Rojinegras · History

Atlas Fútbol Club Femenil is the women’s section of Atlas, the Guadalajara club from the Mexican state of Jalisco, and has played in Liga MX Femenil since the league’s inaugural tournament, the Apertura 2017. The club founded the team on 8 June 2017, a few weeks before the new professional league kicked off, and dressed it in the institution’s red and black. Supporters call the side las Rojinegras, las Académicas or la Furia. Its home ground is the Estadio Jalisco, the stadium opened in 1960 that it shares with the men’s first team.

Foundation and first tournament

Liga MX Femenil began in the summer of 2017 with teams attached to the clubs of the Mexican men’s top flight, and Atlas built its squad with players from the region. Maritza Maldonado scored the club’s first league goal on 5 August 2017 against Santos Laguna. The Apertura 2017 ended in eighth place overall with 47.6 per cent of the available points, and Alicia Cervantes led the team with nine goals. The Clausura 2018 was far harder: fifteenth place and just 16.7 per cent of the points, with Maldonado top scorer for the squad on four.

Fernando Samayoa and the first playoffs

With Fernando Samayoa as head coach, the Apertura 2018 brought the first step forward: eighth place, 55.6 per cent of the points and a first qualification for the liguilla, the league’s playoff phase. The playoff debut came on 23 November 2018 at the Colomos fields, in a quarter-final against Tigres, who won 2-1; Maldonado scored for Atlas in the 87th minute. Adriana Iturbide was the team’s top scorer that tournament with seven goals. In the Clausura 2019 the side climbed to fifth with 64.8 per cent of the points and again reached the quarter-finals, while Fabiola Ibarra won the league’s Golden Boot with seven goals in sixteen matches. During that tournament, on 19 April 2019 against Necaxa, Alison González scored the club’s 100th league goal. The Apertura 2019 delivered a third straight playoff berth from eighth place, with nine goals from Iturbide.

The strongest spell (2020-2021)

The Clausura 2020 was suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic while Atlas were enjoying their best start, with 81.5 per cent of the points and six goals from Ibarra. The momentum carried over once play resumed. In the Apertura 2020 the team finished second in the overall table with 77.2 per cent of the points, although they went out in the quarter-finals. Alison González scored seventeen goals in that tournament, including the club’s 200th in the league, on 27 November 2020 against Querétaro. In the Clausura 2021 the forward was the league’s top scorer with 18 goals in 17 matches, and the team, third in the regular phase, reached the semi-finals for the first time. The Apertura 2021 repeated both the third place and the semi-final, with 68.3 per cent of the points.

From 2022 to 2024

On 28 January 2022, against Tigres, Fernanda Limón scored the club’s 300th league goal. That Clausura 2022 ended in sixth place and another quarter-final exit. In the Apertura 2022 Atlas finished tenth and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2018. They returned to the quarter-finals in the Clausura 2023 from seventh place, but the Apertura 2023 (thirteenth) and the Clausura 2024 (twelfth), both with 35.3 per cent of the points, left them out of the final phase. In that period the squad included senior internationals from Costa Rica, such as Daniela Solera, Daniela Cruz and María Paula Salas, and from El Salvador, such as Brenda Cerén.

Scorers and records

Alison González is the club’s all-time leading league scorer with 72 goals: 64 in the regular phase and 8 in the playoffs. Behind her come Fabiola Ibarra (46), Adriana Iturbide (43), Marcia Paola García (37) and Salvadoran forward Brenda Cerén (30). In the playoffs, besides González and Ibarra, Joana Robles and Zellyka Arce scored twice each. Between the Apertura 2017 and the Clausura 2024 Atlas played 243 league matches, with 110 wins, 55 draws and 78 defeats, scoring 393 goals and conceding 350. María Paula Salas scored the club’s 400th league goal on 20 January 2024 against Mazatlán.