Club Real Potosí is a

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

n football club based in

Potosí Potosí, known as Villa Imperial de Potosí in the colonial period, is the capital city and a municipality of the Department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world at a nominal . For centuries, it was the location o ...

. Founded on 1 April 1988, in 2022 it will play in the Potosí Football Association Championship, after being relegated from the Bolivian Primera División in 2021, holding home games at

Estadio Víctor Agustín Ugarte Estadio Víctor Agustín Ugarte, also known by its old name Estadio Mario Mercado Vaca Guzmán, is a multi-purpose stadium in Potosí, Bolivia. It is currently used mostly for football matches, on club level by Real Potosí and Nacional Potosí. Th ...

, with a 32,000-seat capacity.

History

Real Potosí was founded on 1 April 1988, as Fútbol Academy of Real Potosì. They subsequently merged with ''Banco Minero of Bolivia (Bamin)'', which was founded on 20 October 1941. The club played their first continental competition, the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

, in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

. They were drawn with

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (; English: ''Peñarol Athletic Club'') —also known as ''Carboneros'', ''Aurinegros,'' and (familiarly) ''Manyas''— is a Uruguayan sports club from Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neig ...

of Uruguay, El Nacional of Ecuador, and

San Lorenzo de Almagro Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro, commonly known as San Lorenzo de Almagro or simply San Lorenzo (in English: ''Saint Lawrence''), is a sports club of Argentina in the Boedo district of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its football tea ...

of Argentina. Even though they came in last place, they beat San Lorenzo 1-0 and thrashed Peñarol 6-1. The reason for the strange one-sided result was most likely due to the high elevation of the stadium (4,000 metres), since the team had lost the away leg 4-0. In

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

Real Potosi became champion of the ''Apertura tournament'', earning qualification for that year's Copa Libertadores''.'' The following year they won the '' Copa Aerosur del Sur'' and ''Torneo Play Off.'' Real Potosí gained popularity by being announced as one of the opponents of

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football ...

and

Paraná Clube Paraná Clube, commonly referred to as Paraná, is a Brazilian professional club based in Curitiba, Paraná founded on 19 December 1989. It competes in the Campeonato Paranaense Série Prata, the second tier of the Paraná state football lea ...

in the 2007 Copa Libertadores, by forcing teams to play in the city of Potosí, at 4,090 metres (13,200 feet) above the

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

. They came in third place in the group, recording a 3-1 victory against Parana, and were undefeated at home, despite getting no away wins. The following year Cruzeiro played against Real Potosí, losing 5-1, despite having won 3-0 in Brazil, and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Palmeiras was the most famous opponent, eliminating Real from the tournament.

Stadium

The

is a

n football stadium located in

, which seats 32,000 fans. The stadium was originally called Estadio San Clemente, but was renamed Mario Mercado Vaca Guzmán after some modifications on the structure, including new illumination towers, were made. Newer modifications led ultimately to its actual name. Located 4,090

metre The metre ( British spelling) or meter ( American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its p ...

s above

, the stadium is one of the highest in the

world In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

. It has raised numerous controversies in footballing circles, as its significant

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

affects the absorption of

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as we ...

in the human body, offering considerable advantage to the home team who are more accustomed to such conditions.

Current squad

Rivalries

The club has a rivalry with the only other first division club in the

Potosí Department Potosí (; Aymara: ''Putusi''; qu, P'utuqsi) is a department in southwestern Bolivia. It comprises 118,218 km2 with 823,517 inhabitants (2012 census). The capital is the city of Potosí. It is mostly a barren, mountainous region with one ...

, Nacional Potosí. They share the same stadium, and matches between them usually draw lots of attention. The first match played between the two clubs was in the

2009 Copa Aerosur La Copa Aerosur 2009 is the seventh edition of the summer soccer tournament sponsored by Aerosur. Involved six teams of core cities in Bolivia: Bolivar and The Strongest of La Paz, Cochabamba Aurora and Wilstermann, Blooming and Oriente Petrolero ...

on 18 January 2009. Real Potosi won 2-1. The first league match between the two clubs was on 19 April 2009, which finished in a 1-1 draw. Although both clubs were founded in the 20th century, the reason why it took so long for both clubs to meet was because Nacional Potosi had been playing in the lower divisions until 2009. Nacional Potosí have won 18 times, while Real Potosí have only done it 15 times, there were 11 draws.

Honours

Domestic

* First Division – Professional Era: 1 **Winners (1): 2007-A **Runner-up (4): 2004-C, 2006-A, 2006-C, 2011-A *Torneo de Play-Off: 2 **Winners (2): 2008, 2009 * Second Division, Copa Simón Bolivar: 1 **Winners (1): 1997

Performance in CONMEBOL competitions

: 6 appearances ::2002 – First Round ::2007 – First Round ::2008 – First Round ::2009 – Preliminary Round ::2010 – Preliminary Round ::2012 – Preliminary Round *

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American fo ...

: 4 appearances ::2007 – First Round ::2013 – First Round ::2015 – First Round ::2016 – Second Round

Notable managers

Félix Berdeja Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, S ...

Mauricio Soria Mauricio Ronald Soria Portillo (born 1 June 1966 in Cochabamba) is a Bolivian association football, football manager and former player who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Playing career At club level, Soria played for ...

(10 April 2007–14 March 08) * Vladimir Soria (16 Sept 2009–25 Sept 11) * Dalcio Giovagnoli (2011) * Victor Zwenger (28 Nov 2011–10 Feb 12) *

Julio César Baldivieso Julio César Baldivieso Rico (born 2 December 1971) is a Bolivian association football, football coach and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. Baldivieso was a midfielder who played for the Bolivia national team at the Footbal ...

(10 Feb 2012–18 May 12) *

Óscar Sanz Óscar Sanz Naval (born 8 March 2000) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Gimnàstic de Tarragona. Career Born in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, Barcelona, Catalonia, Sanz represented Gimnàstic de Tarragona as a youth, an ...

(3 June 2012 – 2013) * Fernando Ochoaizpur (December 2018 – March 2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Club Bamin Real Potosi Association football clubs established in 1941

Real Potosi 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) ...

1941 establishments in Bolivia