Atletico Nacional S. A., best known as Atletico Nacional, is a Colombian professional football club based in Medellin. The club is one of only three clubs to have played in every first division tournament in the country's history, the other two teams being Millonarios and Santa Fe.
Atletico Nacional was founded on 7 March 1947 as Club Atletico Municipal de Medellin by Luis Alberto Villegas Lopez, a former president of the football league of Antioquia. The current owner, Organizacion Ardila Lulle, officially acquired the team in 1996. According to CONMEBOL, Atletico Nacional is the club with the largest number of fans in Colombia.
Atletico Nacional plays its home games at the Atanasio Girardot stadium, which has a capacity of 45,943. It shares the stadium with its local rivals, Independiente Medellin. The teams face each other in a local derby known as El Clasico Paisa, which is considered one of the most important local derbies in the country. Atletico Nacional also has a rivalry with Millonarios, one of the most important rivalries in Colombian football. This rivalry arose from the 1989 Copa Libertadores.
Considered to be one of the strongest clubs from Colombia, it is one of the most consistent clubs in the country. Atletico Nacional has won 16 league titles, four Copa Colombia and two Superliga Colombiana, a total of 22 domestic titles, making it the most successful team in Colombia. It was also the first Colombian club to win the Copa Libertadores in 1989 and, after winning the title again in 2016, the most successful Colombian side in that tournament. It also has the most international titles of any Colombian club, having also won the Copa Merconorte twice, the Copa Interamericana twice, and the Recopa Sudamericana once, for a total of seven international trophies.
In 2016, Atletico Nacional was ranked by IFFHS as the best football club in the world, becoming the first South American club, and the first outside Europe, to receive the honor. It is also ranked as the best Colombi
This page also has a version in other languages : Атлетико Насьональ (russian)