Sol de América

Sol de América go into another season of the Primera División still chasing the title that has eluded them since 1991, a wait now measured in decades rather than years. In the second tier they have never had that problem — three División Intermedia titles, most recently in 2023, have kept them shuttling back to the top flight whenever they slipped out of it.

The club took shape in the Asunción neighbourhood of Barrio Obrero in 1909, though its games have long been played away from that ground, at the Estadio Luis Alfonso Giagni in Villa Elisa, on the edge of the capital. The sun on the crest gave the club its name; the nickname that stuck, El Danzarín, gave it a different kind of identity on the pitch.

Two league championships, 1986 and 1991, sit at the centre of the trophy cabinet, but for long stretches before them Sol de América were better known for finishing second — 1912, 1913, 1935, 1940, 1946, 1952 — often enough that supporters took to calling the side the uncrowned champions. The closest the club has come since was 2021, when a run to the Copa Paraguay final ended in a penalty shootout defeat to Olimpia, the first time the two sides had met in a final in 40 years.