Atlético de Rafaela

Atlético de Rafaela

Full name	Asociación Mutual Social y Deportiva Atlético de Rafaela
Nickname(s)	La Crema
Founded	January 13, 1907
Ground	Estadio Rafaela (Nuevo Monumental) Rafaela, Santa Fe Province (Capacity: 16,000)
Chairman	Ricardo Tettamanti
Manager	Carlos Trullet
League	Primera División
2010–11	Primera B Nacional, 1st (promoted)
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Asociación Mutual Social y Deportiva Atlético de Rafaela (usually known simply as Atlético de Rafaela) is an institution from the city of Rafaela, in Argentina, which professional football team currently plays in the Argentine first division.

History

Under the name Club Atlético Argentino de Rafaela, the club was founded in the city of Rafaela, Santa Fe Province in 1907 . In 1915 the name was changed to Club Atlético de Rafaela. The Monumental de Barrio Alberdi concrete stadium was erected in 1951.

The club was turned into a non-profit organization in 1988 renamed to its current denomination of Asociación Mutual Social y Deportiva Atlético de Rafaela ("Social and Sport Association Rafaela Athletic"). Only a year later Rafaela reached the second division after defeating Atlético Ledesma by 3-0.

Atlético de Rafaela played 14 years in the second division until the team won the Apertura 2002 and the Clausura 2003 to finally reach first division. After losing the promoción against Huracán de Tres Arroyos, Atlético de Rafaela was relegated to the second division again.

The following season Atlético lost its chance to return to the first division, after losing the promoción, against Argentinos Juniors.

In 2009 Rafaela earned another chance to return to the Primera División via a playoff against Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata. After winning the first final 3-0, Rafaela lost the second match by the same score (0-3), and had to stay in the second division once again.

Atlético de Rafaela fans are referred as Cremosos or Celestes, as well as the group of people that follows the team everywhere is known as La Barra de los Trapos .

The institution has also an important car racing circuit since 1919, which hosts many competitions including Turismo Carretera (since 1941) and TC 2000 (since 1983).

The 21st of may 2011, after defeating Atlético Tucumán by 2-0, they earned a spot back on the first division for the 2011-12 season.

Current squad

Current squad of Atlético de Rafaela as of December 31, 2011 (edit)
Sources: Argentine Soccer

No. Position Player 1 ARG GK Guillermo Sara 2 ARG DF Oscar Carniello 3 ARG MF Leonel Pietkewicz 4 ARG DF Joel Sacks 5 ARG MF Germán Cáceres 6 ARG DF Martín Zbrun 7 ARG MF Walter Serrano 8 ARG MF Iván Juárez 10 ARG MF Alexis Nicolás Castro 11 ARG FW Federico González 12 ARG FW Rodrigo Depetris 13 ARG FW Jonathan López 14 ARG DF Francisco Dutari 15 ARG MF Matías Fissore 16 ARG MF Walter Gaitán

No. Position Player 17 ARG FW Darío Gandín 18 ARG DF Hugo Iriarte 19 ARG DF Fabricio Fontanini 20 ARG DF Julían Fernández 21 ARG DF Matías Di Gregorio 22 ARG DF Juan Ramón Fernández 23 ARG FW Nicolás Capellino 24 ARG MF Sebastián Carrera 25 ARG MF Germán Rodríguez Rojas 26 ARG MF Pablo Pavetti 27 ARG DF Alexis Niz 28 ARG GK Jorge Carranza 29 ARG FW Lucio Filomeno 30 ARG FW Cesar Carignano 31 ARG DF Lucas Bovaglio

Manager: Carlos Trullet

Notable players

This sports-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

To appear in this section a player must have either played at least 50 games for the club, set a club record or played for their national team.

Gustavo Alfaro (1988–92) Gabriel Schürrer (1989–90) Gustavo Semino (1996–97), (1998–99), (2000–01), (2004–05), (2007) Gonzalo Del Bono (1997–99), (2000–06), (2007–08) Federico García (1997-04), (2005–06), (2009) Raúl "Speedy" González (1997-00) Carlos Bonet (1998-01) Lucas Bovaglio (1998-00), (2001–04), (2006), (2009-2011), (2012-present) Hugo Barrientos (2000–04) Franco Mendoza (2000–05) Iván Juárez (2001–04), (2005-11), (2011-present)

Darío Gandín (2001–04), (2011-present) Ezequiel Medrán (2001–04) Sergio Marclay (2004–05), (2006–07), (2009–10) Ibrahim Sekagya (2001–02) Carlos Araujo (2002–04) Marcelo Barovero (2002–07) Leonardo Di Lorenzo (2003–04) Lucas Aveldaño (2005–08) Claudio Bieler (2006–07) Martín del Campo (2006–07) Cesar Carignano (2010–2011),(2012-present)

Titles

• Primera B Nacional: 2

2002-03, 2010-11

• Copa Ciudad de Rosario

2012

External links

• (Spanish) Official website
• (Spanish) La Crema es de Primera (fan site)
• (Spanish) Atlético es Rafaela (fan site)
• (Spanish) Rafaela.com (fan site)