Atlas U21

Every August, Atlas U21 lines up against the same names that will one day meet them in the first division too — Chivas, América, Tigres.

That route is the point of the team. Rafael Márquez and Andrés Guardado both passed through Atlas's cantera before their careers took them elsewhere.

Those trophies are rare enough to name individually. In the Clausura 2019 Sub-20 final, Atlas beat Monterrey to win the title. A year later they reached the same stage against Chivas, only for the tournament to be abandoned once the pandemic shut football down, leaving the final undecided. Further back, in Apertura 2010, the club's youth ranks had already won the Fuerzas Básicas championship, a result that predates most of the current squad's players.

The team has no ground of its own, training and playing instead across the first team's facilities — Estadio Akron in Zapopan, the older Estadio Jalisco, or the Ciudad Deportiva pitches — depending on scheduling rather than tradition. For 2026, the coaching is in the hands of Nico Sánchez.