Mushuc Runa

The night of 10 April 2025 explains this club better than any table. Mushuc Runa went to the Mineirão in Belo Horizonte for a Copa Sudamericana group game and beat Cruzeiro 2-1. Group E also held Palestino of Chile and Unión of Argentina, though it was the Brazilian result that travelled.

Getting to that group stage took a qualifying tie against Orense, won 2-0. The two earlier trips abroad had both ended the same way: a 1-1 draw and then penalties, against Unión Española in 2019 and against LDU Quito in 2022. Two continental campaigns, two shoot-outs, no wins in either.

Home is the Estadio COAC Mushuc Runa, 8,200 seats, named for the savings and credit cooperative.

The route up was slow. Runners-up in the Segunda Categoría in 2011, runners-up in Serie B two years later, which was enough to reach the top flight for the first time. Three seasons there, then relegation in 2016. The title came in Serie B in 2018, and the one that opened the door to continental football the following year. Serie A has never given them anything to put in a cabinet.

All of it goes back to 2 January 2003, when members of the Chibuleo indigenous community and the Mushuc Runa savings and credit association set up a football club in Ambato, in Tungurahua province. The name is Quechua: mushuc for new, runa for person. New Person.