9 de Octubre

The one Serie B title that mattered came in 2020, and it mattered because it undid what 1995 had cost: 25 years in Ecuador's second division before 9 de Octubre climbed back to Serie A. A second-place finish there in 1994 had bought only a single season back among the elite before relegation returned; this time the promotion held long enough for the club to build on it.

Under coach Juan Carlos León, the 2021 campaign produced a strong finish, reaching the group stage of the Copa Sudamericana for the first time. The following year brought a Copa Ecuador final instead, lost 3-1 to Independiente del Valle, before the league form collapsed — bottom of Serie A in 2022 sent the club straight back down to the division it had just escaped.

The high point before any of that was the mid-1980s side known as "Súper 9," coached by Otto Vieira and Luis Grimaldi, runners-up in the national championship in 1965, 1984 and, most memorably, 1983. In 1982 Jairzinho, a World Cup winner with Brazil in 1970, played a season in Guayaquil and gave the club a profile well beyond the city.

None of it survived 1989 intact. A group of directors tied to the club took its place in professional football and relocated it to Manta as Delfín Sporting Club, leaving 9 de Octubre to be rebuilt from the lower divisions. It plays home matches at the rented Estadio Modelo Alberto Spencer Herrera, a ground it shares with Barcelona SC and Emelec.

The club carries the date of the city's independence, 9 October 1820, in its name, and traces itself to Guayas provincial football in 1958, when it finished sixth in the regional championship that year.