Club Deportivo Palestino

For the Honduran football club, see Palestino FC.

Palestino

Full name	Club Deportivo Palestino S.A.D.P.
Nickname(s)	Tino Árabes Tricolor Baisanos
Founded	8 August 1920; 104 years ago (1920-08-08)
Ground	Estadio Municipal de La Cisterna
Capacity	8,500
Chairman	Jorge Uauy
Coach	Lucas Bovaglio
League	Campeonato Nacional
2024	Primera División, 4th of 16
Website	http://www.palestino.cl/
Home colours Away colours

Club Deportivo Palestino is a professional football club based in the city of Santiago, Chile. The club was founded in 1920 and plays in the Primera División de Chile. They play their home games at the Estadio Municipal de La Cisterna stadium, which has a capacity of approximately 8,500 seats.

History

The club was founded on 8 August 1920, when they participated in a colonial competition in Osorno. It was founded by a group of Palestinians; the name of the club reflects the origin in Chile's Palestinian community.

According to American historian Brenda Elsey, "Leaders of the Arab immigrant community who hoped to find a niche within popular culture for their organizations decided to participate in football once again in 1940s".^[1]

Beginnings in professional football

In 1952, the Football Federation of Chile set up the first professional leagues. Palestino was accepted into the Second Division, which they won to attain promotion to the Primera División.

1955 title

In 1955, the club won their first national championship under the coaching of Argentine captain Roberto Coll. In that era, the club became known by the nickname millonario (Millionaire) because of their ability to attract top class footballers.

1978−present

In 1978, the club won their second league title, this time the team was led by Chilean captain Elías Figueroa. In this campaign they set a new record in the domestic tournament, for the number of games unbeaten and soon won the Copa Chile to claim the league and cup double.

In 2004, the club became a registered company, but the change of status did not bring the expected improvement in results. In 2006 they finished in 18th place out of 20 teams, forcing them to face a play-off against Fernandez Vial to keep their place in the top flight. Ultimately the club would triumph thus preserving their spot within the Chilean first division.

The club made a surprising run to the final of the Clausura 2008 tournament, where they lost to champions Colo-Colo. Following this success, the club intends to float on the Chilean and Palestinian stock exchanges.^[2]

In January 2014, Palestino was fined the equivalent of $1,300 for using a new team jersey in the club's traditional colors, red, green and black, but with the number one in the squad numbers on the back shaped as the map of Palestine prior to the creation of Israel in 1948. Jewish organisations in Chile complained about the political significance of this, with a formal complaint to their national Federation being made by Patrick Kiblisky, owner of first-division club Ñublense. The jerseys were said to have been first used in December 2013, although the club said they were used in the prior season. The federation banned the club from using the map on the back of the shirts and imposed a fine on the club on the grounds that the Federation is opposed to "any form of political, religious, sexual, ethnic, social or racial discrimination". On its Facebook page, the club stated: "For us, free Palestine will always be historical Palestine, nothing less."^[3]

Honours

National

• Primera División
  • Winners (2): 1955, 1978
• Copa Chile
  • Winners (3): 1975, 1977, 2018
• Primera B
  • Winners (2): 1952, 1972

Performance in CONMEBOL competitions

• Copa Libertadores: 7 appearances

1976: Group Stage

1978: Group Stage

1979: Semi-finals

2015: Group Stage

2019: Group Stage

2020: Third Qualifying Stage

2024: Group Stage

• Copa Sudamericana: 6 appearances

2016: Quarter-finals

2017: Second Stage

2019: Second Stage

2021: Group Stage

2023: Group Stage

2024: TBD

Current squad

For a list of all former and current Club Deportivo Palestino players with a Wikipedia article, see Category:Club Deportivo Palestino footballers.

First Team squad

As of 22 December 2024

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 2 DF  CHI Vicente Espinoza 3 DF  CHI Benjamín Rojas 4 DF  CHI Antonio Ceza 5 MF  ARG Nicolás Linares 6 FW  CHI Nicolás Meza 7 FW  CHI Bryan Carrasco (captain) 11 MF  ARG Jonathan Benítez 12 GK  CHI Gabriel Fuentes 13 DF  CHI Cristián Suárez 14 MF  CHI Joe Abrigo 15 MF  CHI Francisco Montes 16 DF  CHI José Bizama 17 DF  CHI Iván Román 21 MF  CHI Benjamin Araneda 23 MF  CHI Ariel Martínez 25 GK  ARG Ricardo Patiño

No. Pos. Nation Player 26 GK  CHI Dixon Contreras 27 MF  PAR Junior Marabel (on loan from Unión de Santa Fe) 28 DF  CHI Dilan Zúñiga 29 DF  CHI Ian Garguez 30 FW  CHI Alenjadro Hales 31 FW  CHI Benjamín Riquelme 32 FW  CHI Matías Jiménez 33 MF  CHI Christián Mansilla 34 GK  CHI Pablo Lagos 35 FW  CHI José Palma — DF  CHI Jason León — MF  CHI Pablo Parra — FW  CHI Gonzalo Tapia — GK  CHI Sebastián Pérez — GK  CHI Sebastián Salas (on loan from A.C. Barnechea) — FW  URU Facundo Castro

Out on loan

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  CHI Alan Riquelme (on loan to Deportes Limache until 31 December 2024) — MF  CHI Dilan Salgado (on loan to Deportes Santa Cruz until 31 December 2024)

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW  CHI Martin Araya (on loan to Deportes Copiapó until 31 December 2024) — MF  CHI Benjamin Soto (on loan to Lautaro de Buin until 31 December 2024)

Sponsors

Companies that Club Deportivo Palestino currently has sponsorship deals with include:

• Bank of Palestine
• Capelli Sport
• Alegrebet
• UAZ

Former coaches

• Luis Tirado (1952)
• Antonio Ciraolo (1953)
• Boris Stefanović (1955–57)
• Antonio de Mare (1958–59)
• Alejandro Scopelli (1960)
• Hugo Tassara (1961–62)
• José Della Torre (1963)
• Ladislao Pakozdi (1963)
• Miguel Mocciola [es] (1964)
• José Valdebenito (1964)
• Zezé Moreira (1964)
• Enrique Fernández (1965)
• Alejandro Scopelli (1966)
• Óscar Andrade (1967)
• Julio Baldovinos (1967)
• Adolfo Rodríguez [es] (1968–69)
• Sergio Lecea (1969)
• Isaac Carrasco (1970)
• Héctor Ortega (1970)
• Dante Pesce (1971)
• Alejandro Scopelli (1971)
• Adolfo Rodríguez [es] (1972)
• Humberto Díaz (1972)
• Néstor Isella (1973)
• Humberto Díaz (1973)
• Caupolicán Peña (1974–76)
• Fernando Riera (1977)
• Caupolicán Peña (1977–80)
• Gustavo Cortés [es] (1980)
• Mario Tuane (1980–81)
• Gustavo Cortés [es] (1981–83)
• Sasha Mitjaew (1984)
• Elson Beiruth (1984)
• Gustavo Cortés [es] (1984–85)
• Víctor Manuel Castañeda (1986)
• Orlando Aravena (1986–87)
• Víctor Manuel Castañeda (1988)
• Luis Ibarra (1988)
• Eugenio Jara (1988–89)
• Orlando Aravena (1989)
• Víctor Manuel Castañeda (1989)
• Guillermo Duarte (1990)
• Manuel Pellegrini (1990)
• Jorge Zelada (1991)
• Manuel Pellegrini (1991–92)
• Fernando Cavalleri (1992)
• Gustavo Cortés [es] (1992–93)
• Ricardo Dabrowski (1993)
• José Sulantay (1994)
• Elías Figueroa (1994–95)
• Germán Cornejo (1995–96)
• Orlando Aravena (1996)
• Jorge Aravena (1996–97)
• Manuel Pellegrini (1998)
• Juan Carlos Carotti [es] (1998)
• Ricardo Dabrowski (1998–01)
• Fernando Carvallo (2002)
• Daniel Salvador (2003)
• Nicola Hadwa (2004)
• Ricardo Toro (interim) (2004)
• Horacio Rivas [es] (2004–05)
• Fernando Carvallo (2005)
• Daniel Salvador (2006)
• Jaime Pizarro (2006–07)
• Jorge Aravena (2007)
• Luis Musrri (2007–09)
• Jorge Aravena (2009–10)
• Jaime Escobar (interim) (2010)
• Gustavo Benítez (2010–11)
• José Daniel Carreño (2012)
• Emiliano Astorga (2012–14)
• Jaime Escobar (interim) (2014)
• Pablo Guede (2014–16)
• Nicolás Córdova (2016–2017)
• Omar Toloza (interim) (2017)
• Germán Cavalieri [es] (2017–18)
• Sebastián Méndez (2018)
• Ivo Basay (2018–2020)
• José Luis Sierra (2020-2021)
• Patricio Graff (2021)
• Gustavo Costas (2022)
• Vitamina Sánchez (2023-2024)
• Jorge Schwager (interim) (2024)

Women's team

The Palestino women's team plays in the Campeonato Nacional Primera División de Fútbol Femenino, the top women's football competition in Chile. In 2015 they won the Clausura tournament, thus ending a ten-season title streak by Colo-Colo. The captain, Ashraf Khatib, lifted the title. She was quoted as saying it was a pleasure to be the first actual Palestinian woman to lift the title in Chile. ^[4][5]

Former Palestino forward María José Urrutia was a member of the Chile women's national football team for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. With a header against Thailand in Chile's 2–0 win in the group stage, she became the first Chilean player to score a goal in the FIFA Women's World Cup.^[6] Former Palestino defender Javiera Toro was also a member of the Chilean team at the 2019 tournament.

See also

• Palestinian community in Chile

References

1. Elsey, Brenda (1 July 2011). Citizens and Sportsmen: Fútbol and Politics in Twentieth-Century Chile. University of Texas Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-292-72630-7.
2. Cerda, Claudio (17 August 2009). "Chile's Palestino tapping roots to go public". Reuters. Retrieved 17 August 2009.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
3. "Chile bans Palestino football club 'anti-Israel' shirt". BBC News. 21 January 2014.
4. "Sorpresa en Quilín: Palestino Femenino gritó campeón en la cara de Colo Colo" (in Spanish). elgraficochile.cl. 5 December 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
5. "Palestino acaba con hegemonía de Colo Colo y se corona campeón nacional femenino" (in Spanish). t13.cl. 5 December 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
6. "Women's World Cup: Chile penalty miss costs them last-16 tie against England". 20 June 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2019.

External links

• Official website (in Spanish)