Emelec
Full nameClub Sport Emelec
Nickname(s) El Bombillo (The Lightbulb)
El Ballet Azul (The Blue Ballet)
El Equipo Millonario (The Millionaire Team)
Founded28 April 1929 (1929-04-28)
GroundEstadio George Capwell
Capacity40,020
Honorary PresidentEnrique Ponce Luque, Elias Wated
ChairmanJosé Dante Pileggi Véliz
ManagerHernán Torres
LeagueEcuadorian Serie A
2023Serie A, 11th of 16
WebsiteClub website

Club Sport Emelec is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil that is best known for their professional football team. The football team plays in the Ecuadorian Serie A, the highest level of professional football in the country.

Emelec has won fourteen Serie A titles and one of the division B, holding the record of doing so in all decades in which the Serie A has been played. They also have won seven regional titles (record in their region), a record-tying 5 of them in the professional era.

Emelec was founded on 28 April 1929 by George Capwell, the American head of the Electric Company of Ecuador (Spanish: Empresa Eléctrica del Ecuador), from which the club is named after. The name of their home stadium pays homage to the club's founder. The club's most intense rivalry is with crosstown-team Barcelona. Matches between the clubs are known as El Clásico del Astillero.

History

George Capwell, founding father of Club Sport Emelec

The club was found after an assembly of employees at the Empresa Eléctrica del Ecuador, an electric company in Guayaquil, decided to start an amateur sports league. The initiative was spearheaded by George Capwell, the executive officer of the company who came from the United States. The first sports played in the club were baseball, basketball, boxing, swimming, handball, and football. Capwell did not enjoy football, so the sport was supported only by his employees in non-official but recognized championships. This changed in the 1940s, when Capwell finally lent his support, resulting in the club winning several official local championships, building their own stadium, and hosting the 1947 South American Championship entirely in it.

In 1957, the club became the first national champions in football with a "dream team" that included Derek Haack, Cipriano Yu Lee, José Vicente Balseca, Cruz Ávila, Mariano Larraz, Carlos Alberto Raffo, Jaime Ubilla, Daniel Pinto, Rómulo Gómez and Suárez-Rizzo; they were coached by Eduardo "Tano" Spandre. Since then, they have accumulated thirteen more national titles, placing them 2nd in the national title count behind Barcelona with 15 titles and followed by El Nacional with 13. They have also won seven local titles (two in the amateur area and five in the professional era).

In the 1990s, the football team saw success internationally. In 1995, they reached the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores; they lost to eventual champions Grêmio. In 2001, the team was close to becoming the first Ecuadorian club to win an international title when they were a finalist in the 2001 Copa Merconorte. In the finals, they lost to Millionarios 3–1 on penalty kicks after tying on aggregate 2–2.

Facilities

Several years after the creation of the Empresa Eléctrica del Ecuador sports club, its founder, George Lewis Capwell, decided that it was time for the club to have its own Baseball stadium, so in 1942 Guayaquil's Municipal authorities donated 4 city blocks for the construction of the first private sports stadium in Ecuador. A year after that, in 1943, Emelec's staff officially named and initiated the construction of the George Capwell Stadium.

George Capwell Stadium opened its doors for the first time on 21 October 1945, the inaugural game was a Baseball match between Emelec and Oriente, and George Capwell played as a catcher for the "Azules" (Emelec). Although Emelec's president did not like football and their stadium was not initially intended to be a football field, soon after the inauguration the first football match was held. Emelec won 5–4 against an all stars team from the cities of Manta and Bahia.

The 1947 Copa America competition was held exclusively at George Capwell Stadium, and an undefeated Argentina became South America's champion with an all star team that included names like Alfredo Di Stéfano, Félix Loustau, and Norberto Doroteo Méndez. Ecuador finished in 6th place. (Brazil did not participate on this competition).

After the Estadio Modelo was opened in 1959, the George Capwell Stadium became obsolete and was closed for many years. On several occasions it was almost destroyed for various projects that, luckily for the club, were never actually completed.

It wasn't until 1991 that with the leadership of Nassib Nehme that the George Capwell Stadium was reopened, to become once again the house of Emelec. Since its reopening the stadium has been enlarged twice and a new and final change was scheduled for 2014, to reach a final capacity of 45,000 spectators by March 2016.

At the moment the official capacity of the stadium according to the FEF (Federación Ecuatoriana de Fútbol) is 18,000 spectators. However, that number has not been changed even after the two enlargements were finished. The club completed a thorough overhaul and expansion of the stadium in 2017. It has a capacity of 40,000 spectators.

Training ground

Emelec's training ground is located in the north of Guayaquil in a neighborhood called Los Samanes and the training ground itself is called Complejo Deportivo de Los Samanes, translated to Los Samanes Sports Complex. The construction of the Samanes training ground started in 1984 and was finished in 1986 and was built by Filanbanco a large financial institution in Ecuador at the time.

Filanbanco had its own professional football which used Los Samanes until 1989 when despite being one of the top teams at the time, Filanbanco's football club was disbanded due to lack of supporters and high maintenance costs.

During the 1993 Copa America held in Ecuador, the Samanes complex was used by the Argentinean delegation, they stayed and trained there and were very appreciative of its secluded nature and excellent facilities, that among other things included 4 professional football fields, an indoor football field, basketball courts, tennis courts, an Olympic size pool, social area and sleeping area.

After Filanbanco's football club was disbanded, the complex remained in the hands of Filanbanco for their employees to use its facilities, until 1999 when the Ecuadorian financial crisis ended with Filanbanco going bankrupt and ending up in the hands of the AGD a governmental agency created to control, protect and administer the assets of Filanbanco and other financial institutions that went bust during the crisis.

This meant that Los Samanes ended up in the hands of the Issfa (Instituto de Servicio Social de las Fuerzas Armadas) the Ecuadorian army's social security agency. Because Issfa had no real use for it, the then Football director of Emelec Mr. Omar Quintana Baquerizo managed to loan the training ground for the club and Emelec has been using it ever since.

Initially the agreement was a loan for 5 years, but when the 5 years passed the government and the club arranged a 100-year loan for the facilities, however the high monthly cost agreed has made the payments very difficult for the club and the new administrators led by the club's president Mr. Elias Wated are in talks with the government to settle on a definitive purchase of the training ground.

Honours

Domestic

Amateur

  • Campeonato Unión Deportiva Comercial de Guayaquil[1]
    • Champions (2): 1925, 1933
  • Campeonato Amateur del Fútbol del Guayas[1]
    • Champions (2): 1946, 1948
  • Campeonato Profesional de Guayaquil[1]
    • Champions (5): 1956, 1957, 1962, 1964, 1966

Players

Current squad

As of 29 December 2023. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Ecuador ECU Gilmar Napa
2 DF Argentina ARG Aníbal Leguizamón (Captain)
3 DF Argentina ARG Cain Fara
4 DF Ecuador ECU Joel Quintero
5 MF Ecuador ECU Joseph Espinoza (on loan from LDU Quito)
6 DF Colombia COL Bleiner Agrón (on loan from La Equidad)
10 MF Colombia COL Alexis Zapata
11 MF Uruguay URU Diego García (on loan from Estudiantes LP)
12 GK Ecuador ECU Pedro Ortíz
13 MF Ecuador ECU Jhon Jairo Sánchez
14 DF Ecuador ECU Romario Caicedo
15 MF Argentina ARG Carlos Villalba (on loan from Talleres)
16 DF Ecuador ECU Edgar Lastre
17 FW Ecuador ECU Jaime Ayoví
No. Pos. Nation Player
18 DF Ecuador ECU Christian Cruz
19 FW Ecuador ECU Bryan Angulo
20 DF Ecuador ECU Jackson Rodríguez
21 MF Ecuador ECU José Cevallos Enríquez
22 GK Ecuador ECU Félix Mina
23 FW Ecuador ECU Miller Bolaños
24 DF Ecuador ECU Bryan Carabalí
26 DF Ecuador ECU Fernando León (on loan from San Luis)
30 MF Ecuador ECU Tommy Chamba
31 MF Ecuador ECU Dixon Vera
80 MF Ecuador ECU Michael Carcelén (on loan from Aucas)
— GK Ecuador ECU John Mero
— DF Ecuador ECU Aníbal Chalá
— MF Ecuador ECU Jefferson Vernaza
— DF Venezuela VEN Alexander González

Out on loan

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

No. Pos. Nation Player
— DF Ecuador ECU José Hernández (at Gualaceo)
— MF Ecuador ECU Kevin Rivera (at Libertad)
No. Pos. Nation Player
— MF Ecuador ECU Bryan Wittle (at 9 de Octubre)
— FW Ecuador ECU Byron Palacios (at El Nacional)

Reserve Team

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

No. Pos. Nation Player

Top goalscorers

Emelec has had nine players become the season top-scorer in the Serie A, three players become the top-scorer of the Costa champion (two players repeated), and one player become the top-scorer of the Copa Libertadores.

World Cup players

The following players were chosen to represent their country at the FIFA World Cup while contracted to Emelec.

Managers

Current coaching staff

Notable managers

The following managers won at least one trophy when in charge of Emelec:

Other sports

Emelec is not only one of the most important football clubs in Ecuador, but it is rated as one of the most important sports club of the country. In their trophy room Emelec has hundreds of cups and medals that have been gained over the years in many different sports. The list includes:

  • 33 Consecutive National Boxing Championships
  • 13 Baseball National Championships
  • 11 Male Basketball National Championships
  • 18 Female Basketball National Championships
  • 7 Cycling National Championships
  • 5 Tae Kwon Do National Championships
  • 5 Judo National Championships
  • 1 Weight Lifting World Championship

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ávila Villagómez, Esteban (29 December 2000). "Ecuador – Champions Costa". RSSSF. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  2. ↑ Andrés, Juan Pablo; Espinoza Añazco, Fernando (29 January 2010). "Ecuador – List of Topscorers". RSSSF. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  3. ↑ Ávila Villagómez, Esteban (29 December 2000). "Ecuador – Champions Costa". RSSSF. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  4. ↑ Andrés, Juan Pablo; Pierrend, José Luis (10 July 2004). "Copa Libertadores – Topscorers". RSSSF. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
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