Full name | Asturias Football Club (then, "Centro Asturiano de México A.C.") |
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Founded | 7 February 1918 |
Ground | Parque Asturias, Mexico City, Mexico |
Capacity | 25,000 |
League | Mexican Primera División |
1949–50 | 5° |
Asturias F.C. (currently Centro Asturiano de México) is a sports club located in Mexico City, established in 1918. The squad played in the Liga Mexicana de Football Amateur Association, the first and main league prior to the professionalisation and development of the Primera División de México in 1943.
Asturias would overcome Real Club España, club along which were known as the "foreign legion (Legión extranjera)" in the 1943–44 season after finishing with a similar record. The first final in the Mexican professional league was won by Asturias after beating R.C. España by 4–1 and thus becoming the first champion in the professional era. The club was managed by Ernesto Pauler.
Besides having the honour of being the first champion in the professional league, Asturias also holds the record for most Copa Mexico wins with 8.
The club was established as "Club Asturias" on 7 February 1918 when a group of Asturian immigrants made up by José Menéndez Aleu, Ángel H. Díaz and Antonio Martínez got together and decided to establish a football club that would represent their Asturian heritage.
The main goal was to unite all the Spaniards who had emigrated from Asturias to Mexico, and so imitatively the club enrolled into the Primera Fuerza but the league would only admit the club if they beat Germania, América and Tigres. They managed to beat Germania by 3–0, Tigres by 1–0 but only drew 3–3 against América, so the club would not be allowed to join the league. The club decided to form its own league calling it "Unión Nacional de Association Foot-Ball". The league would be played in the Campo Asturias which was constructed in the Paseo de la Reforma of Mexico City. The league would not charge any fee to watch the games, which encouraged locals to attend this league and not the Primera Fuerza. With this problem in hand the Primera Fuerza changed its mind and allowed the club to take part in the upcoming 1919 tournament. In 1920 the club hired Scottish former player Gerald Brown and the club managed to wins its first tournament by winning the 1920 Copa Covadonga. In 1921 the club changed its name to "Sección Deportiva del Centro Asturiano".