Real Santander 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
Bucaramanga, that currently plays in the
Categoría Primera B. They play their home games at the
Estadio Villa Concha in
Piedecuesta, a municipality in the metropolitan area of Bucaramanga.
History
The club was founded on 17 January 2006 in
Floridablanca,
Santander Department after the demise of
Real Floridablanca
Real may refer to:
Currencies
* Brazilian real (R$)
* Central American Republic real
* Mexican real
* Portuguese real
* Spanish real
* Spanish colonial real
Music Albums
* ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000)
* ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010)
...
eight years earlier. In late 2006 they acquired the license (''ficha'') of
Pumas de Casanare
Real Santander is a professional Colombian football team based in Bucaramanga, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. They play their home games at the Estadio Villa Concha in Piedecuesta, a municipality in the metropolitan area o ...
and became affiliated to
DIMAYOR, entering
Categoría Primera B, Colombia's second tier in 2007. The club's best achievement in Primera B was a runner-up finish in the first tournament of the
2017 Categoría Primera B season
The 2017 Categoría Primera B season (officially known as the 2017 Torneo Águila season for sponsorship reasons) was the 28th season since its founding as Colombia's second division football league.
Format
For this season, the league switched fro ...
, losing the double-legged final to
Boyacá Chicó.
Relocation to San Andrés Island
Financial difficulties at their hometown forced the club to relocate the men's team to the Caribbean island of
San Andrés in late 2018, being renamed as ''Real San Andrés'' and playing their home matches at
Erwin O'Neil Stadium
Erwin O'Neil Stadium (Spanish: ''Estadio de Fútbol Erwin O'Neil'') is an association football stadium located on the island of San Andrés, part of the Colombian department of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina. The ...
, becoming the first professional team from the islands, while their youth and women's teams remained behind in Floridablanca. In their first tournament after the relocation, the 2019 Apertura, they ended in 14th place.
Return to Santander
Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic and the multiple logistical drawbacks stemming from it ranging from lack of transportation to the islands to games behind closed doors and potentially scarce financial support from the local government, the agreement with the San Andrés and Providencia authorities was not renewed at the end of the 2020 season, and the men's team returned to the Santander Department for the
2021 Primera B season. Having been refused the use of
Estadio Alfonso López in
Bucaramanga by its main tenant
Atlético Bucaramanga, they played their first games of the season at
Estadio Daniel Villa Zapata
Estadio Daniel Villa Zapata is a multi-use stadium in Barrancabermeja, Colombia. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium was originally built in 1970 with a capacity of 6,000 people. Alianza Petrolera play their home matches ...
in
Barrancabermeja until the completion of the adaptation works of
Estadio Villa Concha in
Piedecuesta.
Current squad
References
Football clubs in Colombia
Association football clubs established in 2006
2006 establishments in Colombia
Categoría Primera B clubs
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