Santiago Wanderers

Club de Deportes Santiago Wanderers is a football club based in Valparaíso, a founding member of the Chilean Football Federation. Their home ground, Estadio Elías Figueroa Brander, is in the north-west of the city. Wanderers have played their games there since 1931 after moving from Barrio Puerto.
Founded on 15 August 1892, it is the country's oldest club and the oldest football team in Chile and the entirity of the Americas. For this reason, Wanderers is known in Chile as the Decano del fútbol chileno ("The dean of Chilean football") and forms part of CONMEBOL's Club de los 100, section which congregates Latin-American teams founded over 100 years ago. In 2007, the club was declared as part of Valparaíso's intangible heritage. The club's home colours are green shirts and socks with white shorts, which are based on the colours of the Irish national football team.
Wanderers have a fierce rivalry with cross-city neighbours Everton and the two sides contest the Clásico Porteño (Seaport Derby), the oldest derby in Chile, which started in 1916. Wanderers are historically the working-class club whereas Everton are considered to be from the wealthier tourist and beach resort districts.
In the club's early history, the club was a member of the local championship held in the Valparaíso Region called Liga Valparaíso, winning seven titles. In 1926, the football associations in Chile were unified, and Valparaíso went into decline as the administrative hub of Chilean football. After this period, having joined the professional football association in 1944, the club has won three further league titles in 1958, 1968, and 2001.
Wanderers have produced important players in Chilean football history like Elías Figueroa, who is considered the best Chilean footballer of all time, as well as one of the greatest defenders of football, alongside Franz Beckenbauer, according to FIFA. Other important players Wanderers has produced for Chile have been Moisés Villarroel, Reinaldo Navia, David Pizarro and Eugenio Mena, the two latter who were both 2015 Copa América champions, the nation's first ever title in the continental football tournament.
Santiago Wanderers was officially established on 15 August 1892 in the port district, Barrio Puerto in Valparaíso. Due to the presence of another team called Valparaíso Wanderers, the name Santiago was adopted by the club's founders to distinguish from the already existing team.
Until 1936, the club played at amateur level until officially joining the professional league competition in 1937 as soon as the Chilean Football Federation began organising championships in 1933 across the centre and the south zones of Chile. In their first season competing in the professional league, after finishing bottom of the table – in seventh place – and without points, Wanderers decided to leave the Asociación de Fútbol de Santiago (federation's official governing body that organised the professional football tournament; current ANFP) and return to the local football association. In 1944 however, Wanderers joined the professional league once again on a permanent basis and displayed consistent performances and campaigns during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Wanderers' first successful era started when José Pérez was appointed manager in 1955. In 1958, his third season in charge, the club won its first league title and in 1959 its first ever Copa Chile defeating Deportes La Serena 5-1 in the final. In 1961, Wanderers once again reached the Cup title defeating Universidad Católica on aggregate. For the remainder of the 1960s, the club finished fifth and eighth in the following seasons, and in 1968, Santiago Wanderers won its second league title and enjoyed an era of success that saw the emergence of promising players like central defender Elías Figueroa.
This success however did not continue during the 1970s; José Pérez left the club and Wanderers were relegated to second division in 1977, following internal turmoil in the club's board and poor campaigns on the field. The club was promoted at the first attempt after winning the Second division championship, just two points clear of Naval from Talcahuano. Once back in the top-tier, Wanderers did not perform too well and finished in mid-table whilst also languishing in the bottom places.
Wanderers were eventually relegated for the third time in 1984 and did not return to Primera until 1989, after beating 4–1 to Unión San Felipe in the promotion playoffs. In the 1991 season, Wanderers were relegated yet again to second division and celebrated its 100th anniversary in country's second tier and escaping by only five points from relegation. Following four seasons in the second division, Wanderers finally achieved promotion to Primera in 1995 winning the league 4-1 on aggregate over two legs against Audax Italiano after finishing 0-0 and on equal 52 points on the ladder after 30 rounds.
The 1996 season, after returning to first division, the club did not perform consistency although forward Mario Vener became the first player in the club's history to top the goal scoring charts by scoring 30 goals. By 1999, the club once again dropped to second division despite key signings in 1998 including Claudio Borghi, Marcelo Vega and several youngsters including David Pizarro and Reinaldo Navia finishing second-last in 15th spot under manager Pedro Garcia. In season 1999 and in mid-table under manager Guillermo Páez, the club appointed Jorge Garcés who achieved promotion in the last round 1-1 draw to Deportes Ovalle.
In 2000, a 9th-placed finish summed up a promising season with Garcés and the side sending arch-rivals Everton to relegation on the final day of the season with a 1-1 draw. The signing of Uruguayan forward Silvio Fernández and midfielder Arturo Sanhueza strengthened the squad as Garcés and the side topping the league table after four rounds and dominating the season with only a draw in round 20 to Rangers. The following week in round 21, Garcés and Wanderers defeated giants Universidad de Chile, the first of ten consecutive wins until the final round of the season ensuring its third League title after thirty three years without a league title. Defeating Audax Italiano 4-2 in the final match day of the 2001 league championship at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago with 50,000 supporters that travelled from Valparaíso.
Following average performances since season 2007, in 2007, the club got relegating back to Primera B after finishing in the league table's penultimate spot. However two seasons later in 2009, the club returned once again to the top-flight following a victory in the two-legged promotion playoffs over San Luis Quillota. After a 2010 season finish in mid-table, the team avoided relegation against Naval.
In 2012, Wanderers celebrated their 120th anniversary since its foundation. That year, the club competed in their third consecutive season in the top flight of Chilean football.
In 2014, Wanderers performed an impressive Torneo Clausura finishing runner-up behind giants Universidad de Chile after beating Colo-Colo and advance to the second place. The club qualified to international cup football following a twelve-year absence, reaching the 2015 Copa Sudamericana, despite losing 6–1 at home to Palestino in the final of the playoffs to qualify to the Copa Libertadores with Wanderers as consolation, qualifying to the second most prestigious continental tournament.
In 2017, the club won its third Copa Chile title after beating to Universidad de Chile in the final held in Estadio Ester Roa Rebolledo at Concepción.
In its early years the color that characterised Wanderers were white with the initials "SW" stamped in black. These uniforms were hand-made (often by players' wives), which made the kits differ from each other.
In 1907 the team added a black diagonal band in the classic white uniform, although differences remained between the players' costumes. It remained until James McLean, an Englishman who had moved to Valparaiso a few years earlier, proposed shipping in uniforms from England, where kits were already manufactured specifically for football teams. With McLean's return to Valparaiso, Wanderers received twenty green kits and twenty white shorts, besides a black uniform for the goalkeepers. The explanation of the design change was that McLean, of Irish origin, decided to send kits with the colours of the Irish Football Association team. The first time Wanderers played with that kit was on 18 September 1908.
Since then the team has maintained its home kit with some exceptions, where it was used a white shirt with thin green stripes in late 60s or in 2001 when Wanderers won its third league title.
In 2007, a similar uniform was released to the ones used in 1965 and 1966, as a way to honour the 115 years of the institution.
Santiago Wanderers' traditional rivals are Everton de Viña del Mar and both teams dispute the Clásico Porteño. Although the first games between both date back to the 1910s, in that era the rival was La Cruz Football Club from Valparaíso too. The rivalry with Everton began to take shape towards the mid-1930s and was intensified with the relocation of that club to Viña del Mar.
During the amateurism era Wanderers dominated the head-to-head record against Everton, but today the club has not been able to reverse that difference in the professional era, which explains the current historical disadvantage (only overcome in the early 1970s). Both have faced off 157 times, of which 43 have been draws, 65 have been victories for Everton and 49 for Wanderers, whilst for top-tier, the greens have won 34 times, Everton have won on 39 occasions and registering 30 draws.
The first professional match between Wanderers and Everton took place on 9 July 1944 with a 2–0 win for the Viña del Mar side.
Current squad of Santiago Wanderers as of February 2025 (edit) Sources: ANFP Official Web Site
Manager: Héctor Robles
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.
The club's supporters are known as Porteños or Wanderinos. Wanderers principal fan group are The Panzers, whose politics tend to be left-wing.
Based in the rhythm of English march Captain Craddock, the most commonly accepted and widespread version is that this dates back to 1912 and would be work from the performer and composer Efrain Arévalo López, who would have donated the composition in a gesture of thanks to the club's board, for the joys lived with the team.