Club de Fútbol Monterrey is a Mexican professional football club based in the Monterrey metropolitan area, Nuevo León. The team plays in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football. Founded on 28 June 1945, it is the oldest active professional team from the northern part of Mexico. Since 1999 the club has been owned by FEMSA, Latin America's largest bottling company. Its home games have been played in the Estadio BBVA since 2015.[2] The team's nickname of Rayados (The Striped-Ones) stems from the club's traditional navy blue striped uniform. The uniform is reflected in the club's current crest, which is also decorated with stars above the crest representing the club's league titles and stars below representing continental.
Monterrey has won five league titles, three domestic cups, and five CONCACAF Champions League titles (notably, three consecutive tournaments in 2011, 2012 and 2013). In 2020, Monterrey became the second Mexican club to complete the continental treble.[3][4]
The club's oldest rival is Tigres UANL of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León. The derby between the two, known as the Clásico Regiomontano, is considered to be one of the most heated and intensely competed rivalries in Mexican football; both teams consistently rank among the highest in attendance[5] and regularly feature among the most expensively assembled squads in the country.[6][7]
Club de Football Monterrey was founded on 28 June 1945, near the end of World War II by a group of industrial businessmen headed by Ramón Cárdenas Coronado, Enrique Ayala Medina, Paul C. Probert, Rogelio Cantú Gómez and Miguel Margáín Zozaya.
The team's nickname was popularly accepted, after the team's uniform, which is traditionally white with navy blue vertical stripes. Although the original uniform was white with a diagonal blue upper shoulder, the stripes were inspired in 1965, when the Tampico Madero (nicknamed "Jaibas Bravas", or Brave crabs) football team wore them, and the Monterrey team adopted them. Since then, the home uniform consists of vertical blue and white striped jerseys with blue shorts.
In its first professional game, played on 19 August 1945 against San Sebastián de León, Monterrey won 1–0, with José "Che" Gómez scoring the winner. That joy quickly came to an end, first by losing 6–0 to Montezuma, and then having the club's travelling bus involved in a tragic accident in the San Juan de los Lagos roads that would take the lives of many of the club's players and had a big impact on the surviving players. The other Mexican clubs in solidarity loaned players to Monterrey in order to continue playing the tournament, but the club struggled nevertheless; they lost 21 games in a row and conceded 121 goals that year, finishing last in the league. Due to these events, the club decided to stop playing in the league in 1946 in honor of the players who died.
It was not until 1952 when the club resumed action thanks to Dr. Carlos Canseco, president of the Asociación de Fútbol de Nuevo León. The club enrolled in the second division and just 4 years later the club earned promotion to the top division. Once again the joy was short-lived, when the club finished last in their first year back and was relegated once again to the second division after finishing with a record of 4 wins, 7 draws and 13 losses for a total of 15 points, just 1 short of Zacatepec who earned their permanence in the category. The club would once again earn the promotion in the 1959–60 season, and haven't been relegated since then.
The club started off the 1960s in bad shape, barely avoiding relegation with only 2 more points than Club Celaya, who had 19 points, in the 1960–61 season.
In the 1961–62 season the club was again close to relegation, finishing second to last for the second year in a row just one point ahead of Zacatepec, who had 18 points and was relegated. In the following season the club finally managed to have a decent campaign in the first division, finishing 5th in the league.
In the 1963–64 season the club improved their performance and would finish 3rd in the league just 5 points behind champions Guadalajara who had 37 points. In the following two seasons the club would finish third and fourth respectively, narrowly missing out on clinching titles by only a few points. The 1966–67 season was mediocre, as the club finished tied for 8th in the league with Irapuato on 30 points each. This season is also remembered for Jabatos de Nuevo León's promotion to the first division, which meant 2 clubs from Monterrey would be participating in the first division for the first time. However, the following season was even worse, with the club finishing 14th, only four points from relegation.
In 1970 the tournament was split into 2 short tournaments, due to the 1970 World Cup that was taking part in Mexico. In the first stage, the club was placed in group 1 where they managed to finish 2nd with 17 points, one less than group leader Toluca. In the second stage the club finished 7th of eight teams. The following year Monterrey finished runner up to Club América who went on to win the league title that year against Toluca.
In the 1971–72 tournament the club qualified for the play-offs which had been introduced a few years back. The club would lose in quarterfinals to Club América 2–1 on aggregate. The following year the club missed out on the playoffs, finishing tied for 5th with Veracruz and Guadalajara each with 32 points. The following season the club managed to qualify for the quarterfinals where they once again were eliminated, this time by Atlético Español 5–6 on aggregate.
Monterrey played its first match in international tournaments on 5 July 1975 in the 1975 CONCACAF Champions' Cup when they defeated Canadian club Serbian White Eagles FC by a score of 2–0.[8]
In the 1975–76 tournament the club finished in first place with a total of 44 points by means of 16 wins, 12 draws and 10 losses. In quarterfinals the club played Cruz Azul and won 7–2 on aggregate. In the semifinals the club played against Guadalajara who eliminated them, 2–3 on aggregate. During 1975, the Portuguese superstar Eusébio played for the club.
In the 1976–77 and 1977–78 seasons, the club failed to qualify for the playoffs, finishing 4th both times. In the 1978–79 tournament the club once again qualified to the playoffs finishing 1st in group one with a total of 40 points by means of 14 wins 12 draws and 12 losses. This time a short tournament was played by the best 8 teams in the league who were then split into 2 groups. Monterrey was placed in group 2 along with Pumas, Tigres and Zacatepec. After 6 rounds of play the club finished in 3rd place with 6 points, just 2 points behind Pumas who went on to lose against Cruz Azul, the winners of the other group.
In the following season the club finished 3rd in group 1 with 34 points but failed to qualify for the playoffs again. The decade came to an end with "Rayados" having shown great effort, as they qualified a couple times for the playoffs, but failed to win their first league title.
In the year 1989, the anthem of Rayados was created by composer Luis Aguilé. It is considered by Monterrey's fans as one of the symbols of identity of the team.[9]
At the beginning of the decade, Monterrey signed two notable players, Carlos Hermosillo and Manuel Negrete, for the 1990–91 season. The next season, they won their first Copa MX after defeating Juarez 4–2 in the Estadio Tecnológico and then went on to reach the league final of the 1992–93 season, losing to Atlante.
While the early years of the decade seemed promising for Monterrey, the latter half of the decade would prove to be a disappointing one, as financial problems started to become a problem for the club. During this period, the club sold many players who would go on to have successful careers with other teams like Ramón Morales and Sinha. Young talent Jesus Arellano was sold to Guadalajara in 1997, though he returned to the club in 2000 and spent the next eleven years as captain before retiring in 2011.
One of the most memorable moments of this decade was the so-called "Clasico del Descenso" in the 1995–96 season. On 24 March 1996, Monterrey defeated their arch-rivals Tigres 2–1 at Estadio Universitario. Tigres were facing a relegation battle after years of poor results, and needed a victory to avoid being relegated; the defeat meant that Tigres would be relegated for the first and so far only time in their history to the Segunda División.[10]
In 1999, Monterrey was facing a fierce relegation battle of its own against Puebla, culminating on May 9, 1999, when the teams faced each other at the Estadio Tecnológico to decide which team would get relegated. Monterrey only needed a draw to stay in the Primera División, and with a memorable performance from Francisco Javier "El Abuelo" Cruz who had played a vital role in Monterrey's first title win thirteen years before, Monterrey managed to draw 1–1 and stay in Mexico's top flight.
