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Chivas
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 Guadalajara
play in the Primera División de México and are one
of the most popular and successful soccer teams in that league.
One of the club's most distinguishing features is its exclusive
use of Mexican born players. The soccer team was founded in 1906
by a Belgian shopkeeper, as Club Unión, but became Club Deportivo
Guadalajara in 1908.
The club was successful in the amateur era of soccer in Mexico,
but it was at the beginning of the professional soccer era that
it would get its famous nickname. In 1948 after winning a game the
newspaper chronicle derisively said that the "goats" (chivas
in Spanish) had won; this name, which started as an insult, was
embraced by the fans and is held with pride to this day. The insult
is claimed to be because they jumped around like goats.
Then, in 1956 the "Campeonísimo" run started.
The team won eight national league titles and, combined with national
and international cups, a total of 28 trophies in nine years, and
became the backbone of the Mexico national football team that would
go to the World Cup. Many of the players of those days became legendary.
The team is perhaps best known for the fact that they have only
ever fielded Mexican players (Athletic Bilbao in Spain and Deportivo
Saprissa of Costa Rica, the latter owned by Chivas' current owner
Jorge Vergara, are the only other clubs in the world to follow a
similar policy), and the team itself is almost a synonym of what
it means to be Mexican.
In 2005, C.D. Chivas USA, which is also owned by Vergara, began
play in Major League Soccer.
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