Records First matchUnión Española 2–0 O'Higgins(Santiago, Chile; 8 May 1955) First win in Campeonato NacionalO'Higgins 3–2 Ferrobádminton(Rancagua, Chile; 22 May 1955) Biggest win in Campeonato NacionalO'Higgins 7–1 Fernández Vial(Rancagua, Chile; 13 May 1990) Biggest defeat in Campeonato NacionalCobreloa 8–1 O'Higgins(Calama, Chile; 4 September 1994)Universidad de Chile 8–1 O'Higgins(Santiago, Chile; 24 January 2016) Biggest win in Copa ChileO'Higgins 7–0 San Antonio Unido(Rancagua, Chile; 10 October 2012) Biggest defeat in Copa ChileCobreloa 10–0 O'Higgins(Calama, Chile; 25 March 1979) Biggest win in international competitionsO'Higgins 6–0 Deportivo Galicia(Rancagua, Chile; 25 March 1979) Biggest defeat in international competitionsBolívar 5–1 O'Higgins(La Paz, Bolivia; 1 April 1984) O'Higgins Fútbol Club (), also known as O'Higgins de Rancagua, is a Chilean professional football club based in Rancagua, that currently plays in the Liga de Primera. The club's home stadium is Estadio El Teniente, opened in 1945 and renovated for the 2015 Copa América, which was hosted by Chile.
Founded in 1955, the club was named in honor of the country's founding father and supreme director Bernardo O'Higgins, after the merger of the clubs O'Higgins Braden and América de Rancagua. O'Higgins has won two Primera B titles, and in 2013 they won their first top-flight championship against Universidad Católica, coached by Eduardo Berizzo; they later won the 2014 Supercopa de Chile on penalty kicks against Deportes Iquique.
History
Establishment
On 7 April 1955, after the merger of Rancagua's cross–town rival: O'Higgins Braden (that was born in 1954 from the merger between Braden and Instituto O'Higgins) and América de Rancagua, the club was founded thanks to Carlos Dittborn, the president of the Asociación Central de Football, who offered to put the name of the O'Higgins, which represents workers of Codelco in the city, under the name of Braden Copper; the name was also chosen in reference to the country's founding father and supreme director Bernardo O'Higgins, an important character of the Colonial Chile during the 1810s, who also identified with the city of Rancagua.
The colors of the club were originally from the Instituto O'Higgins, which were red, blue, and white. However, the Football Federation of Chile prohibited using the colors of the national team, so the club directors decided that the uniform would be sky blue, based on Uruguay's uniform, earning then the nickname of La Celeste. The stadium was named Estadio Braden Copper Company after the name of the company from its opening until the 1962 FIFA World Cup, when the name was changed to its current name, Estadio El Teniente, based on the El Teniente mine.
On 21 April 1955, the Asociación Central de Football decided that the team would play in the Primera División for the next season, with the first president being Nicolás Abumohor and the first head coach being Francisco Hormazábal. Their first game in the Campeonato Nacional was a 2–0 loss to Unión Española on 8 May 1955. Their first win came on 22 May of that same year, a 3–2 home victory against Ferrobádminton. In their first league tournament, the club finished ninth in the table, which put them in the relegation play-offs, where they earned their permanence in the top tier.
First seasons, relegations, and comebacks
The first great season of the club was in the 1959 season, where the club finished in fourth place under the orders of Argentine coach José Salerno, only four points behind league champion Universidad de Chile and behind third-placed team Santiago Wanderers on goal difference, making this one of its most successful Primera División campaigns, with José Benito Ríos as the key player and top scorer of the tournament with 22 goals.
A few seasons later, the team was relegated to the Segunda División after a poor campaign in 1963. The next season, with the signings of the defender Federico Vairo and the attacking midfielder Mario Desiderio, both from the Argentine Primera División, the team returned to Primera División. In special, the performances of Vairo consecrated him as the best footballer in the club's history according to the supporters of Rancagua, who chose the Rosarian centre back with the honour in 1999. Since the promotion in 1964, the club had average seasons, finishing mid-table, despite suffering the departures of Federico Vairo and Mario Desiderio to the Colombian side Deportivo Cali in 1966.
In the 1973 season, under the orders of the coaches Luis Vera and Jorge Aretio, O'Higgins and Huachipato both finished in third place behind of Unión Española and Colo-Colo, its best result since the 1959 season. In the 1975 season, the club was relegated again, but returned for the 1977 season after finishing runner up of the 1976 Primera B. After a notable 1978 tournament, where the team finished third in the league with Luis Santibáñez as head coach, it achieved qualification to the following edition of the Copa Libertadores by winning the Liguilla Pre-Libertadores, in which they achieved their biggest win for an international contest against Deportivo Galicia, beating the Venezuelan side 6–0 at El Teniente, and also achieved its most important away win for an international tournament, winning 1–0 in Valencia to the same Galicia. In the following season the club reached the fifth place in the league with Santibáñez as head coach again, qualifying to the 1980 Copa Libertadores via the Libertadores Liguilla after a notable unbeaten run of five matches, and winning the Liguilla over another strongers clubs, Universidad de Chile, Cobreloa and Unión Española.
Copa Libertadores appearances, Copa Chile finals
While managing indifferent league form in the early 1980s, the club had its first South American success in the form of the Copa Libertadores. In the 1980 edition, O'Higgins reached the semi-finals, after overcoming the group stage where they faced Colo-Colo, Cerro Porteño and Sol de América, only by goal difference, since all the teams had obtained 6 points (2 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses), they managed to advance to the semi-finals of the competition for the first time. Key players such as Miguel Ángel Neira (the team's top scorer with 3 goals in the tournament), Juvenal Vargas, Juan Rogelio Núñez, the Uruguayans Nelson Acosta and Washington Olivera, the Argentine goalkeeper Miguel Leyes and the defender with participations in the Chilean national team René Serrano were the backbone of the great participation of the sky-blue team. In the second phase they faced Club Nacional de Football and Club Olimpia, losing in all four games without being able to score goals in the definition phase. This is the best historical participation of the club in the most prestigious continental tournament.
During the 1984 edition of the Libertadores, the club finished last in its group, which was made up of fellow Chileans Universidad Católica, and Bolivian clubs Bolivar and Blooming. In the league, the team had poor campaigns from 1981 to 1983, although the club defeated Colo-Colo 6–1 in the 1983 season, and reached their first Copa Chile final, where it lost to Universidad Catolica in a liguilla group.
After financial problems with Codelco, the company owner of the club, the club was relegated to the Primera B in the 1985 season, with the possibility of being relegated to the Tercera División for another controversy related to Codelco. The next season, the club won the regular season and qualified to the promotion playoffs, but failed to win the group that consisted of 6 teams. In the 1987 season, with the defenders Gabriel Mendoza and Atilio Marchioni as key players, the club returned to the Primera División, after an exciting final with Lota Schwager at Talca.
Years later, the club hired Manuel Pellegrini as coach for the 1992 Copa CONMEBOL, in which they were eliminated by Argentine side Gimnasia de La Plata in the first round, in that occasion with players like Claudio Borghi, who won the 1986 FIFA World Cup with Argentina, the talented playmaker Jaime Riveros and the striker Gustavo De Luca, one of the most prolific goalscorers in Chilean football during the 1990s. In the 1992 season the club finished 6th in the league's aggregate table, giving them an opportunity to qualify for the 1993 Copa Libertadores via the Liguilla, but the club eventually failed to qualify for continental competitions after losing to U Catolica. Midway through the 1993 season, Pellegrini left to manage U de Chile.
In the 1994 season, under the orders of Roberto Hernández, O'Higgins reached the Copa Chile finals, after beating Universidad de Chile 2–1 at the Estadio Nacional in the semi-finals. However, in the final against Colo-Colo, the club lost on penalties, whilst for the Primera División tournament, the Rancaguan side finished in the third place of the table, therefore missing out on achieving Copa Libertadores qualification. The next season, O'Higgins failed to qualify to the Libertadores Liguilla, ending only in the sixth position of the Primera División tournament.
The Instability: 1996–2004
In the 1996 season, the club signed great players, such as midfielder Clarence Acuña, Argentine playmaker Gerardo Martino, and strikers Carlos Poblete and Ariel Cozzoni. However, the team got relegated to the Primera B, after finishing last in the table. In 1997, an Apertura and Clausura format was used, which made it difficult to achieve promotion since it wasn't used in the Clausura. Although O'Higgins had great campaigns that season, finishing in the top 4 of both tournaments, it failed to achieve promotion.
Two years later, under the orders of René Serrano, the team achieved promotion to the First Division again. In 1999, the Rancagua club finished in tenth place, in which Mario Núñez and Jaime González also became the most successful goalscorer pair in Chilean football with 57 goals between both strikers. In the 2001 season, with financial problems and a poor season, it returned to the Primera B, having gone through three managers: Guillermo Páez, Rubén Espinoza, and Luis Droguett. Luis Droguett almost saved the club from being relegated, including a victory against Colo-Colo, but ultimately it was not enough to stay in the top tier.
In 2002, under Luis Droguett's orders, the club had a decent season in the second tier but wasn't fighting for the promotion playoffs. For the 2003 season, Droguett was replaced by Eduardo Salas. The economic problems in the club were evident again, and for the most part the club used youth players. These problems resulted in the club's failure to be promoted again, although they were in the promotion spots (top 2 of table) until a 2–0 loss with Everton, which moved the club to a fourth-place finish. The 2004 season was very similar to the previous season; although the club had a very promising start, it failed to reach the Primera División again after being defeated 3–0 by Deportes Melipilla, under the orders of the Paraguayan head coach Sergio Nichiporuk, who had replaced Eduardo Salas in June.
Despite the sports failure, the club was also experiencing hard financial problems, mainly because of Codelco but also because of irregularities in the board. However, in December 2004, it was reported that the Anfp's former president and entrepreneur Ricardo Abumohor would buy the team to fix the situation.
Abumohor takeover, Garcés and Sampaoli era