'. Later, in February 1955, the team was renamed to 'Club Deportivo y Social Sport Cóndor.
In 1957, Calama entered on a tournament organized by the newly established Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Amateur de Chile, previously known as a federation, Calama had participated in previous amateur tournaments, such as in 1949 and 1953. The third Nacional Juvenil de Fútbol began on July 28 of that year. The organizers' goal was to select a group of players who would compete in the 1962 World Cup, which would be held in Chile. The first phase matches were played in regional divisions, with the Calama youth team facing off against its counterpart from Chuquicamata.
In 1959, the Calama Amateur team, coached by Roberto Rodríguez Antequera, won the 28th edition of the National Amateur Football Championship. The final was against Thomas Bata de Peñaflor, played at the Estadio Municipal de Calama. The score was 3-2 in extra time, after a 2-2 tie at the end of regulation time. The game-winner was scored by Valencia in the 8th minute of the first half. The team that played in the final was as follows:
Hidalgo, Soto, Tapia, Lillo, Aracena, Toro, Gutierrez, A. Portillo, Valencia, M. Portillo, and Vega.
This achievement allowed Calama to qualify for the Copa Chile of that same year, as an amateur team, but they only reached the round of 16 of the tournament, being eliminated in that round by Deportes La Serena, winning by one goal in the first leg and winning 6-0 in the second leg, qualifying them for the next phase.
By 1960, Sport Cóndor team was already participating in provincial championships in the region of Antofagasta with teams from Calama, such as Tronador, which would animate the matches of the Asociación de Fútbol de Calama of that decade; from Tocopilla as Chile Sporting, from Tal-Tal as Unión Caleta and the teams such Coquimbo and Correvuela from Chuquicamata.
Later, on Sunday, December 17, 1961, the Chuquicamata amateur, coached by Daniel Chirinos, team won the next edition of the Chilean National Amateur Football Tournament undefeated against Osorno 3-2, with a hat trick by Mario Valencia, at the Anaconda Stadium in Chuquicamata, before an audience of 6,346. The winning team's lineup was as follows:
Hidalgo, Silva, Gary, Cortés, Valencia, Reyes, León (Cortés), Portillo, Mario Valencia, Carvajal (Diaz), and Bustos.
In the previous match, the Calama teams, coached this time by Jaime Meneses, and Peñaflor played, and the score ended in a 2-2 draw. These facts pushed to the 'El Loa' citizen the desire to have a professional team in the city
In 1962, Sport Cóndor submitted its bid to participate in professional football. At that time, the club had the support of the Chile Exploration Company, then managed by the Anaconda Copper consortium, an international mining company, from which the state-owned company, CODELCO, would be born a decade later. Its then president, Carlos Seguel, was also the company's commercial manager and established links between the sports club and the company. The Asociación Central de Fútbol Profesional de Chile responded negatively to the request by the president of the club.
During the Holy Week period of 1964, the Calama and Chuquicamata teams played an international quadrangular, hosted in Calama, with a title in dispute, which included the participation of the Municipal de Lima international team from Peru and the Universidad Católica de Chile team, who were on tour. In the last matches of the competition, the Universidad Católica team defeated the Calama football team by 4 goals to 0, in favor of the Santiago team, the goals were scored by Foulijoux, Tobar, Gajardo and Isella. And the Municipal de Lima team defeated the Chuquicamata team by 5 goals to 1, with double goals by Etuchi, Drago Mosquera and Bernales, these results gave the winner of the international tournament to the Peruvian team Municipal de Lima.
In 1965, the Presidents' Congress of the Segunda División Tournament agreed that provincial teams would not be accepted into the tournament in order to compete in 1966. Therefore, the Sport Condor club was not eligible to apply to join the Segunda División during this period of time.
In January 1967, the idea of merging Sport Cóndor with Santiago Morning under the name of 'Loa Morning' to venture into professional football was originated by the Asociación de Fútbol de Calama, the choice at that time was the financial crisis of the chosen team, which led it to relegate to Segunda División; In August of the same year the board of Chile Exploration Company headed by Carlos Seguel accepted a period of formal approach with this team, but this idea failed due to the refusal of the partners and the board of directors of both teams.
On 2 January 1968, 'Gobernación del Loa' decided to introduce a football club to professional football to represent the northern chile region, to this end, they encouraged Cóndor and 'Correvuela', the team of the neighboring Chuquicamata, but this initiative failed because the 'Asociación Central de Fútbol' decided incorporate 'Antofagasta Portuario' like a representative. In 1969.
In press releases from the Illustrious Municipality of Calama, reference has been made to the fact that Club Sport Cóndor, later known as Deportes El Loa, leased the Calama Municipal Stadium for its sporting events. These leases date from 1969 to 1974.
By 1971, the Sport Cóndor club, a club recognized by the Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Amateur of Chile, who made its application for the only place offered by the Asociación Central de Fútbol Profesional that year, by then, the application was reinforced by adding the name of Deportes El Loa, appearing as a double application, the manager who would be in charge of the institution would be Jorge Burboa, who participated in the integration into professionalism of clubs such as Federico Schwager and Huachipato, this application had the support of workers' unions in Chuquicamata, Calama, and the nitrate offices of Pedro de Valdivia and Maria Elena. The club already had 10,000 members, whose membership fees would be deducted from their payroll, the board of delegates finally decided to include the Independiente de Cauquenes team to enter the Segunda División that year. The request to enter the professional ranks was rejected again.
The representative colors of Deportes El Loa were a yellow shirt, blue shorts, and white socks, similar to those of the Brazilian national team, since the team's coach, Roberto Rodriguez, liked the Brazilian national team's football. The team was a member of the Asociación de Fútbol de Calama. That year, the team faced the Cuban national football team, which was touring Chile, and won 1-0 over the Cubans.
In 1972, the then Deportes El Loa team loaned players from its team to represent Calama in the thirty-fourth Campeonato Nacional de Fútbol Amateur. At the time, it was coached by Roberto Rodríguez and featured players who had played on professional teams, such as Héctor Torres, Jorge Garcés, and Gabriel Cáceres.
In 1974, another entry into the Asociación Central de Fútbol Profesional of Deportes El Loa, chaired by Carlos Seguel, was submitted for the first time. In 1975, the application for entry into professional football was again submitted, but was rejected again, on the grounds that Calama was outside the established limits for professional football. In that year, the player Carlos Rojas, enters the final of Deportes El Loa, coming from Unión Española. This player, who would return to play from the beginning of Cobreloa until 1990, won three national titles in the Primera División and one Copa Chile in 1986. He also had a period as a formative player trainer at the club, being one of the managers of the first sale of the club, Mauricio Donoso. He then had a stint as coach of the club's first team, in the 1997 and 1998 tournament, then in 2000. He then coached again in 2016.
The director board of 'Club Regional Antofagasta' held some talks with the regional Mayor of Region of Antofagasta in order to get Codelco workers to join and give one percent of their salary to the club, but the local government officials rejected the idea. There have also been indications that the club has expressed a desire to undertake the same unification exercise with the professional club Deportes Magallanes, but without success.
On 26 September 1976, the 'Cámara del Comercio', Railroad Unions, merchants and businessmen, sports directors of the 'El Loa' and also the Coronel Fernando Ibáñez, the prefect Francisco Núñez Venegas and the assistant directors of CODELCO, José Gorrini, Renzo Gasparini, Orlando Urbina and Nicolás Tschischow formed a committee called 'Pro Ingreso al Fútbol Rentado' with the purpose of induction 'Deportes El Loa' to professional football in Chile. The director of the hospital of Roy H. Glover, Sergio Stóppel joined this effort. United under the motto 'Ahora o Núnca' ('Now or never'), and was subsequently accepted into 'Segunda División' on the 14 October in the same year. In December this initiative counted with the approval of clubs like Regional Antofagasta, Colo-Colo, Naval, Aviación, Huachipato, Coquimbo, Ovalle, Everton, Wanderers and O'higgins.
A work plan was developed prior to entering professional football. This consisted of consultations with top executives in the field, such as city coaches, and in-depth studies of the team. This included a review of the area's sports infrastructure. Commissions traveled across the country to gather useful information prior to the founding of the new team. The objective of all this was to meet the requirements necessary to enter the country's professional football sector. The work plan lasted six months.
Due the inexperience of the directors of the team on professional football, they decided to sign up Alfonso Fuentes who had previously worked as a manager for Lota Schwager. The directors of the team, José Gorrini and Francisco Núñez, decided to incorporate to team as a section of CODELCO.
Fernando Riera, helped by Carlos Lillio Guerrero y Roberto Rodríguez, was asked to select the players for the team. They presented requirements to Executive Committee of the team to create the first squad with selection of the best players in the El Loa región. For this selection, mining workers who had previous Football experience were used. At the end of the day, the technical staff selected the following players:
The selected team would begin regular training at Anaconda Stadium, with the goal of eventually being presented to the Asociación Central de Fútbol Profesional. This was at the request of Nicolás Tschichow, José Gorrini, and Mario Puente.
On October 14 of this year, Eduardo Gordon, president of the Asociación Central de Fútbol Profesional, received the executive committee's letter of introduction, signed by all the entities involved.
On November the team played previous matches before entering professional football, which would enter into the Segunda División championship of their country, their first match in this period was with Regional Antofagasta with a 2-2 goal tie, then facing the Copiapó team, achieving a victory and then against the Vallenar team by 6 goals to 3.
On 7 January 1977, the NCO School of Carabineros of Chile, all directors of Asociación Central de Fútbol and all representatives of Chilean football clubs were reunited at 18.30 P.M. in Calama and Chuquicamata. Through the local Radio, 'Radio El Loa', at 20.15 P.M. the incorporation of 'Deportes El Loa' to the professional football by unanimous 'Primera and Segunda división' clubs approval was officially announced.
The governor and the mayor of Calama, called to the citizens to support this new project, end celebrated the event. To celebrate this fact, they chose a new name for the team, rejecting the proposed 'Calama Loa' due to this name not being representative of mining that composes the main economic activity of the region. The name Deportes El Loa, under which the club was presented to the Asociación Central de Fútbol Profesional, was changed at the request of the same board of directors. At a meeting of the club's leaders, the name "Cobreloa" was chosen because the new name included the miner, his family, copper, and El Loa, thus representing all the inhabitants of the province. By this time the club already had a daily membership of 10,625. The exercise of eliminating the legal status of Deportes El Loa and giving rise to Deportes Cobreloa was carried out by Cesáreo Castillo Michea, who was a leader of the Asociación de Fútbol de Calama until 1976 and also a prominent businessman in the city of Calama.
The first head coach of the club was elected in a shortlist between Salvador Nocetti, Pedro Morales, Luis Santibañez, Caopolicán Peña, Isaac Carrasco and Andrés Prieto. Initially, an offer was made to coach Pedro Morales, but he declined, and on his recommendation, the directors ultimately chose Andrés Prieto as the team's head coach for the season and he signs with the club on 15 January 1977.
When he was appointed team manager, Andres Prieto contacted the physical trainer, Gustavo Graef, at that time he was working for the Chilean National Soccer Team, the negotiations were not fruitful because the team had to pay a higher amount than the national team to take him, discarding him. Then there were approaches with the coaches; Sergio Lillo, Armando Aravena, Alejandro Sanchez, however, none was available to address the deal. On Graef's recommendation, they contacted Alejandro Guzmán to be the team's first physical trainer, who ended up accepting the proposal. The technical staff is made up as follows:
he choose the first transfers of the first team, been the following.
The first matches recorded as Deportes Cobreloa were those held on January 9 against the Chiquicamata youth team, with Cobreloa winning by 3 goals to 2 and The historical match of the team on January 12 of this year, against Tocopilla selection team, playing away. The result of the match was victory of the team by 0–1. Their first defeat was recorded on January 30 against Universidad Católica, losing 1-3 with Chuquicamata as the venue.
After the friendly matches in the local area, the team decided to continue their preseason preparations at the Las Vertientes Training Center in Santiago de Chile, where they would initially meet with the squad's foreign signings and the new management team. During this time, they faced teams from the capital, which would help them prepare for their first ever competitive season.
The first official match of the team was on the date February 6 of this year, playing away against 'Regional Antofagasta', on the Estadio 'Regional de Antofagasta' valid for 'Copa Chile', winning by 0–2 with goals of Armando Alarcón on 20' and Juan Rogelio Núñez on 34'.
The team entered the field with the following Line-Up:
Line-Up:
The club was able to establish itself in Chile's top flight very quickly, earning promotion after its first season, where they stayed until the 2014–2015 season. Only four years after their foundation, Cobreloa reached the finals of the Copa Libertadores in 1981, losing in a third match to Brazilian club Flamengo. Cobreloa reached the Copa Libertadores final the following year, losing to Peñarol of Uruguay. The club also reached the semi-final of the Copa Libertadores in 1987.
They have competed in the Copa Libertadores de América 13 times, 3 times in the Copa Sudamericana and twice in the Copa CONMEBOL. In 1995 they reached the quarter-finals and the following year were eliminated in the first round. Cobreloa have 8 Primera División titles and 1 Copa Chile title making them the most successful side outside Santiago in Chile and one of the four biggest clubs of the country.
Domestic League Chart with each tier division who the team has participated since 1977.
Notes
In 2019 to get a membership of the club can be by the assistant to the headquarters of the club in Calama in Abaroa street N°1757 or through the online platform in the official website of the institution with previous registration. The necessary documents to get a membership are passport or ID Card and a photo.
The oldest oficial member of the club, is Rodolfo Yáñez Rojas, who is member since the foundation of the institution.
The first official supporters group was created in 1977, called Barra Oficial de Cobreloa by the workers from the El Loa province; Orlando Navarro, Mario Paniagua and José Santos Rodriguez and the support of the club directors.
In 1982, 35 CODELCO workers established the supporters group, Barra Chuquicamata. On this decade was created de group of supporters Mario Soto, tribute to Defense of the club, who dressed the club colors until 1985. They were characterized because they support with musical instruments.
In 1994 was created the supported group, Huracan Naranja, from the Santiago de Chile fans group Vicente Cantatore.
A poll called, Encuesta GFK Adimark, study who is the most popular team on Chile. Cobreloa in 2015 reached the most high value on the poll, with a 1,5% of the total of the population polled. And in the 2018 the lowest value with 0,9%. In both polls the team was the 5th most popular club in country. In Región de Antofagasta the team reach since 2015 until 2019 the 12,752% of preference of the population.
The Cobreloa supporters, specifically the CODELCO workers, are known for having donated a day of their salary to contribute to pay the signing pass of the defender Mario Soto.
The first badge was created by Enrique Escala, The original badge was inspired in the logotype of the Chilean Company who administered the first years of the club, Corporation del Cobre, which in turn take the inspiration in the planetary symbol of venus, whom metal represent the copper, the main recourse from El Loa to the country. Over the CODELCO logotype specifically a sphere, who in the institution badge is replaced by a traditional football ball with yellow and black casings, and the name of the club in the horizontal line of the badge in an orange color.
Through the years the badge has suffer some modifications, to 1995 until 2000, the badge was changed to entirely orange with the letters of the name of the club in white, to 2000 until 2005, was added over the upperbody of the badge a ribbon with the letters, Cobreloa and the lowbody of this, was added the letters Calama, referring to homeground of the team, and was added a white outline around the badge, and the color of this badge was more of a dark orange, to 2005 until 2012, the white outline was removed replaced by a black one, and the upperbody ribbon was united with the main body of the badge, to 2012 until 2013, the design was 'simplified' and the football ball on the badge was bigger and touched the borders of the inner body, and the orange color was replaced to another more bright, to 2013 to the present, to the design of the badge was added eight stars to represent the eight national titles won by the club, and the football ball was centred in the inner body of this.
The traditional color of Cobreloa is orange, according to president, José Gorrini, the color of the club was selected due to give tribute to Netherlands National Football Team, in the 70's this selection was very popular by players like Johan Cruyff. Also, by commercial reasons this color was selected due obtain travel discounts in the national airline, Ladeco (Línea aérea del Cobre), whose corporative color was orange.The idea for this was thanks to engineer of CODELCO Chuquicamata, Peter Kiefkoff, who accepted the task of managing the club's finances, on the condition that the club would wear the colors of his native country's team.
The first Cobreloa kit was red shirt and white shorts, due to lack of clothing, improvised in February 1977 for Copa Chile, facing Regional Antofagasta. In 2024, this jersey was released in a limited comercial edition to commemorate the club's first kit. Since 1977 the classical kit of the team is full orange, with some modifications, like 1992–93 season with white shorts, in 2009–10 the official kit was change with white socks. The away kit has been mostly full white, until 2001–2006 year it changed by color black, also in 2013–15 and 2017–18 seasons alternating with white color during those years.
The first brand who was clothing the team was Chilean Sport brand 'Haddad', located in Santiago de Chile, due the international brands was not interested in clothing the team, aside the calama brands who was interested. However, there was a moment who the team directors was decided to change the atire to the Chilean brand, 'Kotting'. Finally 'Haddad' was the first brand to dress to team, who was participated on Segunda División.
In 1978, the team participated on Primera División de Chile, hence the team change of sport brand, to the Mario Soto sports brand, called 'MyS'. Part of the player contract. In 1981, the team change the sport brand to the Chilean brand 'New Lider' to participate in his first international competition, while 'MyS' continued give the training clothes until 1981.
In 1982, the club sings with the Germany sport brand, Adidas, presented in the final of Copa Libertadores of this year, versus Peñarol of Uruguay.
The first commemorative shirt of the club was in 2007, with Spanish sportswear company, Kelme. That attire was a special logo on them. In December 2016, the sportswear company, Macron, announced for sale a commemorative shirt to celebrate 40 years of the club; the design was similar to the 1980s kits style.
On 4 February 2019, was shown its first third kit in Cobreloa, being the black the color that was elected due to the popular choice of the club fans.
The first anthem of the club was written and composed by the musician and writer, Alejandro Álvarez Vargas—the winning contestant from a contest advertised through the local radio station
One of the most important aspects of the team's idiosyncrasy is the siren that sounds when the team begins to execute an attacking play in the opponent's area. Librarian Fabiana Rosales attributes this idea to the idea of a CODELCO worker known as Negro Pinto and his coworkers. She says they boldly took over the stadium's northwest lighting tower to install a siren with an 80-meter cable, connecting it to a push-button panel under the seat. This would function as a sort of "goal alarm." The sound was identical to the one they heard when an overhead crane was put into motion or the concentrator at the Chuquicamata mine was started up.
The club's first mascot was inspired by the events of a Chuquicamata resident named Gerónimo Dominguez, who met the club at age 12. During the team's development into professional football, his brother-in-law, while doing his military service in Conchi, found a fox cub, which he took to Calama and ended up giving to Dominguez, who decided to raise it as a domestic dog. One day they decided to take it to the stadium. The squad liked it, and a relationship was formed between Gerónimo, the fox, and the team, who decided to make it their mascot. The fox's first appearance as such was during a match against Santiago Morning, around 8:00 p.m., entering the stadium with it and parading it around the field. The second time, it came dressed in a salmon-colored baby suit. Gerónimo performed this performance throughout the season. Due to the animal's natural behavior, eating livestock and causing problems for not being domesticated, the family decided to set it free. The fox, trying to return to the family home, was struck by a vehicle and killed.
This incident caused a stir in the community, and a cartoon fox named "Loíto" was designed, the brainchild of journalist Alfredo Llewellyn Bustos. The mascot was designed by director René Vásquez Rodríguez. The mascot first appeared in a club brochure for membership recruitment and also in the local newspaper "El Mercurio de Calama" in 1977, to follow the team's weekly activities.
Since 1977 the first home ground of the club was the Estadio Municipal de Calama, who played the national league and internationals Cups matches until 27 January 2013. The last match that was played by the team in this stadium was against Colo-Colo, the team won 5–2.
For the two finals of Copa Libertadores the team played in the Estadio Nacional de Chile, in 1981 and 1982, against Clube de Regatas do Flamengo and Club Atletico Peñarol respectively.
In February 2013 due to the renovation of the Stadium, the team had to play in another's home ground, the first stadium at which it was elected to play was the Parque Estadio Juan López located in Antofagasta. For the first class matches the stadium elected was the Tierra de Campeones on Iquique, where Club de Deportes Universidad Católica plays.
The complaints of the team about the infrastructure of the stadium Juan López, the directing of the club made negotiations with the Municipality of Antofagasta to play in the Stadium Calvo y Bascuñan, in this homeground the team played the Copa Sudamericana matches, with Club Atletico Peñarol and Club Deportivo La Equidad and local first Class matches of the Local League for the rest of the year.
From June of this year, the main stadium at which the team played mostly the national league, in the recently inaugurated stadium Estadio Luis Becerra Constanzo, formerly called Estadio la Madriguera de Calama in Calama, the team inaugurated the home ground in a Copa Chile match against Club de Deportes Cobresal.
Since 2015, the team plays in the stadium Zorros del Desierto of Calama. The first match was against Club de Deportes Antofagasta. The team plays the local competitions like the Primera B de Chile and Copa Chile.
Hector Puebla holds the most appearances with the club with 663 and holds the most appearances in domestics leagues with 457, on 16 years in the team (1980-1996), also, is the player with most titles with the club with 5 domestic leagues (1980, 1982, 1985, 1988, 1992) and the 1986 national Cup.
Juan Covarrubias is the all-time goalscorer for the team, with 147, and the top goalscorer in domestics leagues with 105 goals. He won with the team the domestics titles in 1988 and 1992.
The higher transfer fee on Chile was Eduardo Vargas transfer to the Universidad de Chile, for US$1.365 million.
This institution owns the fifth local unbeaten streak of the world, which extended from 22 December 1980 until 22 September 1985, with a total of 91 matches without loss in Calama for Domestic Matches.
Current squad of Cobreloa as of 4 July 2022 (edit) Sources: ANFP Official Web Site
Manager: Nelson Soto
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Source: Memoria Anual 2022
The club is managed by Sociedad Anonima Deportiva Profesional (Professional Sports Corporation) format in Chile, through the Chilean law, N° 20.019 relativa a las Organizaciones Deportivas Profesionales (Related to Professional Sports Organizations). This law allow to organize, produce, marketing and participate in professional sports activities in the country.
On 2 October 2017, the club made an extraordinary assembly with the members of the club, the assistance of these with suffrage right was of 86. The purpose was to reform the statute regime of the club in that moment. This renewed statutes lay down the official address of the club, Calama, the indefinite length time of the directory and the unlimited number of member who could be owns.
This statute allude the principles and objectives of the institution, the rights and duties of the members, the heritage and the administration, the members general assemblies, the directory, the duties of the directors of the corporation, subsidiaries of the club and the rules of this.
Source: Memoria Anual 2022
Administration
Interim coaches appear in italics.
Cobreloa presidents from 1977 to present: