Inca Aruba

Alcides Salazar took his second spell in charge of INCA-Aruba in 2024, more than two decades after his first ended in 2003, and inside two years he had done something the club had never managed in any of its guises: won promotion to the Primera División. His side took the Segunda División Clausura in 2026, then beat Atlético Balboa on penalties in the promotion play-off final on 31 May, Brayan Paz scoring twice, Diego Urrutia and David Gómez adding the others, goalkeeper Franco Chinchilla saving in the shoot-out itself.

The club that reached the top flight this way is not, strictly, the one that carried the name for most of its history. CD INCA was formed in 1959 as INCA Super Flat and spent decades in the lower divisions of Salvadoran football, winning the Tercera División in 1998 and the fourth-tier Asociación Departamental de Fútbol Aficionado in 1988 and 2021. In December 2025 it merged with ADET-Aruba, itself only months old, born from a union of the old ADET club, founded in 1974, and CD Aruba. The combined side took the name CD INCA-Aruba, and its board chose to present it as a fresh start rather than a continuation: the crest carries no founding date, and none of ADET's honours were formally folded into it, though the name stayed on as a nod to what came before.

The badge itself shows a Native American profile in a feathered headdress, a design closer to the imagery of the North American plains than to the Incas the club is named for. There is no confusion, at least, about the colours: green, worn by a side whose supporters know it as Los Incas.

Home games in the Primera División will be played at the Estadio Ana Mercedes Campos in Sonsonate, a considerable step up from the Cancha Entre Ríos, where the old ground held 1,500. The new stadium takes 14,000, and for a club playing its first season in the top division, filling even part of it will be the more immediate test.