Carlos A. Mannucci


Carlos A. Mannucci, known simply as Mannucci, is a professional football club based in Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru.
The club is the most important in the city having represented Trujillo in the first division of Peruvian football in multiple occasions since the late 1960s. Its greatest accomplishment are its back-to-back Copa Perú championships. The club has a long rivalry with Alfonso Ugarte, and matches between the two teams are known as "el Clásico Trujillano". In recent years, it has also developed a rivalry against the other professional club in the city, Universidad César Vallejo.

History

Establishment

Carlos A. Mannucci was founded as a multi-sport club on November 16, 1959 at the request of a group of female volleyball players that had until then been sponsored by Trujillo's Victor Lazarte Hospital. They requested the patronage of local businessman Carlos José Mannucci Vega and his mother Laura Vega de Mannucci who created the club in honor of their late father and husband Carlos Alberto Mannucci Finochetti.
The club first competed in local volleyball and basketball competitions with funding from the Carlos A. Mannucci Company. Eventually the club started participating in local football competitions after buying the spot of Club Mariscal Ramón Castilla. Its first season of competition was 1967.

Back-to-back Copa Perú titles

Just a year later, Los Carlistas reached the 1968 Copa Perú final in Lima and obtained promotion to the first division that same year. The last game on the final group stage was against Melgar from Arequipa. It defeated the Arequipa-side by 1–0 with a goal by Carlos Avalos.
The club's first spell on the top flight was short-lived as relegation during the 1968 Torneo Descentralizado consisted of one club from Lima and one from outside Lima. Out of the four provincial teams, Mannucci finished last in ninth place and was thus relegated back to the Copa Perú. The highlight of that campaign was a victory on the road against tournament favorites Alianza Lima by 1–2. Curiously, that game was played at Alianza Lima's rivals' stadium, Estadio Teodoro Lolo Fernández.
Their time away from the first division was short. Mannucci, with Paraguayan Miguel Ortega as coach defeated Melgar by 2–0 to win the 1969 Copa Perú. Uruguayans Jorge García and Alejandro Zevallos scored the victory goals. Players such as Primitivo Zapata, José Vargas, Oscar Villalobos, Roberto Aguero, Raúl Carrión, 1958 World Cup-champion Moacir Claudino Pinto, Alfredo Larios, Victor Yáñez and Juan Caballero are remembered as important pieces of the back-to-back Copa Perú titles winning squad.

1970s Neciosup Era

Carlos A. Mannucci continued to play in the Torneo Descentralizado until 1972 when the original owners retired the economic support they had offered the team. In 1973, Alex Neciosup became the club president. Under his leadership, the club once again started competition from the local Trujillo league to become the regional champion. That year no final group stage was played in Lima and all regional Copa Perú champions were ascended to the first division as part of an effort to expand the league. Mannucci's third spell under Neciosup's direction lasted from 1974 to 1976. Famous Peruvian goalie Luis Rubiños, Próspero Merino, Walter Potozén, Alfonso Vilela, Eloy Ledesma, and Eugenio Briceño were some of the most important players of the Carlos Mannucci in its multiple first division campaigns.

Regional Tournaments Era and Relegation

The team returned for a fourth first-division spell in 1984 by invitation during the Regional Leagues era of Peruvian football that saw up to 40 teams compete in the highest division at its peak. The teams were divided into regional tournaments where the highest placed teams would qualify to the national stage which was played by 16 teams. The most memorable campaigns of this era where the 1985, 1987, and 1991 seasons. In all of them Mannucci got to decisive stages of the tournament. The team's 1991 campaign was good enough to survive the tournament's team reduction back down to 16. The team would play another three years in the first division under the ownership of COVISE.
The club's final relegation would come in 1994. The relegation battle would play until the very last match-day. Cienciano managed a scoreless draw against Unión Minas which gave it an extra point over the Trujillo-side which earlier that day defeated Melgar, with two goals by Fabían Arias, but wasn't able to avoid relegation.

Relevant Copa Perú campaigns

Los Grifos were not able to obtain promotion since 1994 participating in the Copa Perú for most of the 1990s and all of the 2000s. While the team was always strong enough to overcome the local Trujillo district and provincial leagues, it found itself at an impasse in the Regional stage of the tournament which it was unable to overcome some nine times.
The club's best season of all its years in the Copa Perú was the 2009 season under the leadership of club president Daniel Salaverry. That year Mannucci overcame the Regional stage by defeating Ramón Castilla, Deportivo Municipal de San Ignacio, and Unión Tarapoto in group B. Its biggest challenge was San Francisco de Asis in the Round of 16. The first leg was for San Francisco de Asis which defeated Mannucci in Trujillo by 1–0. The second leg was played in Bagua. At the 75th minute, Juan Paico scored in a very even match. Two minutes later Luis Noriega scored a second to give the Trujillo-side the advantage necessary to move on to the quarter-finals.
Both of legs against Defensor San José finished with scores of 1–1 in that year's quarterfinals. After the second leg, Mannucci would go on to lose in penalties.

Second Division spell

Carlos A. Mannucci did not reach the Copa Perú national stage again for another five years until 2013. It defeated Unión Deportiva Chulucanas in the Round of 16 but was unable to overcome Willy Serrato in the quarterfinals. Yet because of the team's great performance that season, it was invited to participate in the Second Division tournament for the first time in its history.
The club finished in 3rd place with 56 points in the 2014 season. It was deducted three points because it showed political advertisement for politician Joaquín Ramírez.
The 2015 season was the worst of all the team's Segunda División spell. Mannucci finished 10th out of 12, only 6 points and one slot away from relegation. In 2016 it finished 4th behind Cienciano, both of which were less than three points away from the first place slot on the last match-day of the season. The match between the two teams attracted 30,230 spectators. A record attendance statistic in the history of the category which was only surpassed by the game which both teams played in 2018 with 32,308 spectators.
The team finished 2nd in 2018 with 55 points behind their city rivals Universidad César Vallejo. In the Liguilla, it defeated Atlético Grau by a global score of 6–3. In the semifinals, it faced Cienciano to which it lost 2–0 in Cusco. On the second leg, Los Carlistas were able to overturn the series by a score 5–2 which was just enough to qualify to the final.
The first leg of the final against Universidad César Vallejo was a 1–1 draw at Estadio Mansiche. The second leg was played in Casa Grande which was protested by Mannucci's staff as not having a stadium big enough to host a final. The team would go on to loose by 3–1 to finish the tournament as runner-up.

2018 Promotion to the First Division

The Peruvian Football Federation took control of the local domestic league from the Professional Football Sports Association, the tournament organizers, in 2018 and announced that the Peruvian first division tournament would be re-branded for 2019. With this re-branding, the tournament was expand from 16 to 18 teams.
At the beginning of the 2018 season, it was announced that the teams that finished 2nd and 3rd in the bottom two tiers of the Peruvian football league system would compete on the promotion play-offs at the end of the year to decide which two teams would receive the expansion slots.
Both Carlos A. Mannucci and Cienciano qualified to the promotion play-offs as runner-up and third place teams in the second division. They faced Alianza Universidad and Santos from the Copa Perú. In the first game Los Grifos managed a late victory against Santos with the help of goals by Ricardo Lagos and Breno Naranjo at 61st and 92nd minutes. In the second game, Mannucci put itself a head with a brace by Osnar Noronha which Alianza Universidad was able to recuperate from for a 2–2 draw. The last game was against Cienciano with whom it was tied on points, goal difference, and goals scored. The next tie breaker criteria was a drawing of lots which would have happened if the game had ended in a draw. Once again Ricardo Lagos scored for Mannucci on the 49th minute to give the team its first promotion to the first division in 24 years.

Kits and crest

The first kit worn by Carlos A. Mannucci consisted of a black jersey and black shorts without any markings or crest. This style was used approximately until 1968. Since then the team's kits have been blue with white and red highlights which represent the colors of the city of Trujillo. The team's away kit is predominantly white with blue and red highlights.
The first team's crest consisted of a coat of arms with the team's initials "CAM" in a field of blue. This crest was used until the early 1970s. From 1971 on, the crest became the coat of arms of the city of Trujillo as a way to identify the club more with the city. Different variations were used in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of them consisted of a large coat of arms in the middle of the chest with the words "Mannucci" and "Trujillo" surrounding the logo. In the late 1980s the size of the crest was reduce and moved over the heart.
The beginnings of the current logo appeared in 1987 when the coat of arms of Trujillo was moved inside a white shield. The club's name was printed in blue with a blue bar separating it from the city's coat of arms. This emblem was used until 2004. For 2005, a blue and a red diagonal lines where inserted behind Trujillo's coat of arms. The word Trujillo was prominently displayed on top in blue letters and the club's name was placed in between in red letters. This was reversed the next year by moving the club's name to the top in blue and the city's name to the middle in red.

Stadium

Carlos A. Mannucci has played its home games at Estadio Mansiche since 1968. Estadio Mansiche is the biggest stadium of the city of Trujillo at a capacity for 23,214 spectators. The stadium also has a running track for track and field sports. It is part of the greater Mansiche Sports Complex which includes the Coliseo Gran Chimu, a swimming pool, and other facilities.
It has hosted matched of the Copa Sudamericana in three occasions, and of the Copa Libertadores once. It hosted Group B matches during the 1995 South American Under-17 Football Championship. It hast also hosted matches at the 2004 Copa America and 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship. Most recently, it hosted the ceremonies of the 2013 Bolivarian Games.

Honours

National

League

As of August 24 May 2020

Managers