Based out of Lima, Alianza Lima is a professional football team that is extremely popular in the country. The club was founded by some workers on a Horse farm, named Alianza. The farm was owned by the then-president of the country, Augusto B. Leguia. The team’s jersey was initially designed to resemble a jockey’s jersey, with vertical green and white stripes. This was later modified into Dark Blue and White vertical stripes.
Alianza Lima have always been at the forefront of things. They won their first championship title in 1918, 6 years after their inclusion into the Primera Division. Over the years, the team has achieved many great feats like the three successive titles in 1931, 1932 & 1933 and with highs like these, they have also had incredible lows like the 1938 season where the team was relegated to the Segunda Division for a year. They returned a year later, never to go down again.
| Country |
Peru
|
| City | Lima |
| Founded | 1901 |
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As one of the regular front runners, Alianza Lima has always been up there with the best. It has produced some incredible players including the 1977 and 1978 team that won two successive Primera Division titles while also comprising of almost the entire Peru national team. In the 1980s, the team went through a bad patch where it didn’t win any titles despite having a reasonably strong team, capable of challenging the best. Sporting Cristal emerged as their biggest nemesis of the decade, taking some of the titles right from under Alianza Lima’s noses.
In 1987, the team was leading the title race, heading into the home stretch when, after an away match to Pucallpa, against Deportivo Pucallpa, the team took a chartered flight home. A few kilometers away from the Lima-Collao airport, the plane crashed into the sea. The pilot of the plane was the lone survivor of the crash, while the entire team, including the coaching staff, perished.
Alianza dropped out of the title lead as it finished the season with youngsters as well as players on loan from Colo Colo, a Chilean club that had once suffered a similar situation. The process of rebuilding the team went on till 1997 and saw the team almost get relegated, but holding on for dear life at the dying minutes of the season. In 1997, the elusive Primera Division championship finally came to the club after 18 long years. In 1999, the team came second but the very next year, tragedy came calling again. Sandro Bayton, team captain, died in a car crash. Despite the loss, the team won the title the next year and then again in 2003 and 2004. It has been crowned the most successful team of the football league in Peru for the 21st century.
Alianza Lima have produced a number of big stars including the likes of:
• Pacho Bustamante• Teoflio Cubillas• Adelfo Magallanes Campos• Roberto Rojas• Christian Del Mar• Claudio Pizarro• Jefferson Farfan
Alianza Lima have won 22 titles at the Primera Division while in their only season in the Segunda Division, in 1939, they won the title as well. They have been a part of the Copa Libertadores 20 times but despite many valiant attempts, the closest they ever got to the title was in 1978 when they reached the semi-finals. In the Copa Sudamericana, they have played in 2002 and 2003, and although they reached the quarter-finals in the first attempt, they only managed a preliminary round showing in their second attempt.
In 1996, Alianza Lima’s only ever appearance in the Copa CONMEBOL ended in a first round defeat where in the 4 appearances they have had in the Copa Merconorte, they have reached the semi-final in 1999.
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