Deportivo Maipú · History

Club Deportivo Maipú was officially founded on 16 December 1927 in Maipú, in the Argentine province of Mendoza, although it had already been operating as a club for a year. It grew out of two local organisations: Sportivo Maipú, founded in 1912, and Pedal Club Maipú, which was more about cycling than football. The team plays in a red shirt crossed by a diagonal white sash, which gives it the nickname “Cruzado”. Its supporters also call it “Botellero” and, since the 1990s, “Super Depor”.

Early years in the Mendoza league

In its first seasons the club competed in the intermediate division of the Liga Mendocina de Fútbol, the Mendoza provincial league. In 1933 it won the Primera B, taking 15 wins from 16 matches, and moved up to the top provincial tier. In March 1936 it merged with Gutiérrez Sport Club, its neighbour and rival, to form Maipú-Gutiérrez. The experiment was short-lived: after a poor campaign the merger was undone and each club went back to its own identity. During the 1940s the team came close to the title several times and finished runners-up in the Primera A in 1940, 1942 and 1943.

The first championship came in 1953, when Deportivo Maipú won the Mendoza league. It took the title again in 1958. Those two championships placed it among the strongest sides in the province at a time when Mendoza clubs did not yet have regular access to the AFA national competitions.

The Nacional B and the “Botellero” nickname

After finishing runners-up in 1983, the club won the Mendoza league again in 1985, and that title opened the door to the Nacional B, the second tier of Argentine football. To pay for the campaign, club president Juan Carlos Andrada organised a large collection of glass bottles among local residents, which were sold to raise money. That is where the nickname “Botellero” comes from. Deportivo Maipú played in the second division from 1986-87 to 1991-92, six seasons in a row. In the last of them it finished 21st and lost its place.

Back to the regional competitions

After leaving the Nacional B, the club returned to provincial football. It won the Primera B of the Mendoza league in 1993-94 and 1998, and in 2003 it was champion of the Primera A once more, with Carlos César Sperdutti as coach, for its fourth league title. In 2005 it was invited to play in the Torneo Argentino B, the fourth tier of the national pyramid. In 2007-08 it won promotion to the Torneo Argentino A after knocking out Alvarado of Mar del Plata on penalties, and it established itself in that division, later renamed the Torneo Federal A.

Return to the second tier

The decisive step came in the 2020 Federal A Transition Tournament, which, because of the pandemic, finished early the following year. On 31 January 2021 Deportivo Maipú beat Deportivo Madryn 2-0 in the final, with goals from Veliez and Persia, and earned promotion to the Primera Nacional. It was back in the second tier of Argentine football 29 years after leaving it. In July 2022 Hernán Sperdutti took over as club president, succeeding his father, Omar H. Sperdutti.

Stadium and rivalries

The team plays at the Omar Higinio Sperdutti stadium, on the corner of Vergara and Infanta Mercedes de San Martín streets in Maipú. It opened on 8 March 1932 and holds 9,260 spectators. Its stands are named after figures linked to the club and to football in Mendoza: Felipe Vellene, the only covered stand, José Gucchone, Roque Avallay and Pedro Manfredini. Sixty seats were added to the Roque Avallay stand in 2021.

Its oldest rival is Gutiérrez Sport Club, its opponent in the Maipú derby, a local fixture played since the 1920s. It also has a rivalry with Gimnasia y Esgrima de Mendoza, with whom it shared a division for several seasons, and with Godoy Cruz in the Mendoza derby of the Primera Nacional.

The 2023 promotion play-off final

The 2023 season was the club’s best ever in the second tier. It finished third in Zone B of the Primera Nacional and went straight into the second round of the play-offs for the second promotion place to the top flight. It knocked out Temperley, 2-1 away and 2-0, and then Estudiantes de Río Cuarto, with two draws (0-0 and 1-1) that sent it through on sporting advantage. On 2 December 2023, at Instituto’s ground in Córdoba, it lost the play-off final 1-0 to Deportivo Riestra, whose goal was scored by Gustavo Fernández in the 61st minute.