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| Full name | Itagüí Leones Fútbol Club[1] | |||
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| Nicknames | El Equipo Felino Los Felinos Los Felinos de Antioquia Los Felinos del Valle de Aburrá La Garra Antioqueña Auriverdes | |||
| Founded | 15 February 1944; 81 years ago (1944-02-15) asDeportivo Rionegro 1 January 2015; 10 years ago (2015-01-01) asLeones F.C. | |||
| Ground | Estadio Metropolitano Ciudad de Itagüí | |||
| Capacity | 12,000 | |||
| Chairman | Carlos Murillo | |||
| Manager | Felipe Merino | |||
| League | Categoría Primera B | |||
| 2024 | Primera B, 13th of 16 | |||
| Website | www | |||
Itagüí Leones Fútbol Club, also known asItagüí Leones, is a professional Colombianfootball team based inItagüí playing in theCategoría Primera B starting from 2019. They play their home games at theEstadio Metropolitano Ciudad de Itagüí.
Founded asDeportivo Rionegro in 1944, Leones Fútbol Club participated in all seasons of theCategoría Primera B from 1991 to 2017, when the team was runner-up of the tournament and was promoted toCategoría Primera A for the first time.
The team played for almost forty years in the amateur league. The team's first president was Libardo Sanchez and his first manager was Alfonso Piedrahita. Thanks to its performances and achievements in the 80s the club was admitted in the first edition of theCategoría Primera B, the second-tier of the professional Colombian league, played in 1991. In 1993, with the direction of manager Carlos Augusto Navarrete, Rionegro managed to be among the five best of the tournament. The team got its best performance in 2001, when they were runners-up under the direction of manager Orlando Restrepo.
In 2008 Deportivo Rionegro, withRené Higuita as their captain and star and with Óscar Aristizábal as manager, managed to win the first tournament of the year, defeatingUnión Magdalena in the final, but in the second half failed to reach the final, so they had to fight for the title of the Primera B againstReal Cartagena, losing on aggregate by 2-4. They played the promotion matches againstEnvigado F.C., but lost by a score of 3-1 on aggregate. In 2014 Deportivo Rionegro moved toBello and changed its name toLeones Fútbol Club. The following year they moved toTurbo where they stayed for another year before moving back to theMedellín metropolitan area in 2016, establishing themselves inItagüí.
Leones ended as runners-up in the2017 Primera B, winning the Torneo Finalización and then going on to lose the final toBoyacá Chicó on penalty kicks. However, since they ended the season as the best team in the aggregate table, they earned promotion to theCategoría Primera A for the2018 season, the first time the team played in the first division. They were relegated back to Primera B at the end of the season, finishing in bottom place of the relegation table.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Iván Córdoba (1993-1995)Samuel Vanegas (1996)Vladimir Marín (1999-2001)Neider Morantes (2005)René Higuita (2008-2009)Jefferson Duque (2010-2012)Álvaro Hernández (January 2012 – December 2015)Juan Álvarez (January 2016 – August 2018)Luis Perea (August 2018 – May 2019) Álvaro Hernández (July 2019 – August 2023)Giovanny Ruiz (August 2023 – present)Source:[3]
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