Deportivo Táchira F.C.

The Deportivo Táchira Futbol Club is a professional football club of the city of San Cristóbal, Venezuela. Founded on 11 January 1974, by Gaetano Greco, the club was originally known as "San Cristobal Football Club".

Deportivo Táchira

Full name	Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club
Nickname(s)	Aurinegro (Gold-and-black) El Carrusel Aurinegro (The Gold-and-black Carrousel)
Founded	11 January 1974; 51 years ago (1974-01-11)
Ground	Estadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo San Cristóbal, Venezuela
Capacity	42,500
Chairman	Jorge Silva
Manager	Edgar Pérez Greco
League	Primera División Venezolana
2024	Primera División, 1st of 14
Website	www.deportivotachira.com
Home colours Away colours Third colours

The club plays its home matches at the Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, which has a capacity of 42,500. Since 1975, it participates in the Venezuelan Primera División, making it the only Venezuelan team that has never fallen or participated in the lower category. Currently it holds the first position of the historical classification of the Venezuelan Primera División with 2229 points.

At the international level, Táchira is the Venezuelan club with the most appearances in the Copa Libertadores. Its best international participation was its advance to the quarter-finals unbeaten in the Copa Libertadores 2004. It is one of two Venezuelan clubs that have advanced past the first phase of the Copa Libertadores, or reached the quarter-finals.

It also has a Futsal team called Deportivo Tachira Fútsal Club, which plays in the Venezuelan Futsal League and the Superior Futsal Tournament.

Táchira's fiercest rival is Caracas FC, with whom it contests the "Clásico Moderno" of Venezuelan football. It also plays the so-called "Andean Derby" (Clásico Andino) against Estudiantes de Mérida.

History

In 1970, Italian-born Gaetano Greco founded an amateur club called Juventus in San Cristóbal, named after the Juventus FC. In 1974, Greco noticed that there were no professional football clubs in Táchira, so he decided to found a club in Táchira based on the amateur Juventus club. He and twelve other people founded the club on 11 January of that year, which they named San Cristóbal Fútbol Club. Most of the club's players came from the Juventus club. Initially, the club's colors were blue and white, similar to the Italy national football team kits.

In January 1975, the club changed its colors to yellow and black, because those colors better represented the Táchira state and were the preferred colors of the Uruguayan manager José "Pocho" Gil, as they were the colors of the Uruguayan team Peñarol.

In the 2016 season, Deportivo Táchira drew an average home league attendance of 5,595 in the Apertura and 4,033 in the Clausura, the highest in the domestic league.^[1]

Naming history

Year	Name
1974	San Cristóbal Fútbol Club
1975	Deportivo San Cristóbal Fútbol Club
1978	Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club
1986	Unión Atlético Táchira
1999	Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club

Stadium

Main article: Estadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo

The club's home stadium is Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, located in San Cristóbal. It has a maximum capacity of 42,500 people.

Supporters

The team's supporters are known as aurinegros ("gold-and-blacks"). The supporters are mainly divided into three groups; La Torcida Aurinegra , La Avalancha Sur, and Comando Sur.

Several of the team's supporters have committed violent acts in the past towards the supporters of opposing teams. One of the most tragic events took place on 17 December 2000, when the club and Caracas drew 2–2, which gave the Copa República Bolivariana de Venezuela's title to Caracas, causing angry supporters of Deportivo Táchira to burn the Caracas team bus.^[2]

Derby

Games between Deportivo Táchira and Estudiantes de Mérida are known as the Clásico de Los Andes (meaning Andes' Derby). However, in recent years games between Deportivo Táchira and Caracas have been known as the modern derby, because of the successful performance of both teams. A former rival of Deportivo Táchira in the 1980s and early 1990s was Marítimo de Venezuela, a former team from Caracas.

Colors

Deportivo Táchira's shirt has black and yellow vertical stripes, with black shorts and socks.

Honours

National

• Primera División
  • Winners (11): 1979, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1999-2000, 2007–08, 2010–11, 2014–15, 2021, 2023, 2024

• Copa Venezuela
  • Winners (2): 1982, 1983

International Appearances

• Copa Libertadores: 25 appearances

1980: First Round 1982: First Round 1983: First Round 1985: First Round 1987: First Round 1988: First Round 1989: Round of 16 1991: Round of 16

2000: Preliminary Round 2001: First Round 2004: Quarter-finals 2005: Second Round 2006: First Round 2007: First Round 2009: Second Round 2010: First Round

2011: Second Round 2012: Second Round 2015: Second Round 2016: Round of 16 2017: First Round 2018: First Round 2020: First Round 2021: Second Round 2022: Second Round

• Copa Sudamericana: 5 appearances

2002: Preliminary Round

2012: Preliminary Round

2021: Round of 16

2022: Quarter-finals

2023: First round

• Copa CONMEBOL: 3 appearances

1993: First Round

1996: First Round

1997: First Round

• Deportivo Táchira is the Venezuelan club with the most Copa Libertadores appearances and the most runner-up finishes in the Venezuelan league. It has won nine national championships.
• The club's best Copa Libertadores participation was in 2004, when the club became the second team to qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition without losing a match, having played against strong teams such as River Plate (Argentina), Libertad (Paraguay), Deportes Tolima (Colombia), and Nacional (Uruguay), before facing São Paulo (Brazil) in the quarter-finals.

Current squad

As of 1 July 2025

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  VEN Alejandro Araque 3 DF  VEN Jean Fran Gutiérrez 4 DF  VEN Jesús Quintero 5 MF  ARG Leandro Fioravanti 7 FW  VEN Bryan Castillo 8 MF  VEN Daniel Saggiomo 9 FW  ARG Lucas Cano 10 MF  VEN Carlos Sosa 11 MF  VEN Diomar Díaz 13 DF  VEN Pablo Camacho (captain) 15 MF  VEN Maurice Cova 16 DF  URU Haibrany Ruiz Díaz (on loan from Plaza Colonia) 17 FW  COL Felipe Pardo

No. Pos. Nation Player 18 DF  VEN Roberto Rosales 19 FW  VEN Jean Franco Castillo 20 DF  VEN Carlos Calzadilla 22 DF  ARG Mauro Maidana 23 DF  VEN Yanniel Hernández 24 MF  ARG Juan Requena 25 FW  ARG Andrés Ríos 27 FW  VEN Luis Zuñiga 29 DF  VEN Jefre Vargas 30 GK  VEN Edwin Vargas 33 DF  VEN Nelson Hernández 37 FW  VEN Jesús Duarte 38 MF  VEN Gustavo Lozano 50 GK  VEN Jesús Camargo

Out on loan

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

Notable players

• Tomás Rincón (2008)
• Cesar "El Maestrico" Gonzalez
• Daniel Francovig
• Carlos Maldonado

Head coaches

• Luis Miloc (1977–78)
• Esteban Beracochea (1978–83) (Campeón 79 y 81)
• Marcos Calderón (1983)
• Carlos Horacio Moreno (1984–89) (Campeón 84 y 86)
• Richard Páez (1991)
• Walter Roque (1999–01) (Campeón 99-00)
• César Farías (2003–05)
• Manuel Plasencia (2005–07)
• Carlos Maldonado (2007–2010) (Campeón 07-08)
• Jorge Luis Pinto (2010–2011) (Campeón 10-11)
• Jesús Vera (2011)
• Jaime de la Pava (2012)
• Manuel Contreras (2012)
• Daniel Farías (2013–2015) (Campeón 14-15)
• Carlos Maldonado (2015–2016)
• Santiago Escobar (2016-2017)
• Francesco Stifano (2017-2018)
• Álex Pallares (2018)
• Giovanni Pérez (2019)
• Juan Domingo Tolisano (2019-2021) (Campeón 2021)
• Álex Pallares (2022)
• Eduardo Saragó (2022–2024)