Club Deportes La Serena

Early years

Deportes La Serena was founded on 9 December 1955, following the success of the La Serena city selection in Chilean amateur football. The local representative side had won national amateur championships in 1949, 1951 and 1954, achievements that encouraged the creation of a professional club for the city. La Serena was admitted to the Campeonato de Ascenso for the 1956 season, becoming the first professional club from northern Chile. The club made its professional debut in 1956 with a goalless draw against Unión La Calera. It finished level at the top of the second-tier standings but lost the deciding match to Universidad Católica and ended the season as runner-up. Promotion arrived the following year, when La Serena won the 1957 Segunda División championship after defeating Santiago Morning, earning a place in the Primera División for the first time. La Serena immediately established itself as a competitive top-flight side. In its debut Primera División season in 1958, the club finished third, only one point behind champions Santiago Wanderers, while Carlos Verdejo finished as the league's leading scorer with 23 goals. Two years later, La Serena achieved the first major national honour in its history by winning the Copa Chile. After defeating Universidad Católica 6–0 in the quarter-finals and Audax Italiano 3–2 in the semi-finals, the club beat Santiago Wanderers 4–1 in the final.

Promotion and stability

Over the following decades, La Serena…