San Juan

A neighbourhood side from Santa Cruz de la Sierra stood one penalty shoot-out away from Bolivia's top flight, having entered the second division for the first time that same year. Integración del Norte San Juan Fútbol Club lost the promotion play-off to ABB 5-3 on penalties after the two legs finished level at 3-3, and stayed in the Copa Simón Bolívar for another season. It had already reached the final of that competition on debut, beaten there by Real Potosí.

None of that looked likely in 2019, when the Pontons family put the club together as a project for local tournaments in the Satélite Norte neighbourhood, with Jorge Pontons as president. The climb from there ran through the Liga Satélite Norte, which San Juan won in 2024, and the Torneo Interprovincial before the jump into national second-division football.

Kevin Pontons captains the side, a detail that ties the club's playing staff back to the family that founded it six years earlier. Argentine coach Andrés Marinangeli took charge for the 2025 campaign that carried the club to the brink of promotion, with Paraguayan forward Carlos Navas leading the attack and Venezuelan Edilber Lucena among the imports in midfield.

Home matches are played some distance from Satélite Norte itself, at the Estadio Samuel Vaca Jiménez in Warnes, which holds around 18,000. San Juan FC has no fixed nickname and no rival attached to it by name — the club is still young enough that such things have not settled.

What began as neighbourhood football in Satélite Norte now measures itself against Bolivia's second division, one shoot-out short of the first.