O'Higgins Braden was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

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 ...

club based in the city of

Rancagua Rancagua () is a city and commune in central Chile and part of the Rancagua conurbation. It is the capital of the Cachapoal Province and of the O'Higgins Region, located south of the national capital of Santiago. It was originally named Santa ...

. The club was founded on 1954 and merged between

Instituto O'Higgins Instituto O'Higgins is a private Catholic school located in the center of Rancagua, Chile. It is administered by the Marist Brothers. It was founded in 1915 by four Marist Brothers, Andrés, Donato, Cristobal and Salvador María. Originally th ...

and Braden F.C.. Later, after won the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

, the club merged in 1955 with

América de Rancagua The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

forming the current club O'Higgins.

History

In 1954,

, competing in the

, decided to merge with the football team of the Braden Copper Company and together they founded the O'Higgins Braden. BradenFC

Thus, despite its short existence, the club participated in the Second Division championship in 1954 and played every inch of the top of the standings with América, also from Rancagua and archrival Instituto O'Higgins. Finally, with the help of his coach :es:Francisco Hormazábal, O'Higgins Braden titled tournament undefeated after winning 12 games and drawing 6, while

, led by Salvador Nocetti, was runner-up of the tournament. Both teams won the right to play in the division of honor. However, the Asociación Central de Fútbol and its policy of "a city club" forced to merge both clubs to represent the city of

. This generated an intense debate in the summer of 1955, as ''yellow'' and ''white-green'' rejected such an imposition, and even argued that América had no problems to continue in the second division . However, given the possibility of disaffiliation of both clubs and the loss of quota for the city, the April 7th of 1955, O'Higgins Braden is forced to join

, giving rise to O'Higgins. Its first president after navigate a coin in the air, was Francisco Rajcevich (O'Higgins Braden) and his vice president, Manuel Riquelme (América), as equal to members of America and O'Higgins Braden in the directory after successive ties,

Carlos Dittborn Carlos Dittborn Pinto (1921–1962) was a Chilean football administrator. In his lifetime, he served as president of Universidad Católica and of CONMEBOL (the governing body of football in South America) and was the head of the organizing commit ...

, leader of the Asociación Central de Fútbol decided that the coin was the only way to solve the issue of the president.

1954 Champions squad

* Luis Valenzuela (GK) * Raúl Salazar (DF) * Naín Demetrio Rostión (DF) * Milton Puga (MF) * Juan Bautista Soto (DF) * Mario De Luca (MF) * Jorge Peñaloza (FW) * Juvenal Soto (FW) * Mario González (DF) * Sergio Fuenzalida (FW) * René Valdenegro (FW) * Ernesto Soto (GK) * Francisco Hormazábal (manager) * Eduardo Muñoz Muñoz (fitness coach)

National honors

: 1 ::1954

Stadium

The Stadium of O'Higgins Braden was the World Cup Stadium

Estadio El Teniente Estadio El Teniente, also known as Estadio El Teniente-Codelco for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in Rancagua, Chile. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium can fit 14,087 people and was built in 1945 with ...

. The stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in

. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium holds 14,450 people and was built in 1945. The stadium hosted several matches of the FIFA World Cup in 1962.

References

External links

O'Higgins History at the official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:O'Higgins Braden O'Higgins F.C. Football clubs in Chile 1954 establishments in Chile 1955 disestablishments in Chile