Macara

Club Social y Deportivo Macará was founded in 1939 in the city of Ambato. At the time of its creation, the club adopted its traditional sky blue and white colors. Neptalí “Ñato” Barona served as the team’s first head coach. In 1946, Macará participated in an international tour in Colombia, marking one of its earliest appearances outside Ecuador.

In 1998, the club achieved promotion to the Ecuadorian Serie A. Macará qualified for the Copa Libertadores for the first time in 2017. In 2019, the club finished first in the overall table and secured qualification for the 2020 Copa Libertadores.

Foundation

In July 1939, a group of young students from Colegio Nacional Bolívar gathered to form an independent sporting club, and shortly afterwards entered a minor tournament under the name 'Independiente'. However, in searching for further guidance, they talked to Army Captain Galo Molina (a student's relative) and together they formed Macará, naming the team after Ecuador's southern army stronghold.

They offered the presidency to Mr. Jorge Vicente Alvarez, and he pronounced the following words: "Del Carchi al Macará... Macará ganará" (From Carchi to Macará... Macará will win); thus accepting the position.

The beginning of Primera A

Whilst Macará took part in Ecuadorian regional tournaments, the introduction of a National Championship saw them struggle to find a place among the best in the early 1960s. It took a while for the team to become strong and earn a permanent place in Primera A.

Great players in the late 1960s and early and mid-1970s, such as Ítalo Estupiñán, Rómulo Dudar Mina, Arnaldo Sanchez Perrone (one of the best defenders Ecuador had in the late 1960s pretended from Barcelona of Guayaquil, Everest, and Ecuadorian Nacional team to play for his country in "London World Cup" in 1965) and Polo Carrera, made the team competitive. They were relegated in 1978 but eventually returned to Primera A.

80's decade: the peak

During the late 1980's, the club featured several notable players, such as Peruvians Germán Leguía and Juan Martín Caballero, Uruguayan midfielder Rodolfo Abalde and Ecuadorian players such as Geovanny Mera, Jorge Alvear, Angel Buenaño, Juan Carlos Suárez, Ricardo Porras and Milton Rodríguez. With this squad, the team competed for top positions in national championships, and achieved several victories against major Ecuadorian clubs including Barcelona S.C, LDU Quito, and their local rivals Técnico Universitario.

The team since 1990

In the early 1990s, the team lost consistency and would eventually get relegated to Primera B in 1991, and to Segunda Categoría in 1992, although they only stayed there for one season. In 1998, the club won the second division championship, and was promoted to Primera A, under chairman Miller Salazar. The team consolidated its position in the 2000 season and the center forward, Christian José Bottero, finished as the top scorer in Primera in 1999. At this time they had a good group of players including Daniel Garrido, John Ordoñez, Lino Sánchez and Héctor Lautaro Chiriboga, that would remain for the next season. However, the Ecuadorian economic crisis of 1999 and 2000 was a painful hit for the club, and added to that, their key player, Lino Sánchez's, suffered an injury in 2000 that would finish his career. In 2002, the club was forced to sell their stars Garrido and Patricio Urrutia and their performance suffered and they were relegated from Primera A at the end of the year.

After that, Miller Salazar was less effective as manager, and was replaced by young businessman Ricardo Callejas. He brought fresh ideas and much needed investment and introduced better financial management. The team acquired fine players in Matías Urbano and Oscar Pacheco, among others. However, the club sold Urbano to Deportivo Quito by midyear, due to the player being unprepared to play in a lower division league. The team earned promotion for the 2004 season.

2004 was an unsatisfactory year, because, although having good players in Cristian Mora and Oscar Monge and others, it became difficult for the team to reach the last 6's group and be in contention for the title and the expenditure for appointing renowned coach Dussan Draskovic did not succeed as well as was hoped. The 2005 season saw the team relegated but they would be back again to the first division by 2007.

Today

For the second half of the Ecuadorian Campeonato Nacional in 2007, Macará started with Roque Raúl Alfaro as coach. After he left, they signed Argentinian, Raúl Urquiza, who did a much better job on the last stretch of the tournament. Macará kept its place on the premier section of Ecuador's Campeonato Nacional for the second year in a row.

For 2008, Macará hired Colombian coach Jaime De La Pava to the club, and replaced a significant part of the squad. Macará did not qualify for the Copa Libertadores de América. Jaquet was later confirmed as first team coach for the 2009 season.

During the 2011 season, Macara was in Primera B and moved up as the runners up at the end of the season with its rival Tecnico Universitario.