Colo Colo

The team was founded in early 1925 by Magallanes' footballer David Arellano, who led a group of young players leaving that club after institutional problems. Finally, after meetings and negotiations, on 19 April 1925 Arellano and the other youths officially established the club, with Luis Contreras choosing the name "Colo-Colo" for the club, in reference to the legendary cacique (chieftain) Colo Colo of the Mapuche people, who fought against the colonial Spaniards in the 16th-century Arauco War.

Initially the team played friendly games, but in 1926 Colo-Colo they took part in their first competition, the Metropolitan League of Honour, where they were proclaimed champions (unbeaten) and earned the nickname of "invincible". The following year, Colo-Colo became the first Chilean football team to participate in a tour across Europe. However, on 2 May, during an exhibition match against Real Unión Deportiva at Valladolid, the team founder and captain David Arellano was critically injured after suffering a collision with an opposing player, which caused him peritonitis. The inflammation led him to his death the next day. Despite the great impact caused by Arellano's death, the club won the Central League of football tournament – then renamed Asociación de Football de Santiago – in the 1928, 1929 and 1930 seasons.

In the 1931–32 season, Colo-Colo suffered its first institutional crisis due to financial problems, which led to a salary reduction for first team footballers and board members, with their consequent resistance. That season the team played another tournament final against Audax Italiano. However, due to a platform collapse at Estadio Italiano and the subsequent fracas between the fans, it was decided that the game would be suspended. In that moment, Colo-Colo were winning 2–1. That day's tragedy resulted in 130 injuries and three deaths. The match was cancelled and the champion position for that year remained vacant. Other authors however declared that both Audax Italiano and Colo-Colo were declared champions.

In 1933, Colo-Colo alongside six clubs from Santiago decided to create the Chilean professional football league. On 23 July, the team won the Campeonato de Apertura (Copa Chile precursor), after defeating 2–1 to Unión Española. However, in the first Primera División official tournament, Colo-Colo finished first alongside Magallanes, which forced the "Cacique" to play a tie-breaker match. That match was lost 2–1 by Colo-Colo. In 1937 the team was undefeated, and reached its first league title. Two seasons later, in 1939, Colo-Colo won the league title for a second time, now under the guidance of the Hungarian coach Francisco Platko, and with Alfonso Domínguez as goalscorer with 20 goals in 24 matches. After another title in 1941 with Platko as coach, the club went on to win the titles of 1944 and 1947. The following year Colo-Colo organized the South American Club Championship – Copa Libertadores background – in Santiago, which brought together the 1947 continent's champions. In 1945, the club had the worst season in its history, finishing penultimate in eleventh place only ahead of weak Badminton.

In the early 1950s, club's president Antonio Labán hired Newcastle United striker George Robledo, paying £25,000 for its signing. Robledo's performances led the team to the titles of 1953 and 1956. During that age, the club acquired a terrain at Macul, where began the construction of Estadio Monumental. Besides the acquisition, the directive invested in a headquarters located at Santiago Centro (located at Cienfuegos 41) in 1953. The next decade Colo-Colo win the titles of 1960 and 1963. The 1963 team broke two top-tier records: Luis Hernán Álvarez scored 37 goals in a single season (the highest number of goals scored by a Colo-Colo footballer during a season) and the netting of the highest number of goals scored by a club in a season (130). The team won its tenth honour in 1970.

In 1972, under the orders of coach Luis Álamos and boasting star players in play maker Francisco Valdés and goal scorer Carlos Caszely, the club won another championship. It also obtained the country's highest average attendance record of 45,929 people for a single league season. That team was the spine of the aptly-named "Colo-Colo 73" side that captured the nation's heart becoming the first Chilean side to reach a Copa Libertadores final, where it lost to Independiente of Argentina. After Colo-Colo's brilliant Copa campaign, the club fell into an institutional crisis unable to replicate its success on the pitch failing to win another league title until 1979. That team featured the talented Brazilian midfielder Severino Vasconcelos alongside Carlos Caszely returning from his stint in Spanish football. Nevertheless, in 1975, the construction of Estadio Monumental was completed and the stadium was inaugurated in a league match against Deportes Aviación, but due to problems with infrastructure and other basic services the stadium was closed indefinitely.

In the 1980s, the club obtained the league titles of 1981 and 1983 with coach Pedro García, and the 1986 and 1989 honours under Arturo Salah. The 1987 Alianza Lima air disaster claimed the lives of sixteen players and Colo-Colo was the first to help the Peruvian giants, loaning 4 players. Nonetheless, the team won four Copa Chile titles in that decade. During that period, the greatest disappointment was at continental level with the team only reaching the group stage in the 1988 Copa Libertadores. On 30 September 1989, the Estadio Monumental was re-inaugurated with an exhibition match against Peñarol, which Colo-Colo won 2–1 with goals by Marcelo Barticciotto and Leonel Herrera, the son of a legendary 1970s former defender of the same name.

The 1990s was the most successful decade in the club's history gaining both domestic and international titles. Eduardo Menichetti was president of the club between 1990–1995 and Croatian Mirko Jozić arrived as coach, leading the team towards its first Bicampeonato for winning two national championship league titles in a row. On 5 June 1991, after beating Olimpia 3–0 at the Monumental with two goals scored by Luis Pérez and one by Leonel Herrera, Colo-Colo became the first Chilean team to win a Copa Libertadores. That same season, the "Albos" lost the Intercontinental Cup final 3-0 against Yugoslav giants Red Star Belgrade, in Tokyo. At local level, the club won the 1991 league season, its third-consecutive title thus achieving its first Tricampeonato. The following season, the club won the Recopa Sudamericana, after beating Brazil's Cruzeiro in a penalty shootout, and also obtained the Copa Interamericana, after winning 3–1 against Puebla in Mexico. The last title won by Jozić in Colo-Colo was the 1993 league title, thus closing a successful spell in South America.

After Jozić's departure came a brief drought in national league titles, but the team managed to achieve an unforgettable 3–0 win over arch rivals Universidad de Chile in the 1995 season. Colo-Colo lifted the 1994 Copa Chile title and reached the 1994 Copa Libertadores quarterfinals. The following season saw the arrival of Paraguayan coach Gustavo Benítez, who obtained the 1996, 1997-C and 1998 league titles. The team advanced to the semifinals of the Supercopa Libertadores in 1996, and of the Copa Libertadores in 1997, eliminated on both occasions by Cruzeiro. In 1999, Colo-Colo relived its fortunes like in the 1994 season, finishing fourth in the Chilean league and going through three coaches in the same season: Brazilian Nelsinho Baptista, caretaker coach Carlos Durán and then Fernando Morena of Uruguay, who remained until 2001.

In 1999, after Benítez's departure, the club entered a serious financial crisis. On 23 January 2002, after years of economic mismanagement under the leadership of Peter Dragicevic as president, the club was declared bankrupt. A court judge named Juan Carlos Saffie as bankruptcy trustee and administrator responsible for the institution not lose its legal status. Despite the bankruptcy, under Jaime Pizarro as coach – key player in the obtaining of the 1991 Copa Libertadores – "Los Albos" won the Torneo de Clausura, with a playing squad composed almost completely of youth players. Three years later, in 2005, the joint-stock company Blanco y Negro took over the administration, acquiring all club assets for thirty years in exchange for paying all outstanding debts through a concessionaire and undergoing an opening process enlisting at the Santiago Stock Exchange. In the first half of 2006, the judiciary court lifted its bankruptcy.

With the Argentine Claudio Borghi appointed coach in 2006, and with players like Matías Fernández and Humberto Suazo, Colo-Colo played scintillating football and obtained the Bicampeonato winning the Apertura and Clausura tournaments. The squad reached another international final, the Copa Sudamericana, losing 2–1 to Mexico's Pachuca. That season, El Cacique was recognized in the month of October by the IFFHS as the world's club of the month. The following season Colo-Colo won two more consecutive tournaments, winning a Tetracampeonato for winning four back-to-back championships, being the first Chilean team to achieve the feat.

After Borghi's departure, the club obtained its 28th title defeating Palestino in the 2008 Torneo de Clausura finals under the coaching of Marcelo Barticciotto, and with Lucas Barrios as its top goal scorer, who equaled the goal tally record of Luis Hernán Álvarez scored by a Colo-Colo footballer during a single season with 37 goals. The following season, the club became the first professional team to play in Rapa Nui Easter Island. After a poor Torneo de Apertura 2009 – not reaching the play-offs for the first time – "Los Albos" started the Clausura or Closing Championship very poorly and languishing in the table standings in the relegation spots. The team however reached the tournament play-off finals against Universidad Católica, beating them 4–2 at the Santa Laura, with players like Esteban Paredes, Macnelly Torres and Ezequiel Miralles, coached by Hugo Tocalli. Colo-Colo's following championship was in 2014 after winning the Torneo de Clausura. It was the team's 30th Chilean League title.