Deportes Santa Cruz

Two neighbourhood clubs in Santa Cruz, Unión and Comercio, had spent years as local rivals when someone suggested, during a break in one of their matches, that the town would be better served by one team than two. The merger held, and on 25 May 1913 the new side took the name Unión Comercio.

The name changed twice more as the club looked for a sharper identity: to Unión Santa Cruz in 1983, after an invitation into the national Segunda División, and to Deportes Santa Cruz in 1998. Through all of it the club stayed tied to the same town and the same ground, Estadio Municipal Joaquín Muñoz García.

Promotion has come in fits and starts rather than as a steady climb. A Tercera División title in 1991 was followed, two decades later, by a Tercera B championship in 2012, won after Santa Cruz took a final round-robin with 11 points, one ahead of Malleco Unido, and stepped up to Tercera A. The club returned to Primera B after 21 years away.

The name most associated with that spell belongs to Jaime Riveros. He came back to Santa Cruz in 2014 as head coach, and it was under him that the club won the Tercera División and climbed back into professional football.

Deportes Santa Cruz has never lifted the Copa Chile or reached the Primera División, but in 2024 it went further than usual in the cup, drawing with Colo Colo in a Central-South zone semi-final.