Leones F.C., also known as Itagüí Leones, is a professional Colombian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team based in

Itagüí Itagüí () is a city of Colombia, located in the south of the Aburrá Valley in the Antioquia Department. It is part of The Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley. Demographics The population at the 2005 census was 230,272. Its density is 17&nb ...

playing in the

Categoría Primera B Categoría Primera B, commonly referred to as Torneo BetPlay Dimayor due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay (formerly ''Torneo Águila''), is the second-division football league in Colombia. Format DIMAYOR has applied a new forma ...

starting from 2019. They play their home games at the

Estadio Metropolitano Ciudad de Itagüí Estadio Metropolitano Ciudad de Itagüí is a multi-use stadium in Itagüí, Colombia. It is currently used mostly for football matches by Leones F.C., currently playing in Categoría Primera B Categoría Primera B, commonly referred to as ...

History

Founded as ''Deportivo Rionegro'' in 1944, Leones Fútbol Club participated in all seasons of the

from 1991 to 2017, when the team was runner-up of the tournament and was promoted to

Categoría Primera A The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor (between 2015 and 2019 ''Liga Águila'') due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a Colombian professional league for association football clubs. It is the ...

for the first time. The team played for almost forty years in the amateur league. The team's first president was Libardo Sanchez and his first manager was Alfonso Piedrahita. Thanks to its performances and achievements in the 80s the club was admitted in the first edition of the

, the second-tier of the professional Colombian league, played in 1991. In 1993, with the direction of manager Carlos Augusto Navarrete, Rionegro managed to be among the five best of the tournament. The team got its best performance in 2001, when they were runners-up under the direction of manager Orlando Restrepo. In 2008 Deportivo Rionegro, with

René Higuita José René Higuita Zapata (; born 27 August 1966) is a Colombian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was nicknamed ''El Loco'' ("The Madman") for his high-risk ' sweeper-keeper' playing style and his flair for the dram ...

as their captain and star and with Óscar Aristizábal as manager, managed to win the first tournament of the year, defeating

Unión Magdalena Unión Magdalena () commonly known as El Unión, and nicknamed as El Ciclón Bananero (The Banana Cyclone) and also Los Samarios (The Samarios), is a Colombian football club from the city of Santa Marta, capital of the department of Magdalena, ...

in the final, but in the second half failed to reach the final, so they had to fight for the title of the Primera B against

Real Cartagena Real Cartagena is a professional Colombian football team based in Cartagena, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. They play their home games at the Jaime Morón León stadium. History The origins of Real Cartagena date back to 197 ...

, losing on aggregate by 2-4. They played the promotion matches against

Envigado F.C. Envigado Fútbol Club () is a Colombian professional football team based in Envigado, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Estadio Polideportivo Sur. The club is renowned for the quality of its yout ...

, but lost by a score of 3-1 on aggregate. In 2014 Deportivo Rionegro moved to Bello and changed its name to ''Leones Fútbol Club''. The following year they moved to

Turbo In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...

where they stayed for another year before moving back to the

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

metropolitan area in 2016, establishing themselves in

. Leones ended as runners-up in the 2017 Primera B, winning the Torneo Finalización and then going on to lose the final to

Boyacá Chicó Boyacá is the name of a region in Colombia. It may refer to other connections to Colombia: * Battle of Boyacá * Boyacá Department (Gran Colombia) * Boyacá Department ** Boyacá, Boyacá, a municipality * Boyacá State, a former state * P ...

on penalty kicks. However, since they ended the season as the best team in the aggregate table, they earned promotion to the

for the 2018 season, the first time the team played in the first division. They were relegated back to Primera B at the end of the season, finishing in bottom place of the relegation table.

Stadium

Honours

: ::Runners-up (1):

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Players

Current squad

Notable players

* Iván Córdoba (1993–95) *

Samuel Vanegas Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bi ...

(1996) * Vladimir Marín (1999–01) * Neider Morantes (2005) *

(2008–09) * Jefferson Duque (2010–12)

External links

*
Leones FC page on DIMAYOR.com

References

{{Football in Colombia Football clubs in Colombia Association football clubs established in 1944 1944 establishments in Colombia Categoría Primera B clubs