Club Deportivo Palestino

The club was founded in 1920 and plays in the Primera División de Chile. They play their home games at the Estadio Municipal de La Cisterna stadium, which has a capacity of approximately 8,000 seats.

Palestino

Full name	Club Deportivo Palestino S.A.D.P.
Founded	20 August 1920; 103 years ago (1920-08-20)
Ground	Estadio Municipal de La Cisterna
Capacity	8,000
Chairman	Jorge Uauy
Coach	Vitamina Sánchez
League	Campeonato Nacional
2023	Primera División, 4th of 16
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

The club was founded on 20 August 1920, when they participated in a colonial competition in Osorno. It was founded by a group of Palestinians; the name of the club reflects the origin in Chile's Palestinian community.

According to American historian Brenda Elsey, "Leaders of the Arab immigrant community who hoped to find a niche within popular culture for their organizations decided to participate in football once again in 1940s".

Beginnings in professional football

In 1952, the Football Federation of Chile set up the first professional leagues. Palestino was accepted into the Second Division, which they won to attain promotion to the Primera División.

In 1955, the club won their first national championship under the coaching of Argentine captain Roberto Coll.

1978−present

In 1978, the club won their second league title, this time the team was led by Chilean captain Elías Figueroa. In this campaign they won the Copa Chile to claim the league and cup double.

In 2004, the club became a registered company, but the change of status did not bring the expected improvement in results. In 2006 they finished in 18th place out of 20 teams, forcing them to face a play-off against Fernandez Vial to keep their place in the top flight. Ultimately the club would triumph thus preserving their spot within the Chilean first division.

The club made a surprising run to the final of the Clausura 2008 tournament, where they lost to champions Colo-Colo. Following this success, the club intended to float on the Chilean and Palestinian stock exchanges.

In January 2014, Palestino was fined the equivalent of $1,300 for using a new team jersey in the club's traditional colors, red, green and black, but with the number one in the squad numbers on the back shaped as the map of Palestine prior to the creation of Israel in 1948. Chilean Jewish groups complained about the political significance of this, with a formal complaint to their national Federation being made by Patrick Kiblisky, owner of first-division club Ñublense. The federation banned the club from using the map on the back of the shirts and imposed a fine on the club on the grounds that the Federation is opposed to "any form of political, religious, sexual, ethnic, social or racial discrimination". On its Facebook page, the club stated: "For us, free Palestine will always be historical Palestine, nothing less."

• Primera División
  • Champions (2): 1955, 1978
  • Runners-up (4): 1953, 1974, 1986, 2008 Clausura
• Copa Chile
  • Champions (3): 1975, 1977, 2018
• Primera B
  • Champions (2): 1952, 1972

• Copa Libertadores: 7 appearances

1976: Group Stage
1978: Group Stage
1979: Semi-finals
2015: Group Stage
2019: Group Stage
2020: Third Qualifying Stage
2024: Group Stage

• Copa Sudamericana: 5 appearances

2016: Quarter-finals
2017: Second Stage
2019: Second Stage
2021: Group Stage
2023: Group Stage

Current squad

Current squad of Palestino as of 8 July 2022 (edit)
Sources: ANFP Official Web Site Palestino Official Web Site

No. Position Player 1   ARG GK César Rigamonti 3   CHI DF Benjamín Rojas 4   CHI DF Antonio Ceza 5   ARG MF Nicolás Linares 6   CHI MF Nicolás Meza 7   CHI MF Bryan Carrasco 8   CHI MF Fernando Cornejo 9   ARG FW Gonzalo Sosa 10   CHI MF Misael Dávila 11   ARG FW Jonathan Benítez 12   CHI GK Ricardo Patiño 13   CHI DF Cristián Suárez 14   CHI FW Joe Abrigo

No. Position Player 16   CHI DF José Bizama 17   CHI DF Iván Román 19   CHI MF Brayan Véjar 20   CHI FW Martín Araya 21   CHI DF Alan Riquelme 22   CHI MF Felipe Chamorro 23   CHI MF Ariel Martínez 24   ARG MF Pablo Palacio 26   CHI GK Dixon Contreras 27   PAR FW Junior Marabel 28   CHI DF Dilan Zúñiga --   CHI FW Michael Fuentes

Manager: Vitamina Sánchez

2024 Summer Transfers

In

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player -- FW   CHI Michael Fuentes (Loan from Audax Italiano) -- FW   PAR Junior Marabel (from General Caballero)

No. Pos. Nation Player -- FW   ARG Gonzalo Sosa (from Audax Italiano)

Out

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 2 DF   ARG Fernando Meza (to Argentinos Juniors) 5 MF   ARG Agustín Farías (to Universidad Católica) 9 FW   ARG Maximiliano Salas (to Racing Club)

No. Pos. Nation Player 15 FW   ARG Hernán Rivero (Released) 20 FW   CHI Benjamín Araneda (Loan to Ñublense) 24 MF   CHI Maicol León (to Huachipato)

The Palestino women's team plays in the Campeonato Nacional Primera División de Fútbol Femenino, the top women's football competition in Chile. In 2015 they won the Clausura tournament, thus ending a ten-season title streak by Colo-Colo. The captain, Ashraf Khatib, lifted the title saying it was a pleasure to be the first actual Palestinian woman to lift the title in Chile.

Former Palestino forward María José Urrutia was a member of the Chile women's national football team for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. With a header against Thailand in Chile's 2–0 win in the group stage, she became the first Chilean player to score a goal in the FIFA Women's World Cup.

• Palestinian community in Chile