- L.D. Alajuelense
-
Alajuelense El mejor del mundo 
Full name Liga Deportiva Alajuelense Nickname(s) La Liga
Manudos
Rojinegros
ErizosFounded June 18, 1919. Ground Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto,
El Llano de Alajuela
(Capacity: 17,895)Manager 
Oscar RamírezLeague Primera División, Costa Rica Invierno 2011 1st (Champions) 
Home colours
Away colours
Third coloursLiga Deportiva Alajuelense (L.D.A.), is a Costa Rican football club, currently playing in the Primera División de Costa Rica. It was founded on June 18, 1919. The team is located in Alajuela's downtown and they play their local games at the Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto.
Alajuelense was the first Costa Rican team to win a CONCACAF Champions' Cup in 1986. The club is known by their fans as "La Liga" and had the privilege to be the only Central American club to participate in South American competitions such as Copa Merconorte in 2000 [1] and the Copa Sudamericana in 2006.
They are the only club in Costa Rica football history with at least one Championship gained in each decade.
Contents
History
The team was created in 1919 when a group of friends that used to play in a team called "Once de Abril" (April the 11th) met at "Salon París", they wanted to give the city a team that could represent them at a national level. They played their first official game on august 2nd of that same year against CS Cartaginés getting their first victory, 3 – 1.
Alajuelense was part of the 7 teams that built and formed the National League in Costa Rica, back in 1921, along with La Libertad, Sociedad Gimnástica Española, CS Herediano, CS Cartaginés, CS La Unión de Tres Ríos, y la Sociedad Gimnástica Limonense. They won their first championship 1928. In 1960, the team made a tour around the world, leaving Costa Rica on September 17. In 78 days the team played 24 games, winning 12, losing 7 and the other 5 ended up tied. They scored 71 goals and received 47, with a remarkable performance from Juan Ulloa Ramírez, being the top scorer of this tour.
Throughout their history, Liga Deportiva Alajuelense has generated a lot of great players and stunning performances. They are known as one of the best teams in the Central America area. Their best decade was the 1990s, during which they won 4 Championships and 4 sub-championships as well. And also by the end of the 90's and the middle of the 2000s, they won 4 local championships in a row 2 Copa Interclubes UNCAF Throphies and a CONCACAF Club Champions, being the base for the Costa Rican football team in the Korea and Japan 2002 FIFA World Cup, with 9 players.
The club struggled with some financial problems in the second part on the 2000s decade, so they had to end contract with a lot of their regular players and started to built a team based on their younger divisions, but it is now free of debts and with a team averaging 24 year-old players is still one of the best teams in the area and one of the teams with most fans in Costa Rica, winning the last 2 championships in its country.
Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto en el Llano de Alajuela
The stadium is owned and operated by La Liga Deportiva Alajuelense nad Scotia Bank, and is located in El Llano de Alajuela. The project to find a proper site for a permanent home started in 1938, when the director of the club, Carlos Bolaños, proposed that the club should purchase its own land. The land was purchased in 1940, but the site would not be football-ready until 1942, when Alajuelense played its first match at the site. The first game was played on January 18, 1942, when Liga Deportiva Alajuelense played Club Sport Cartagines.
On July 20, 1966, due to a motion by the Municipality of Alajuela, the stadium was renamed to honor the great Alajuelense and FC Barcelona player Alejandro Morera Soto. On March 19, 1970, the stadium saw its first night game when Alajuelense faced Honduran club Motagua, beating them 4–1. The stadium is not only home to Liga Deportiva Alajuelense, but it is also shares itself along with Estadio Ricardo Saprissa as the home of the Costa Rican National team.
Until 2005, the Morera Soto's grass was known as the best natural one in Central America, but a conbination of fungus and hurricanes destroyed the grass and it never fully recovered. By the end of 2008, the management of the team decided to install a 5th generation synthetic grass, in order to have the field always ready and also have the availability to rent the place for concerts and/or special events and have the possibity for the younger division to train in the same field. The last game the team played at the natural turf was the first game of the 2008 winter's final, beating their archrival Deportivo Saprissa 2 – 0 on December 17, 2008. After a long delay, the field was ready to be used by July 18, 2009. The field's re-opening was held against Caracas FC from Venezuela, the game ended up with a tie 1 – 1.
In 2009, the club installed a synthetic turf called Xtreme Turf from ACT Global Sports. This football turf has achieved FIFA two star certification for approval for top international matches. This is the only FIFA two-star installation currently in Central America.
Now the Stadium has a gym, museum with pictures, wallpapers, banners and approximately 500 trophies, physiotherapy center, clinic, meeting rooms, press conference room and two additional smaller pitches so all the first division and their minor divisions can have the same treatment. The size of the field was shrunk a little bit, it used to be the biggest in Costa Rica.
Mascot
L.D. Alajuelense Marketing Logo
The team is now represented by a Lion. In every home game, the mascot comes out at the pitch and plays on the field with fans, walk through the pitch with models giving away gifts from their sponsors and cheers the team with a huge flag. Before the game starts and during the half-time break, the Lion walks among the crowd and poses for pictures with the children. The original mascot used to be a Mango because the team is located in Alajuela that is known as "La Ciudad de los Mangos" ("The Mangoes' City") because of the high amount of Mango Trees that could be located in the province due its weather, but later on, the mascot was changed into a Lion.
It represents four main attributes of the major king of the jungle, that are reflected on the teams vision and mission: Courage, Strength, Dynamism and Fidelity.
Notable players
Nationals
Sandro Alfaro "La Escopeta"- Wardy Alfaro
- Alejandro Alpizar "El Mosquetero"
- Carlos Alvarado Villalobos "El Aguilucho"
- Juan Carlos Arguedas "La Barbie"
- Luis Diego Arnáez "El Flaco"
- Omar Arroyo
- Victor Badilla "El Cuervo"
- Austin Berry
- Steven Bryce
- Carlos Castro "El Doberman"
- Juan Arnoldo Cayasso
- Ricardo Chacón
- Gerardo Chavarría "Lalo"
- José Carlos Chaves Inneken
- Ronald Chávez "El Carraco"
- Pablo Chinchilla
- Jhonny Cubero
- Errol Daniels "Don Gol"
- Javier Delgado "El Sheriff"
- Diego Estrada "Bochini"
- Róger Flores "Il Capitano"
- Rolando Fonseca "El Principito"
- Juan José Gámez Rivera
- Rónald Gómez "La Bala"
- Alejandro González
- Ricardo González "El Gallo"
- Guillermo Guardia "Nica"
- Joaquín B. Guillén "El Candado Alajuelense"
- Carlos Hernández "El Zorro"
- Pablo Herrera Barrantes
- Javier Jiménez "Zurdo"
- Froylan Ledezma "El Cachorro"
- Luis Raquel Ledezma
- Wilmer Lopez "El Pato"
- Alexander Madrigal "El Machón"
- Luis Marín "Yiyo"
- Paul Mayorga
- Álvaro Mesén
- Rodolfo Mills
- Cristian Montero "Lula"
- Mauricio Montero "El Chunche"
- Rónald Mora "El Macho"
- Alejandro Morera Soto "El Mago del Balon"
- Bernal Mullins "Dinamita"
- Wilson Muñoz
- Allan Oviedo
- Kenneth Paniagua
- Winston Parks
- Heriberto Quiros "Chimi"
- Oscar Ramírez "El Machillo"
- José Alexis Rojas "El Superman"
- Bryan Ruiz "La Comadreja"
- Roy Sáenz
- Esteban Sirias
- Enrique Smith "El Capataz"
- Ríchard Smith "La Pantera"
- Álvaro Solano
- Jose Luís Solera
- Mauricio Solís "El Mauro"
- Salvador Soto Villegas "El Indio Buroy"
- Jorge Manuel Ulate "El Gugui"
- Juan Ulloa Ramírez
- Marco Ureña "El Faraon"
- Enrique Vásquez "Quique"
- Harold Wallace "El Rapero"
Victor Núñez "El Mambo"
Alejandro Morera Soto – Costa Rica's most historic soccer figure ever and the Alajuelense icon. Signed by FC Barcelona in 1932. Scored 63 goals in 76 games with the catalunia's team.-Note: Froylan Ledezma Signed by AFC Ajax in 1997 for around 4,5 million euros. (Record for a Costa Rican Football player in that moment).
-Note: Bryan Ruiz Is currently the most valuable player for Costa Rica (15 million euros).
Foreigners
Pablo Antonio Gabas- Pablo Alejandro Izaguirre "El Che"
Essinho- Leandrinho
- Rodinei Martins
Nixon Perea "El Concord"- Carlos Eduardo Salazar
Pavel Karoch
Eliseo Quintanilla "Cheyo"
Eugenio Dolmo Flores- Nahamán González
- Emil Martínez
Ricky Cheng Siu Chung
Roberto Tyrrel
Josef Miso "El Eslovaco"
Roy Lassiter
Claudio Ciccia- Washington Hernández
- Fernando Sosa
Retired numbers
Main article: Retired numbers in association football20 –
Mauricio Montero, defender (1985–1997)Notable Coaches
- Jorge Luis Solera
- Alejandro Morera Soto "El Mago del Balón"
- Salvador Soto "El Indio Buroy"
- José Luis Rojas "Chime"
Hugo Tassara
Eduardo Viso Abella- Juan Colecchio
- Iván Mraz
- Odir Jacques
- Alvaro Grant McDonald
- Jan Postulka *
- Jorge Olguín
- Valdeir Vieira "Badu"
- Manuel Keossian "Manolo"
Guilherme Farinha- Jorge Luis Pinto
- Javier Delgado
- Rodrigo Kenton
- Oscar Ramirez
-Note: Javier Delgado led LDA to several titles:
- 2004 CONCACAF Club Champions
- 2005 Costa Rican Championship
- 2005 Copa Interclubes UNCAF
Honors
National
-
- 1928, 1939, 1941, 1945, 1949, 1950, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1966, 1970, 1971, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1990–91, 1991–92, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1999–00, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05, Invierno 2010, Verano 2011
- Runner-up (20):
-
- 1930, 1938, 1944, 1952, 1957, 1962, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1972, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2007–08, 2008 (Apertura), 2009 (Clausura)
Costa Rican Short-Tournament Championships:
- Apertura (5): 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2010
- Clausura (6): 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008
- Copa Argentor (1): 1928 (One of the oldest and important titles of Costa Rica, since in this tournament the clubs participated of first, second and third divisions of the country eliminating itself to each other)
- Copa de Campeones del Futbol Nacional (1): 1967
Tournament Cups- 3 Costa Rican Great Britain Cup
- 1 Costa Rican Tournament Cup
- 2 Relampago Tournament
- 1 Estadio Nacional Cup
- 1 Borsalino Trophy
- 1 Guatemala Cup
- 1 Camel Cup
International
- CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 2
-
- 1986, 2004
- Runner-up (3): 1971, 1992, 1999
-
- 1996, 2002, 2005
- Runner-up (2): 1999, 2000
-
- Runner-up (1): 1986
Other Internacional Championships
-
- 1961: (Central American & Caribbean Champions)
- 1992: (Central American Champions)
- 2000: (Copa LG Uncaf (Panama) Champions)
Friendly Tournaments:
-
- 2004: Copa Taca de Campeon de Campeones de America, against Once Caldas (former Copa Libertadores Champion)
Current squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player 1 GK Patrick Pemberton (3rd Captain) 2 DF Elías Palma 3 DF Geancarlo González 4 DF Kenner Gutierrez 5 MF Cristian Oviedo (2nd Captain) 6 DF Jose Salvatierra 7 MF Diego Calvo 8 
DF Mauro Castro 10 
MF Marcelo Sarvas 11 FW Alejandro Alpizar 12 MF Pablo Gabas (Captain) 13 MF Luis Miguel Valle 14 DF Cristopher Meneses No. Position Player 16 DF Allen Guevara 17 MF Kevin Sancho 18 MF Fernando Sequeira 19 FW Jonathan McDonald 21 FW Argenis Fernández 23 GK Ivan García 24 DF Porfirio Lopez 25 DF Jhonny Acosta 26 MF Vianney Blanco 27 FW Alejandro Aguilar 28 MF Juan Gabriel Guzmán 29 MF Jorge Davies 32 GK Alfonso Quesada Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
No. Position Player 30 FW Jean Carlos Solórzano (on loan at Melbourne Victory) Notes
External links
- Official Website of Liga Deportiva Alajuelense
- Alajuelense.com
- La Gloriosa 12
- Alajuela
- la 12
- Blog Manudo
Primera División (Costa Rica) · 2010–11 Clubs Alajuelense · Barrio México · Brujas · Cartaginés · Herediano · Limón · Pérez Zeledón · Puntarenas · Santos · San Carlos · Saprissa · Universidad de Costa RicaOther List of football clubs in Costa RicaCategories:- Association football clubs established in 1919
- Liga Deportiva Alajuelense
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
