Club Deportivo Futbolistas Asociados Santanecos, commonly known as FAS (pronounced "fas"), is a professional Salvadoran football club based in Santa Ana.[5][6]
The club has a long-standing rivalry with Águila and Alianza, and are the only three clubs to never have been relegated to the Second Division. Matches between them are known as Clásicos. FAS also plays a local derby against Isidro Metapán.[12]
FAS is the most successful club in El Salvador football with the highest fan base. Domestically, the club has won a record nineteen national league titles. In international competitions, FAS have one FIFA recognized club trophies, tied with Alianza and Águila as the only club to achieve it. They have won one CONCACAF Champions' Cup/Champions League trophies, and finished runners up in the 1979 Copa Interamericana cup, and third place in the 1980 Copa Interclubes UNCAF.
History
The Beginning
Clubs from San Salvador had dominated Salvadoran football for many years. The municipal mayor of the Santa Ana district, Manuel Tomás Monedero, wanted to create a team from Santa Ana to end the dominance of the San Salvador clubs. Together with the help of Santa Ana mayor Waldo Rey, Monedero organized the union of all the clubs in Santa Ana (including Unión, Colegio Salesiano San José, Cosmos, RAL, Colón, Santa Lucía and Los 44).
On 16 February 1947, these teams united to form Futbolistas Asociados Santanecos, or FAS for short. Samuel Zaldaña Galdámez was named the club first president. It was originally proposed that the club should wear yellow and black, but Monedero settled on the more traditional choice of red and blue.
The First Steps
The club played its first match on 26 March 1947 against the previous year's champion Libertad FC at the Finca Modelo (which would be their home stadium for many years). The club's founding players were Juan Moreno and Óscar González, Goalkeeper; Tomás Morán, Jorge Brito and Guillermo Herrera, defenders; Manuel Padilla, Lino Medina, Moisés Jovel, Antonio Pérez and Eliseo Ramos, midfielders; Víctor Castro, Tomás Angulo, Antonio Mancía, Antonio Azucena, Mario (Capellan) y Jose (El Torro) González, strikers. Armando Chacón was the manager. The first match ended in a 4–1 defeat.
Early history (1948–1959)
In 1948–49, FAS moved into the First Division for the first time, and have remained their ever since. Chacón was still the manager, and the team began on a winning note by defeating Juventud Olimpica 2–1. They recorded two more wins over Dragón and Santa Anita (3–0, 3–2 respectively) before losing 3–1 to Cusatleco. FAS would ultimately finish 3rd behind Libertad FC and champion Once Municipal.
In 1951–52, FAS won their first title. The manager was Victor Manuel "Pipe" Ochoa, who proceeded to lead the club to a second title in 1953–54. During the 1956–57 season, the club came close to relegation, which caused the owners to hire Argentinian coach Alberto Cevasco and bring in the reinforcements of foreign players, including Omar Muraco, Javier Novello, Héctor Marinaro, Héctor Dadeiro and Miguelito Álvarez. This move led the club to a third title in 1958–59.
1960–1992
In 1961–62, César Viccinio managed the team to its fourth title, while Raul Miralles led the team to another in 1962. At the beginning of the 1963, the club moved its headquarters to the newly built Estadio Santaneco.
The early history of that stadium was marked by tragedy, as goalkeeper Oscar Quiteño collapsed during a friendly match against Orión F.C. Efforts to revive him failed, and Quiteño died on the pitch. In his honor, the club renamed the stadium to Estadio Quiteño and wore black uniforms for two years.
Fans came to believe the club was cursed, as Quiteño's death was followed by a fifteen-year title drought. Adding to that frustration was that the club reached the finals in 1965, 1968, and 1969 and meet defeat all three times. Their tormentor was Alianza, known at that time as the "Orquestra Alba" for their harmony and skill.
FAS did break that curse with titles in 1977–78, 1978–79, 1981, and 1984. In addition, they won the 1979 CONCACAF Champions League by defeating Jong Colombia 8-2 on aggregate. Key to that run was forward Jorge "Mágico" González. Widely considered the greatest player in Salvadoran history, Gonzalez was at FAS from 1977 to 1982, and at that time was nicknamed Mago. After the 1982 season, he left El Salvador for Spain and La Liga, playing at Cadiz, Barcelona, and Valladolid.
However, a title drought of ten more years followed.
1993–1994
In 1993, that drought led to the appointment of a new board of directors. The new board's first move was to hired Uruguayan coach Saúl Rivero, as well as a host of experienced players from both Uruguay and El Salvador. The board also placed a new emphasis on youth leagues. Finally, they purchased lights for the stadium, making night games possible. FAS proceeded to win titles in 1994-95 and 1995–96, beating Luis Ángel Firpo in both seasons. Part of the key to this run was the return of Jorge "Mágico" González and the addition of Hugo Pérez.
2000s
FAS became the most dominant team in the beginning of the century, winning six titles between 2002 and 2006, this success came under the tenureship of Peruvian Agustin Castillo
The century would start off with mild success with FAS reaching the 2000 Clausura semi final before losing to runners up ADET and this was followed by missing the finals altogether in the 2000 Apertura, marking the worst performance under the Clausura/Apertura format for FAS.
For the 2001 Clausura, FAS started a youth revolution under new coach Ruben Guevara, these players will form the backbone for the upcoming dynasty to come, these include Eliseo Quintanilla, Gilberto Murgas, Marvin Gonzalez, Gerardo Burgos, Rafael Tobar, Jaime Gómez and Juan Granados. Along with experienced players such as William Osorio, Salvador Alfaro, Ricardo Cuellar, Carlos Linares and foreigner players Urguayans Pablo Quiñones and Alejandro Soler, Brazilian Alessandro Moresche and Argenitnian Alejandro de la Cruz and Peruvian Antonio Serrano, they reached the final but were defeated by archrivals C.D. Aguila 2–1.
Towards end of the 2001 Apertura season, FAS hired Peruvian Agustin Castillo although they just missed the finals, FAS had added the final pieces and they went on to win back to back titles winning the 2002 Apertura and 2002 Clausura, defeating Alianza F.C. 4-0 and San Salvador F.C. 3-1 respectively, with the youth injected a year ago, and adding important players such as Honduran William Reyes, Colombian Victor Mafla, Costa Rican Rolando Corella, William Machón, Jorge Rodríguez, Luis Contreras, Carlos Menjivar, Victor Velasquez, Daniel Sagastizado, Juan Carlos Padilla, Cristian Álvarez, Luis Castro, Ernesto Gochez, Juan Carlos Panameño and Alfredo Pacheco
They failed to win three titles in a row, after losing the 2003 Clausura semi finals match against Luis Angel Firpo in penalties. However they were able to win 14th title and 3rd title in 3 years, defeating their archrival C.D. Aguila in penalties.
2010s to present
After a small drought, On 20 December 2009 FAS won their 19th title defeating arch rival Aguila 3-2 thanks to goals for Josué Flores, Juan Carlos Moscoso and own goal by Mexican Arturo Albarrán.
It's been more than a decade since FAS last won a championships, despite making five different finals including Clausura 2011 (Falling against Alianza), Clausura 2013 (Firpo), Apertura 2013 (Isidro Metapan), Apertura 2015 (Alianza) and Apertura 2019 (Alianza). [1]
FAS progressed to the final in December 2019, where they faced the Alianza for the third time in decade; FAS was ultimately defeated in Alianza by a score of 1–0.
FAS won the Clausura 2021 Championship defeating (Alianza) on penalty shootout, after a 1-1 Draw in regular time, winning the club the 18th title.
On 15 April 2022, FAS announced that they had been acquired by American ownership group AMG Sports
[13]
Following the acquisition of the club, FAS hired Ecuadorian Octavio Zambrano to manage the team. This was followed by the signings of players such as Mexican Luis Ángel Mendoza, Colombians Yílmar Filigrana and Juan Camilo Salazar, local players Rubén Marroquín, Marvin Marquez and Roberto Dominguez. This led to FAS winning the 2022 Apertura title, defeating first time finalist Jocoro 2–0, thanks to goals from Rudy Clavel and Yílmar Filigrana.
The team plays its home games in the 17,500 capacity all-seaterEstadio Oscar Quiteño, in Santa Ana.
The stadium is named after Oscar Quiteño, a goalkeeper of FAS who died after an accident on the soccer pitch.
Previously the team played at Finca Modelo, where they had played their home matches from 1947 until the end of the 1962 season. The stadium was located in Santa Ana. The team's headquarters are located in TBD.
Sponsorship
Companies that FAS currently has sponsorship deals for 2024-25 season includes:
FAS's crest has changed several times. Originally it consisted of the stylised letters F, A, S, which were woven into one symbol. The original crest was blue.
The FAS logo has a red, blue and white colour scheme. It has CD FAS written on the top and Santa Ana, El Salvador written on the bottom of the white ring enclosing a tiger.
Originally the club colours were blue and yellow, this was used until 1962 where the colours were changed to an all black outfit. However, with a new owners and stadium the colours were update to the colors used and known today to be associated with FAS blue and Red shirts, white shorts and red socks with blue stripes.
Rivalries
FAS's biggest rivalries are with Alianza, Luis Ángel Firpo and Aguila.
Together, these teams form the "Big Four" of Salvadoran football, and are the primary title contenders each season.
The rivalry stems not only from their competitiveness, but from the economic, political, and cultural clashes between the cities of San Miguel, Santa Ana and San Salvador, where the other three clubs are based.
El Clásico
Of those rivalries, FAS's rivalry with Aguila is the strongest and most passionate. That rivalry is traditionally referred to as El Clásico. The first in the series took place on 17 May 1959, and ended in a 1–1 draw.
The most recent match was a 2-2 draw on the 24th of September, 2023.
The teams have played 255 matches in all competitions, FAS winning 92, Aguila 81, and the remaining 82 having been drawn.
Honours
FAS is historically the most successful team in El Salvador football, as they have won the most championships with nineteen. They are also one of El Salvador's most successful team in international competitions, having won one CONCACAF Tournament. FAS is one of only three clubs to have won the CONCACAF Champions' Cup.
David Cabrera is FAS's record goalscorer and the first player to score six goals a in a single Primera division game.
David Cabrera is the all-time leading goalscorer for FAS, with 242—since joining the club in 1966. Williams Reyes, who is the all-time topscorer in Clausura-Apertura format for FAS comes in second in all competitions with 139. Omar Muraco is the club's highest scorer in a single season with 39 goals in 00 appearances in the 1957-58 season. The most goals scored by a player in a single match is 6, which is also a Salvadoran record. This was achieved by David Cabrera in a game against UES in the 1980 season.
The biggest victory recorded by FAS was 11–0 against Independiente, Primera División, 3 May 1959. FAS' heaviest championship defeats came during the 1989 season: It was against Alianza in 1989 (1–7).
FAS has the national record of most national titles won with 19
First Primera division game and victory for FAS 2–1 Juventud Olimpica September 19, 1948
Largest victory was against Independiente 11–0 3 May 1959
Largest defeat was 1–7 against Alianza F.C. 29 October 1989 at Estadio Cuscatlán. Raúl Toro (4), César Pineda (2) and Jaime Rodríguez scored for Alianza. Jorge Ábrego scored the only goal for FAS.
Most goal by any national team with 3,000 goal as of 4 July 2009 [6]
Most goals scored by a player in one season: Omar Muraco 39 goals in 1957-58
The reserve team serves mainly as the final stepping stone for promising young players under the age of 21 before being promoted to the main team. The second team is coached by Juan Carlos Moscoso. the team played in the Primera División Reserves, their greatest successes were winning the Reserve championships in Clausura 2017, Apertura 2017, Clausura 2019.
The youth team (under 17 and under 15) has produced some of El Salvador's top football players, including TBD and TBD.
Women's team
The women's first team, known as FAS Femenino which is led by Colombian head coach Nito Gonzalez, features several members of the El Salvador national ladies team. Their greatest successes was winning the 2021 Clausura 3-2 penalties.
FAS has other departments for a variety of sports.
Basketball
FAS Denver Básquetbol Club was founded in 2015 and play Liga Mayor de Baloncesto (LMB) which is the highest level in El Salvador league tier. the club is led by head coach TBD, the club features several key members including Puerto Rican Bryan Vásquez and TBD. Their greatest successes were winning the 2015 Clausura. However after two years, the other sports section of FAS including Baskbetball and baseball was dissolved in 2017 due to financial reasons.
Famous players such as venzeualn Jonathan José Figuera
Baseball
FAS Béisbol Club was founded in 2016 and play Liga Nacional de Béisbol (LNB) which is the highest level in El Salvador league tier. the club is led by head coach Venezuelan Jesús Cartagena, the club features several key members including Puerto Rican Bryan Vásquez and TBD. Their greatest successes were reaching the TBD
Volleyball
FAS Voleibol Club was founded in 2016 and play Campeonaro Nacional which is the highest level in El Salvador league tier. the club is led by head coach TBD, the club features several key members including TBD and TBD. Their greatest successes were reaching the TBD
