Real Santander is a professional Colombian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team based in

Bucaramanga Bucaramanga () is the capital and largest city of the department of Santander Department, Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and is the ninth most populous city i ...

, that currently plays in the

Categoría Primera B Categoría Primera B, commonly referred to as Torneo BetPlay Dimayor due to Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is the second-division association football, football league in Colombia. The tournament was inaugura ...

. They play their home games at the

Estadio Villa Concha es:Estadio is the spanish language word for Stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered s ...

Piedecuesta Piedecuesta (, officially ''Villa de San Carlos del Pie de la Cuesta'') is a city and municipality in the Santander Department in northeastern Colombia, South America. The city has a population of about 150,000. It is part of the metropolitan zone ...

, a municipality in the metropolitan area of Bucaramanga.

History

The club was founded on 17 January 2006 in Floridablanca,

Santander Department Santander () is a department of Colombia. Santander inherited the name of one of the nine original states of the United States of Colombia. It is located in the central northern part of the country, borders the Magdalena River to the east, Bo ...

after the demise of Real Floridablanca eight years earlier. In late 2006 they acquired the license (''ficha'') of Pumas de Casanare and became affiliated to DIMAYOR, entering

, 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, losing the double-legged 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 * Puerto ...

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, 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 The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

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 es:Estadio is the spanish language word for Stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered s ...

by its main tenant

Atlético Bucaramanga Club Atlético Bucaramanga S.A., better known as Atlético Bucaramanga, is a Colombian professional football team based in Bucaramanga. The club plays its home games at the Américo Montanini stadium. The club was founded on 11 May 1949 by Rafa ...

, 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 association football, football matches. The stadium was originally built in 1960 with a capacity of 6,000 people, which was raised t ...

Barrancabermeja Barrancabermeja () is a municipality and city in Colombia, located on the shore of the Magdalena River, in the western part of the department of Santander. It is home to the largest oil refinery in the country, under direct management of ECOP ...

until the completion of the adaptation works of

Current squad

Managers

* Martín Peluffo (2008) *

Johan Meza Johan may refer to: * Johan (given name) * ''Johan'' (1921 film), a Swedish film directed by Mauritz Stiller * Johan (2005 film), a Dutch romantic comedy film * Johan (band), a Dutch pop-group ** ''Johan'' (album), a 1996 album by the group * Joh ...

(January 2009 – December 2011) * Miguel González (January 2012 – January 2013) * Víctor González (January 2013 – January 2018) * Nicolás Herazo (February 2018 – December 2018) * José García (January 2019 – December 2023) * Óscar Álvarez (January 2024 – present) Source:

References

Football clubs in Colombia Association football clubs established in 2006 2006 establishments in Colombia Categoría Primera B clubs {{Colombia-sport-stub