Deportes Concepción (Chile)

Deportes Concepción is a Chilean football club based in the city of Concepción, Biobio Region. As of 2025^[update], they play at the second tier of the Chilean League system, the Primera B de Chile.^[1]

Deportes Concepción

Full name	Club Social y de Deportes Concepción
Nickname(s)	El Conce El León de Collao Los Lilas
Founded	February 24, 1966
Ground	Estadio Ester Roa Concepción, Chile
Capacity	30,448
Chairman	Gabriela Parra
Manager	Juan Francisco Viveros
Coach	Manuel Suárez
League	Segunda División
2024	Champions
Home colours Away colours

The club was founded in 1966, by the organizations of several amateur clubs such as Galvarino, Liverpool, Juvenil Unido, Santa Fe and Club Lord Cochrane. The club is one of the most popular in the VIII region of Chile. Their main rivals are Fernández Vial, with whom they play the "clásico penquista"^[2] and Huachipato. The club played their home games at Estadio Ester Roa in Concepción, Chile, which seats 30,448 people.

History

The team joined the second level of the Chilean professional league in 1966 and won the tournament a year later, gaining promotion to the Primera División de Chile.

In 1991, the team joined in representing Chile in the Copa Libertadores, they passed through the 1st round phase but lost in the round of sixteen against América de Cali.

In 1993, the club was relegated after finishing 15th of 16 teams, but the club bounced straight back by winning the second division title in 1994.

Concepción played their next big international tournament in 1999, they participated in the Copa CONMEBOL and made it all the way to the semifinals but lost against Talleres de Córdoba from Argentina which was a real disappointment to the fans.

In the year 2001, they once again played the Copa Libertadores and beat rivals such as San Lorenzo from Argentina and Jorge Wilstermann from Bolivia. Once again they made it into the round of sixteen but lost this time to Vasco da Gama from Brazil who had top class players like Romário in their team.

In 2002, the club were again relegated by finishing 15th of 16 teams in the aggregated table, they returned to the topflight in 2004.

In the year 2006, the team was suspended and could not play professionally in the whole year due to debts and unpaid salaries. The club was going to be relegated, but after a legal battle, they were readmitted in the Chilean first division, where they play in 2007. An alternative team (Deportes Concepción B) played that season at the Third level, as well.

In 2016, the club was expelled of the Chilean National League system due to economic problems and returned in 2018 at the last level of the league system, the fifth tier, Tercera B, gaining promotion in their debut season on the category to the next level, the fourth tier Tercera División, for 2019, in which they get a consecutive promotion to the next level, the third tier Segunda División, for 2020.^[3]

In 2024, they lost the Segunda División final to Deportes Melipilla. However, a legal battle ensued over payment irregularities by Melipilla, and Melipilla was eventually assigned a three-point penalty. As a result, the ANFP awarded the division title to Deportes Concepción and promoted them to the second-tier Primera B de Chile for 2025.^[1]

Club records

• Seasons in Primera División (I): 33 (1968–81), (1985–93), (1995–02), (2005), (2007–08)
• Seasons in Primera B (II): 12 (1966–67), (1982–84), (1994), (2003–04), (2009–2016), (2025)
• Seasons in Segunda División (III): 5 (2020–2024)
• Seasons in Tercera División (IV): 1 (2019)
• Seasons in Tercera B (V): 1 (2018)
• Copa Libertadores appearances: 2 (1991, 2001)
• Copa CONMEBOL appearances: 1 (1999)
• Largest Margin of Victory: 7–1 vs. Santiago Morning (1976)
• Largest Margin of Defeat: 0–7 vs Universidad de Chile (1987)
• Best Finish in Primera División: 2nd (1975)
• Best Finish in Copa Chile: Runner-up (2010)
• Highest home attendance  — 37,423 v. Colo-Colo (1 October 1972)
• Most Goals in Primera División matches: Víctor Estay (77 goals)
• All-time Goalscorer: Víctor Estay (88 goals)
• All-time Appearances: Patricio Almendra (269 games)

Honours

National

• Copa Francisco Candelori
  • Winners (1): 1970
• Primera B
  • Winners (2): 1967, 1994

Regional

• Torneo Provincial de Chile
  • Winners (2): 1968, 1970

Crest

• 
  1998 to 2017

South American cups history

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1991	Copa Libertadores	First Stage Group 2		Colo-Colo	0–0	0–2	3rd Place
				Barcelona	1–0	2–2
				L.D.U. Quito	3–0	0–4
		Round of 16		América de Cali	0–3	3–3	3–6
1999	Copa CONMEBOL	Quarterfinals		Rosario Central	2–1	2–2	4–3
		Semifinals		Talleres de Córdoba	1–1	1–2	2–3
2001	Copa Libertadores	First Stage Group 3		Nacional	0–0	0–2	2nd Place
				San Lorenzo	3–2	1–2
				Jorge Wilstermann	3–0	1–2
		Round of 16		Vasco da Gama	1–3	0–1	1–4

Current squad

Current squad of Deportes Concepción (Chile) as of April 2025 (edit)
Sources: ANFP Official Web Site

No. Position Player 1 CHI GK Joaquín Muñoz 3 CHI DF Diego Carrasco 4 CHI MF Ariel Cáceres 5 CHI DF Sebastián Silva 6 CHI MF Nicolás Astete 7 ARG FW Ángel Gillard 8 CHI MF Fabrizio Manzo 9 CHI FW Carlos Escobar 10 CHI FW Fabián Núñez 11 CHI MF Brayan Valdivia 12 CHI GK Benjamín Sepúlveda 13 CHI DF Fernando Cornejo 14 CHI MF Sebastián Martínez 15 COL FW André Morales 16 CHI MF Sergio Arriagada

No. Position Player 17 CHI DF Claudio Fernández 18 CHI DF Felipe Saavedra 19 CHI FW Gary Tello 20 CHI DF Diego Zambrano 21 CHI FW Alexis Mancilla 22 CHI DF Nicolás L'Huillier 23 ARG MF Ulises Ojeda 24 PAR DF Jonathan Espínola 25 CHI GK Nicolás Araya 27 CHI MF Nelson Sepúlveda 28 CHI MF Aníbal Garay 29 CHI DF Alessandro Sánchez 30 CHI MF Nicolás Fuentes 31 CHI GK Ignacio Sáez 32 ARG FW Joaquín Larrivey

Manager: Manuel Suárez

2021 Winter Transfers

In

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  CHI Miguel Jiménez (from Magallanes) 3 DF  ARG Alexis Machuca (free)

No. Pos. Nation Player 27 MF  CHI Luis Pacheco (free) 32 FW  CHI Fabián Neira (loan from Universidad de Concepción)

Out

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 27 GK  CHI Darío Melo (released)

Managers

• Carlos Orlandelli [es] (1966)
• Isaac Carrasco (1967)
• Sergio Cruzat (1968)
• Luis Vera (1969-1973)
• Jaime Ramírez (1973)
• Néstor Isella (1974)
• Guillermo Báez (1975-1976)
• Alfonso Sepúlveda (1976)
• Nelson Oyarzún (1977)
• Manuel González (1977)
• Álex Veloso (1977)
• Isaac Carrasco (1978)
• Luis Vera (1978-1979)
• Pedro García (1980)
• Carlos Hoffmann (1981)
• Jaime Ramírez (1981)
• Hernán Godoy (1982)
• Rolando García (1983)
• Luis Vera (1984)
• Rolando García (1985)
• Gustavo Cortés [es] (1986)
• Eduardo de la Barra (1987)
• Luis Vera (1987)
• Eduardo de la Barra (1988)
• Gastón Guevara [es] (1988)
• Fernando Cavalleri (1989-1990)
• Luis Vera (1990)
• Jorge Luis Siviero (1991)
• Eduardo de la Barra (1991)
• Julio César Antúnez (1992)
• Luis Vera (1992)
• Sasha Mitjaew (1993)
• Luis Vera (1993)
• Fernando Cavalleri (1993-1996)
• Sergio Nichiporuk (1997)
• Óscar del Solar (1998-1999)
• Oscar Garré (2000)
• Sergio Nichiporuk (2001)
• Fernando Cavalleri (2001)
• Carlos González (2002)
• Eduardo Cortázar [es] (2003)
• Víctor Merello [es] (2003)
• Luis Marcoleta (2004)
• Óscar del Solar (2004-2005)
• Gustavo Viveros (2005)
• Humberto López (2005)
• Jaime Nova (2007)
• Sergio Herrera (2007)
• Fernando Cavalleri (2007)
• Jorge Rodríguez (2007)
• Jorge Garcés (2008)
• Antonio Zaracho [es] (2008-2009)
• Fernando Cavalleri (2009-2010)
• Daniel Salvador (2010)
• Óscar del Solar (2010-2011)
• Antonio Zaracho [es] (2011)
• Jorge Garcés (2011)
• Germán Corengia (2012)
• Roberto Mariani [es] (2013)
• Víctor Merello [es] (2013)
• Patricio Almendra (2013-2014)
• Antonio Zaracho [es] (2014)
• Fernando Quiroz (2014)
• Antonio Zaracho [es] (2014)
• Juan José Ribera (2014-2015)
• Antonio Zaracho [es] (2015)
• Ariel Pereyra (2015-2016)
• Antonio Zaracho [es] (2017)
• Esteban González (2018-2020)
• Christian Muñoz (2020-2021)
• Renato Ramos (2021)
• Óscar del Solar (2021-2022)
• Nicolás Fernández (2022)
• César Bustamante (2023)
• Claudio Rojas [es] (2023)
• Nicolás Fernández (2023)
• Christian Lovrincevich [es] (2023-2024)
• Felipe Cornejo [es] (2024)
• Manuel Suárez (2024-)^[4]

See also

• Chilean football league system