Independiente Medellin

Estadio Atanasio Girardot has been home to Independiente Medellín for as long as most of the city can remember, a bowl in the Antioquia capital that currently holds 44,826. A refit under discussion would push that toward 60,000 by 2026 or 2027, but for now the old numbers stand and the ground has not changed shape.

The club itself dates to 14 November 1913, when it registered as Medellín Football Club, decades before Colombia had a professional league to join. The city still calls it El Rojo Paisa, a name that matches the shirt: red over blue.

Six Categoría Primera A titles make up the professional record — 1955, 1957, 2002 and 2004, then 2009 and 2016 — alongside three Copa Colombia wins, in 1981, 2019 and 2020. Continentally the club has never gone further than a Copa Libertadores semi-final, reached in 2003; no CONMEBOL trophy has followed it.

Germán Cano's scoring record still gets quoted whenever a current forward goes on a run: 129 goals in 196 appearances. David González is remembered as the most decorated player to wear the shirt, and Juan Cuadrado came through the same academy before his career carried him well beyond Antioquia.

The fixture that shapes the calendar is the Clásico Paisa, against Atlético Nacional, first played on 12 September 1948 and won 3-0 by Medellín. The counting has continued ever since — 346 meetings by 2025, with Nacional ahead on wins, 139 to 97, and 110 drawn.

Recent finals have gone against the club, with runner-up finishes in 2018, 2022, 2023 and 2025, and by 2026 the talk around Medellín has turned as much to finances as to form, with the investment fund AFKR Capital reported to be circling a stake. Whatever comes of it, the crowd still fills Atanasio Girardot in red.