Atlético Nacional, a loved and hated club

To talk about Atlético Nacional in Colombia is to enter into a discussion that seems to have no end. His greatness as a club is unquestionable. It is the Colombian team with the most titles. It has won 16 leagues, 5 times the Copa Colombia and 2 times the Copa Libertadores.

In addition, the “king of cups” have been famous footballers such as René Higuita, Faustino Asprilla, Andrés Escobar, César Cueto, Juan Pablo Ángel or Franco Armani, as well as coaches of great international prestige such as Francisco Maturana, Luis Fernando Suárez , Hernán Darío Gómez, Juan Carlos Osorio or Reinaldo Rueda, the current Colombia coach and one of the two coaches who has managed to take Atlético Nacional to the top of America after winning the Copa Libertadores.

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Likewise, according to Gerardo Molina, a specialist in Sports Marketing and in a study that he himself recently carried out, Atlético Nacional is among the ten most popular clubs in Latin America, ranking eighth with more than 11 billion fans and rubbing shoulders with other teams with a long history and prestige on the continent such as Boca Juniors, River Plate, Flamengo, Palmeiras or Corinthians.

Where does the hatred towards Atlético Nacional come from?

In football, as in life itself, someone who is frequently successful is envied, especially if that club is your lifelong rival. This could be a factor to take into consideration when understanding why Atlético Nacional is a team that generates so many diverse opinions.

But you also have to refer to history, and that is where the name of Pablo Escobar appears. Supposedly, the drug trafficker bought the Copa Libertadores that Atlético Nacional won in 1989, it was also believed that he frequently bought the referees in the local competition.

Those rumors could never be verified or denied. His son, Juan Pablo Escobar, denied that his father had fixed matches and assured that his father did not own any soccer club, since he never wanted to be part of a club’s board or be a businessman and owner of a painting, for More than he loved football.

The reality is that with or without Pablo Escobar, Atlético Nacional has achieved successes and has also suffered failures and that in football can have you at the top at times but it also exposes you to being trampled, criticized, and singled out when things don’t they work, and more if you are a club with such prestige.

It also doesn’t help the club that their fans are constantly involved in violence. For example, in November of last year, the team’s fans received a two-date sanction for throwing objects at Millonarios team players in their stadium. We must also remember the fight against the Santa Fe club in which they were involved in August of last year, which left 3 injured and 6 captured.

Because being the most winning club in Colombia can weigh for better or for worse, it has its pros and cons. This, as mentioned paragraphs ago, is present in football as in life itself. And what is said or maybe said matters little?