Cobreloa

Cobreloa's fiercest rival is Colo-Colo. From 1979 to 2003 the two clubs traded the Chilean title back and forth. Two more derbies matter closer to home — the Clásico del Cobre against Cobresal, and the Clásico del Desierto against Deportes Antofagasta.

The club itself grew out of copper. State corporation CODELCO backed its founding on 7 January 1977 in Calama, in the Antofagasta region, as successor to the amateur Deportes El Loa, a side that traced back further still to Club Sport Cóndor. The desert gives the club its ground's name, the Estadio Zorros del Desierto in Calama, which holds 12,102.

Eight league titles arrived between 1980 and 2004, with the Apertura and Clausura of 2003 landing in the same calendar year to give Cobreloa a rare double. The Copa Chile followed in 1986. Twice the club reached the final of the Copa Libertadores, in 1981 and 1982, and lost both times to Peñarol.

None of that stopped the fall in 2015, when a court stripped Cobreloa of three points over an improperly registered assistant coach — the Caso Hisis — and sent the club down with a single round of the season left to play, its first relegation in history. Eight years on, Cobreloa won the Primera B in 2023 and returned to the top flight the following year.

Of everyone who has worn the orange shirt, none is better known outside Chile than Alexis Sánchez, who came through as a teenager in 2005, scored 12 goals in 47 matches, and was sold to Udinese before the next season began.