Club Atlético Morelia is a Mexican professional football club based in Morelia, Michoacán. It competes in Liga de Expansión MX, the second level division of Mexican football, and plays its home matches at the Estadio Morelos. Founded in 1924 as Oro Morelia, the club changed its name to Club Deportivo Morelia in 1950, becoming a founding member of the Segunda División de México. It adopted its current name in 1974, before rebranding as Monarcas Morelia in 1999.
Domestically, Atlético Morelia competed in top division from 1981 to 2020, winning one Liga MX title, one Copa MX and one Supercopa MX. Internationally, it finished as runners-up twice in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Subregionally, the club has won one North American SuperLiga.
In June 2020, Atlético Morelia was reestablished in the Liga de Expansión MX after the relocation of Monarcas Morelia to Mazatlán, Sinaloa was made official, where it was rebranded as Mazatlán F.C. Four years later, in June 2024, Atlético Morelia announced that it had acquired the Monarcas Morelia brand, crest, and historical legacy after the relocation of Atlético Zacatepec to Morelia, Michoacán was made official, thereby reaffirming its identity as the original club founded in 1950. Morelia finished as champions of Clausura 2022 in the Liga de Expansión MX, which was its second title in a second level division.
In 1950, "Oro Morelia" changed its name to Club Deportivo Morelia. Morelia was among the teams that founded the Segunda División de México. After the 1956âÂÂ1957 season, in which they ended up in second place, they were officially promoted into the Primera División de México to replace Puebla which was relegated to the Segunda División. After an unsuccessful season, in 1968 Atlético Morelia was relegated back to the Segunda División. During mixed 1968âÂÂ1971 seasons, Deportivo Morelia appointed Nicandro Ortiz as chairman. Ortiz acquired the team and strengthened its position in the league.
The club later changed its name to Club Atlético Morelia in July 1974.
The 1978âÂÂ1979 season thrust Morelia into contention for promotion; Ortiz acquired the team and strengthened its position in the league, Nicandro Ortiz as chairman in 1980, Atlético Morelia played under manager Diego Malta who helped his team towards the Mexico Championship and finally promotion to the Primera División in 1981.
In 1986, before the World Cup in Mexico, Atlético Morelia played friendlies against Germany losing 2-1 and against the USSR again losing 4-1.
In 1996, the major broadcast company TV Azteca bought the team. Later, in 1999 the club started playing under the name of Monarcas Morelia.
Although the team had played Mexican professional football for 70 years, it had not won a Primera División tournament until the winter of 2000, when the club raised the cup after beating Toluca on penalties. The team was crowned champions away in the Estadio La Bombonera. On the day after the victory, a crowd that some estimate at 100 thousand people welcomed the team as it paraded along Morelia's main avenue, Avenida Madero on their way to the stadium where the crowd congregated as the team raised the cup and the fans congratulated the team for its first Primera División trophy ever.
After missing the playoffs for three consecutive tournaments, Monarcas Morelia finished in third place in the general table in the Apertura 2009. Monarcas Morelia defeated Santos Laguna in the first round, 4âÂÂ2 on aggregate. Monarcas Morelia was then defeated by Cruz Azul in a semi-final that was filled with controversy due to Cruz Azul player Joel Huiqui intentionally using his hand to hit the ball away and prevent Morelia midfielder Wilson TÃÂago from scoring. (Huiqui later played for Monarcas Morelia.) With a 2âÂÂ1 aggregate score, Monarcas Morelia was eliminated. Monarcas Morelia qualified for the 2010 Copa Libertadores by ending in third place in the classification phase. It was the second time that Monarcas Morelia participated in the Copa Libertadores, the first being in 2002. Monarcas Morelia was the Runner-up of the Clausura 2011, after a hard-fought final against Pumas. Pumas won the tie 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate, taking the trophy home.
In 2010, Monarcas Morelia became the SuperLiga champion, with a 2âÂÂ1 victory in the finals over the New England Revolution, in which Miguel Sabah scored both Morelia goals.
On November 5, 2013, Monarcas Morelia won their first Copa MXtitle in a 3âÂÂ3 match that went to penalties, where they would take the victory. This title also allowed them to participate in the inaugural edition Supercopa MX, which they won against Tigres UANL with a global score of 5âÂÂ4.
After 15 years, a dismal 2014âÂÂ15 campaign left Monarcas Morelia as one of the last teams in the relegation table, an aggregate of a club's most recent points totals that decides which teams would be relegated. As a result, Enrique Meza was chosen to be the coach for the Apertura 2015 season. Meza had already saved Monarcas Morelia before, in the 1995âÂÂ96 season. After no notable improvement in team performance, Meza was let go from the position of head coach in 2016, with Roberto Hernández taking over as interim manager. Hernández's tenure would coincide with the signing of Peruvian forward Raúl RuidÃÂaz on loan from Club Universitario. The signing of RuidÃÂaz would prove to be crucial to the club's fortunes, as he would go on to score 20 goals throughout the 2016-2017 Liga MX season, finishing as top scorer with 11 goals in the Apertura and 9 goals in the Clausura. In the following season, Monarcas Morelia was in big danger of being relegated on the final match day of the Apertura, residing in last place in the relegation table and needing a victory over Monterrey to avoid the drop. Tied 1-1 in injury time, Raúl RuidÃÂaz scored a crucial winner that moved them out of the relegation zone, with Jaguares de Chiapas being relegated in their stead. RuidÃÂaz's goal additionally qualified them for that season's liguilla, its first since the Clausura 2016.
On May 23, 2020, various news outlets in Mexico reported that Ricardo Salinas Pliego, president of Grupo Salinas, stated that he would be relocating the club from Morelia to Mazatlán, Sinaloa and rebranding it as Mazatlán F.C. The club's owner, Grupo Salinas, reportedly were asking for $400 million MXN per year from the Government of Michoacán to keep the team in the city. The relocation was very unpopular among supporters, former players, and the sports media across Mexico. Despite stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, over 7,000 fans took to the streets of Morelia to protest the team's relocation from the city.
On June 2, 2020, Grupo Salinas and the Liga MX announced the club's relocation to Mazatlán, Sinaloa, just two days before the club's 70th anniversary. After that point, the Monarcas Morelia franchise was dissolved.
On June 26, 2020, Liga MX President Enrique Bonilla announced that Atlético Zacatepec would be relocated from Zacatepec, Morelos to Morelia, Michoacán due to financial problems. The next day in a press conference at the Estadio Morelos, it was announced the club would be called Club Atlético Morelia, the club's name for over 25 years before Grupo Salinas changed it in 1999. It was announced the ownership group would consist of former Guadalajara President José Luis Higuera as well as various businessmen from the state of Michoacán. The ownership group acquired the rights to the club's name and logo, both which were owned by Grupo Salinas.
The club's colors are generated from the city's flag which are yellow and red, which are the same colors in the Spanish flag, because the city is a novohispana city.
In the club's beginnings the club went under the name of Oro and were known as the canarios (canary) until 1999 when the club changed its name to Monarcas, due to the 3 monarchs found in the city's flag, which has been used from its foundation.
Towards the end of the 1980s it was decided that their stadium (Estadio Venustiano Carranza) was lacking capacity and that a new stadium with a greater number of seats needed to be constructed. On April 9, 1989, after several construction delays, Stadium Jose Maria Morelos and Pavón (located on the outskirts of the Quinceo mountain) was opened, and the inaugural game was between Atlético Morelia and Club América. The stadium has an official capacity of 45,000, although on inauguration in 1989 it is estimated that more than 50,000 were in attendance. Morelia won the match with the score 2âÂÂ1. In 2011, the stadium was given a new look, seeing as the FIFA U-17 World Cup was taking place in Mexico.
Morelia has had some notable players in their history. Marco Antonio Figueroa is the club's all-time leading scorer with 130 goals. Adolfo Bautista, Rafael Márquez Lugo, Moisés Muñoz, Miguel Sabah, Joel Huiqui, Adrián Aldrete, Enrique Pérez, ÃÂdgar Lugo and Elias Hernandez, are some of the players that were called up to the Mexico national team while playing with the team. Raul Ruidiaz was the first Morelia player to achieve a Liga MX top scoring title.
The following players were called to represent their country at the World Cup whilst playing for Morelia:
The following players were called to represent their country at the Summer Olympic Games whilst playing for Morelia: