Club Plaza Colonia de Deportes

Club Plaza Colonia de Deportes, or simply Plaza Colonia, is a Uruguayan professional football club from Colonia del Sacramento, that competes in the Uruguayan Primera Division. Founded in 1917, the club plays its home games at the 3,000 seater Estadio Juan Gaspar Prandi.

Plaza Colonia
Full nameClub Plaza Colonia de Deportes
Nickname(s)Patas Blancas
FoundedApril 22, 1917; 107 years ago (1917-04-22)
GroundEstadio Juan Gaspar Prandi [es]
Capacity3,000
ChairmanRafael González
ManagerVacant
LeagueSegunda División
2023Primera División, 14th of 16 (relegated by average)

History

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The club was founded on April 22, 1917 by Alberto Suppici.[1] They played in the Regional league of Colonia until 1999. They gained their affiliation with AUF in 2000. In 2001 they won promotion to the Primera División Uruguaya and in their debut season they finished in 7th place.

In 2003 the club finally fell to the Second Division after a poor campaign. In 2004 the club was promoted back to the first division, but in 2005 they went back down after another poor campaign. In 2006 they did not play the championship because of financial difficulties.

They re-entered official competitions for the 2006–07 season, playing once more in the Uruguayan 2nd Division.

In May 2016 they won the Clausura Championship for the first time after defeating Peñarol 2–1.[2] They became known as the "Leicester City of Uruguay" because of Leicester City's surprising 2015–16 Premier League title. The season before Plaza Colonia had finished 13th out of 16. In the championship playoff, played between the Apertura and Clausura champions to decide who would be the super champion, Peñarol defeated them 3–1 after extra time.

They qualified for their first ever continental competition in the 2016 Copa Sudamericana. Reports say that some players had never even been on a plane before.[3] They lost to Club Blooming on penalties in the first stage.

In 2021, they won the Apertura tournament, their second accolade, and qualified for the Copa Libertadores for the first time in the club's history. On 7 December, they lost the championship playoff on penalties 8–7 after a 1–1 draw at the conclusion of extra time.

Rivalries

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Plaza's city rivals are Juventud Colonia, and department derby is against Deportivo Colonia.

Honours

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Current squad

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As of 14 October 2023

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

No. Pos. Nation Player
2 DF   BRA Guilherme Café
5 MF   URU Agustín Pérez
6 DF   URU Martin Jourdan
10 FW   URU Leandro Suhr
11 FW   URU Nicolás Dibble
13 DF   URU Joaquín Sarlabos
15 MF   URU Álvaro Fernández
16 DF   URU Haibrany Ruiz Díaz
17 DF   URU Emilio Zeballos
No. Pos. Nation Player
19 FW   URU Joaquin Wigman
20 MF   URU Ezequias Redín
21 FW   URU Ramiro Quintana
22 MF   BRA Leonai
23 MF   URU Facundo Silvestre
26 FW   ARG Elías Umeres
27 MF   URU Fabio González
28 FW   ARG Imanol Enríquez
30 DF   URU Ezequiel Silveira
32 DF   URU Nicolás Olivera

References

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  1. ^ "Historia | Plaza Colonia". www.plazacolonia.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-09-12.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ Baldo, Matias (May 30, 2016). "Plaza Colonia: su pobre historia, la odisea de los hinchas y por qué el DT entró al Centenario de noche a comer pizza". La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  3. ^ "De Uruguay para América, Plaza Colonia debuta internacionalmente luego de 99 años de historia". CONMEBOL.com. August 11, 2016. Retrieved September 12, 2020. En este plantel la gran mayoría nunca se subió a un avión. (In this squad the grand majority have never been on a plane.)
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