Universidad Católica

Universidad Católica went into the 2025 Copa Ecuador final against LDU Quito and came out of it 3:2 winners. Diego Martínez was the coach who finally got them there.

The club began as a students' side at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, put together in May 1963 with Dr Manuel de Guzmán Polanco as its first president. By the 1980s the university had let go and the club carried on as an independent organisation, keeping the name and the blue.

In 1965 Católica beat El Nacional 1:0 through a Patricio Oliva goal to take a professional Interandino title, and in the 1970s they finished runners-up in the national championship twice, in 1973 and again in 1979. The first of those seasons opened the door to the Copa Libertadores in 1974, in a group with El Nacional, Sporting Cristal and Defensor Lima. Polo Carrera, one of the recognised names of Ecuadorian football, played for the club that year and returned for three more seasons at the end of the decade.

Between those near-misses and 2025 the record is largely one of getting back up: Serie B titles in 1990, 2007 and 2012, and a Segunda Categoría win in 1998.

Home is the Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa, as is the training ground at La Armenía out in the Los Chillos valley. The club has no facility of its own.

Capacity at the Atahualpa since its 2012 rebuild: 35,742.