History
The Beginning
Clubs from San Salvador had dominated Salvadoran football for many years. The municipal mayor of the Santa Ana district, Manuel Tomás Monedero, wanted to create a team from Santa Ana to end the dominance of the San Salvador clubs. Together with the help of Santa Ana mayor Waldo Rey, Monedero organized the union of all the clubs in Santa Ana (including Unión, Colegio Salesiano San José, Cosmos, RAL, Colón, Santa Lucía and Los 44).
On 16 February 1947, these teams united to form Futbolistas Asociados Santanecos, or FAS for short. Samuel Zaldaña Galdámez was named the club first president. It was originally proposed that the club should wear yellow and black, but Monedero settled on the more traditional choice of red and blue.
The First Steps
The club played its first match on 26 March 1947 against the previous year's champion Libertad FC at the Finca Modelo (which would be their home stadium for many years). The club's founding players were Juan Moreno and Óscar González, Goalkeeper; Tomás Morán, Jorge Brito and Guillermo Herrera, defenders; Manuel Padilla, Lino Medina, Moisés Jovel, Antonio Pérez and Eliseo Ramos, midfielders; Víctor Castro, Tomás Angulo, Antonio Mancía, Antonio Azucena, Mario (Capellan) y Jose (El Torro) González, strikers. Armando Chacón was the manager. The first match ended in a 4–1 defeat.
Early history (1948–1959)
In 1948–49, FAS moved into the First Division for the first time, and have remained their ever since. Chacón was still the manager, and the team began on a winning note by defeating Juventud Olimpica 2–1. They recorded two more wins over Dragón and Santa Anita (3–0, 3–2 respectively) before losing 3–1 to Cusatleco. FAS would ultimately finish 3rd behind Libertad FC and champion Once Municipal.
In 1951–52, FAS won their first title. The manager was Victor Manuel "Pipe" Ochoa, who proceeded to lead the club to a second title in 1953–54. During the 1956–57 season, the club came close to relegation, which caused the owners to hire Argentinian coach Alberto Cevasco and bring in the reinforcements of foreign players, including Omar Muraco, Javier Novello, Héctor Marinaro, Héctor Dadeiro and Miguelito Álvarez. This move led the club to a third title in 1958–59.
1960–1992
In 1961–62, César Viccinio managed the team to its fourth title, while Raul Miralles led the team to another in 1962. At the beginning of the 1963, the club moved its headquarters to the newly built Estadio Santaneco.
The early history of that stadium was marked by tragedy, as goalkeeper Oscar Quiteño collapsed during a friendly match against Orión F.C. Efforts to revive him failed, and Quiteño died on the pitch. In his honor, the club renamed the stadium to Estadio Quiteño and wore black uniforms for two years.
Fans came to believe the club was cursed, as Quiteño's death was followed by a fifteen-year title drought. Adding to that frustration was that the club reached the finals in 1965, 1968, and 1969 and meet defeat all three times. Their tormentor was Alianza, known at that time as the "Orquestra Alba" for their harmony and skill.
FAS did break that curse with titles in 1977–78, 1978–79, 1981, and 1984. In addition, they won the 1979 CONCACAF Champions League by defeating Jong Colombia 8-2 on aggregate. Key to that run was forward Jorge "Mágico" González. Widely considered the greatest player in Salvadoran history, Gonzalez was at FAS from 1977 to 1982, and at that time was nicknamed Mago. After the 1982 season, he left El Salvador for Spain and La Liga, playing at Cadiz, Barcelona, and Valladolid.
However, a title drought of ten more years followed.
1993–1994
In 1993, that drought led to the appointment of a new board of directors. The new board's first move was to hired Uruguayan coach Saúl Rivero, as well as a host of experienced players from both Uruguay and El Salvador. The board also placed a new emphasis on youth leagues. Finally, they purchased lights for the stadium, making night games possible. FAS proceeded to win titles in 1994-95 and 1995–96, beating Luis Ángel Firpo in both seasons. Part of the key to this run was the return of Jorge "Mágico" González and the addition of Hugo Pérez.
2000s
FAS became the most dominant team in the beginning of the century, winning six titles between 2002 and 2006, this success came under the tenureship of Peruvian Agustin Castillo
The century would start off with mild success with FAS reaching the 2000 Clausura semi final before losing to runners up ADET and this was followed by missing the finals altogether in the 2000 Apetura, marking the worst performance under the Clausura/Apertura format for FAS.
For the 2001 Clausura, FAS started a youth revolution under new coach Ruben Guevara, these players will form the backbone for the upcoming dynasty to come, these include Eliseo Quintanilla, Gilberto Murgas, Marvin Gonzalez, Gerardo Burgos, Rafael Tobar, Jaime Gómez and Juan Granados. Along with experienced players such as William Osorio, Salvador Alfaro, Ricardo Cuellar, Carlos Linares and foreigner players Urguayans Pablo Quiñones and Alejandro Soler, Brazilian Alessandro Moresche and Argenitnian Alejandro de la Cruz and Peruvian Antonio Serrano, they reached the final but were defeated by archrivals C.D. Aguila 2–1.
Towards end of the 2001 Apertura season, FAS hired Peruvian Agustin Castillo although they just missed the finals, FAS had added the final pieces and they went on to win back to back titles winning the 2002 Apertura and 2002 Clausura, defeating Alianza F.C. 4-0 and San Salvador F.C. 3-1 respectively, with the youth injected a year ago, and adding important players such as Honduran William Reyes, Colombian Victor Mafla, Costa Rican Rolando Corella, William Machón, Jorge Rodríguez, Luis Contreras, Carlos Menjivar, Victor Velasquez, Daniel Sagastizado, Juan Carlos Padilla, Cristian Álvarez, Luis Castro, Ernesto Gochez, Juan Carlos Panameño and Alfredo Pacheco
They failed to win three titles in a row, after losing the 2003 Clausura semi finals match against Luis Angel Firpo in penalties. However they were able to win 14th title and 3rd title in 3 years, defeating their archrival C.D. Aguila in penalties.
2010s to present
After a small drought, On 20 December 2009 FAS won their 19th title defeating arch rival Aguila 3-2 thanks to goals for Josué Flores, Juan Carlos Moscoso and own goal by Mexican Arturo Albarrán. It's been more than a decade since FAS last won a championships, despite making five different finals including Clausura 2011 (Falling against Alianza), Clausura 2013 (Firpo), Apertura 2013 (Isidro Metapan), Apertura 2015 (Alianza) and Apertura 2019 (Alianza).
FAS progressed to the final in December 2019, where they faced the Alianza for the third time in decade; FAS was ultimately defeated in Alianza by a score of 1–0.
FAS won the Clausura 2021 Championship defeating (Alianza) on penalty shootout, after a 1-1 Draw in regular time, winning the club the 18th title.
On 15 April 2022, FAS announced that they had been acquired by American ownership group AMG Sports [13] Following the acquisition of the club, FAS hired Ecuadorian Octavio Zambrano to manage the team. This was followed by the signings of players such as Mexican Luis Ángel Mendoza, Colombians Yílmar Filigrana and Juan Camilo Salazar, local players Rubén Marroquín, Marvin Marquez and Roberto Dominguez. This led to FAS winning the 2022 Apertura title, defeating first time finalist Jocoro 2–0, thanks to goals from Rudy Clavel and Yílmar Filigrana.
Rivalries
FAS's biggest rivalries are with Alianza, Luis Ángel Firpo and Aguila. Together, these teams form the "Big Four" of Salvadoran football, and are the primary title contenders each season.
The rivalry stems not only from their competitiveness, but from the economic, political, and cultural clashes between the cities of San Miguel, Santa Ana and San Salvador, where the other three clubs are based.
El Clásico
Of those rivalries, FAS's rivalry with Aguila is the strongest and most passionate. That rivalry is traditionally referred to as El Clásico. The first in the series took place on 17 May 1959, and ended in a 1–1 draw. The most recent match was a 2-2 draw on the 24th of September, 2023. The teams have played 255 matches in all competitions, FAS winning 92, Aguila 81, and the remaining 82 having been drawn.
