FAS

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). Armando Chacón was the manager and 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 Apertura, 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 Uruguayans Pablo Quiñones and Alejandro Soler, Brazilian Alessandro Moresche and Argentinian Alejandro Bentos and Peruvian Antonio Serrano, they reached the final but were defeated by arch-rivals 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 Williams Reyes, Colombian Víctor Hugo 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 Góchez, Alejandro Bentos, Juan Carlos Panameño and Alfredo Pacheco.