AD Carmelita
| AD Carmelita | |||
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| Basic data | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Surname | Asociación Deportiva Carmelita | ||
| Seat | Alajuela , Alajuela | ||
| founding | November 20, 1948 | ||
| Colours | green and red | ||
| president | Cruz Campos | ||
| First soccer team | |||
| Head coach | Vinicio Alvarado | ||
| Venue | Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto | ||
| Places | approx. 21,000 | ||
| league | Liga de Fútbol de Primera División | ||
| Apertura 2018 | 8th place | ||
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AD Carmelita is a Costa Rican soccer club from the El Carmen district of the city of Alajuela in the province of the same name . The club was founded on November 20, 1948. The club currently plays its home games at the Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto . So far Carmelita has won the Costa Rican championship once.
General
The club colors are green and red. For a long time the club was called Carmen FC, under which they won the championship for the only time so far.
The special thing about AD Carmelita is that the small district club, which has few supporters and hardly any well-known sponsors, has been involved in professional football for a long time, which is mainly thanks to the longstanding commitment of Carlos "Cañon" Gonzáles.
history
On November 20, 1948, some residents of the "El Carmen" district in Alajuela founded a small football team to pursue their greatest hobby. In the same year Manuel Guillén Fernández wrote the team under the name "Colombia" in a district championship, it was the first time that Carmelita took part in a tournament.
From 1949 Carmelita also took part in official competitions, first of all, like every newly founded club at the time, you had to integrate yourself into the third division in regulated football. After the team had played in the first year under the name Colombia, they joined from the 1950 season under the name Carmen Asociación Deportiva.
After six years in the third division, the young club finally managed to move up to the second division in 1955, and only two years later, in 1957, the club also managed to win the championship title of the second division and for the first time in the top division, the Primera División de Costa Rica to ascend. With the rise, the club changed its name to Carmen FC.
In the first three years in the first class, the district club was able to hold its own in the first division without major problems. In the 1961 season , when five of the eight top division clubs split off from FEDEFUTBOL and founded their own association, Carmen remained loyal to FEDEFUTBOL alongside CS Uruguay de Coronado and SG Española and won the championship played between the three clubs unbeaten. After the season, the national football association agreed with the "breakaway" clubs to reunite for the next season, but the condition of these five clubs was that the ASOFUTBOL champions were officially Costa Rican champions in 1961 and that they would all continue to play in the first division to be allowed. The three clubs that had remained loyal to FEDEFUTBOL had to play a first division starting place with the three best clubs in the second division in a relegation round. The relegation round was won by Uruguay, which El Carmen had to relegate to the second division despite a first place in the championship of the actual association. Only after years of protests was Carmelita officially recognized in 1999 with the founding of UNAFUT, the championship title of 1961.
After eight years in the second division, Carmelita even had to compete in the third division for a year, but immediately returned to the second, where they managed to march through to the Primera División de Costa Rica . The joy was short-lived, however, because after a year (1983) the club had to return to the second division.
1991/92 Carmelita managed to return to the top division, where the district club remained until the end of the 2008/2009 season. The years before he could never achieve really good placements, but it was always enough to keep the league.
In the following three years Carmelita was the team that achieved consistently good placements despite financial problems and finally the club managed to win the runner-up in the 2011/12 season and then in a relegation match against the last placed in the first division, Orión FC to enforce, so the "verdolagas" returned to first class.
Especially in the last few years the financially and infrastructurally very weak district club, which cannot count on a large following nor on many sponsors, owed its survival in professional football to the commitment of Carlos "Cañon" Gonzáles, who lived for the club for years. After this functionary, who was also very respected at other clubs, died in June 2011, the 2011/12 season of the second division and the Invierno 2012 season of the first division were dedicated to him.
Stadion
Since Carmelita is only a small district club, the club does not have its own stadium. In the first division seasons Carmelita usually looked for a place to stay for one season each, but during the second division they played their home games in several stadiums, for example in five different stadiums in the 2011/12 season.
The club currently plays its home games at the 21,000-seat Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto , which is owned by the city's "big" club, LD Alajuelense .
successes
- Primera División de Costa Rica (1): 1961