LDU Portoviejo

Estadio Reales Tamarindos holds 21,000 people.

The closest they got to staying up top was 1982, when third place in Serie A left them chasing a Copa Libertadores spot on the final matchday — Barcelona SC took it instead. More often the club's rhythm has run the other way: relegation, then a Serie B title to climb straight back. They won that division four times, in 1972, 1976, 1992 and 2000, each one a way back into the top flight rather than an arrival at the top of it.

Miguel Parrallés wore the shirt in 2014 and 2015 before Cruz Azul, LDU Quito and Orense picked him up and he grew into one of the league's sharper forwards elsewhere. Last year gave Portoviejo something closer to home: a Segunda Categoría final win over Cuenca Juniors that sent the club back up to Serie B for 2026.

None of it would have a start date without 15 November 1969, when a team representing the Universidad Técnica de Manabí won the provincial championship and, on the strength of that win, earned the right to enter Ecuador's professional ranks. The same day, the club's first board was formed. Everything since — the green and white, the Reales Tamarindos crowds, the trips up and down between divisions — traces back to that one afternoon.