club of the 20th century and as the best Colombian club so far in the 21st century. Nacional is also credited as the best Colombian team in CONMEBOL club tournaments and ranks seventh in the official club ranking of the Copa Libertadores. History Atlético Nacional was founded as Club Atlético Municipal de Medellín on 7 March 1947 by a partnership led by Luis Alberto Villegas López, former president of the football league of Antioquia. The club was created to promote sports in the city, especially football and basketball. It was based on Unión Indulana Foot-Ball Club, an amateur club from the Liga Antioqueña de Fútbol, the local amateur football league. Officially, the founding members were: Luis Alberto Villegas Lopera, Jorge Osorio, Alberto Eastman, Jaime Restrepo, Gilberto Molina, Raúl Zapata Lotero, Jorge Gómez Jaramillo, Arturo Torres Posada and Julio Ortiz. Atlético Nacional joined the professional league for its first edition in 1948. For that tournament, each club had to pay a fee of 1,000 pesos (at that time, approximately US$1,050). Atlético Nacional played the first match of the history of the tournament, a 2–0 victory over Universidad. The tournament had ten participants that season and Atlético Nacional was 6th with seven victories, four draws and seven defeats. Atlético Municipal changed to its current name, Atlético Nacional, for the 1951 season. The name change was made as a way to reflect the main philosophy of the club: to encourage the national sportsman. That philosophy also reflected in the policy of signing only national players. This policy held special meaning during Colombia's El Dorado period, a time when most Colombian clubs were aggressively pursuing foreigners. It was not until 1953 that the club signed the first foreign player, the Argentine Atilio Miotti. Atlético Nacional won its first league title in 1954. Manager Fernando Paternoster (who managed the team from 1948 to 1951 and from 1954 to 1957) guided the team through a season in which they lost just once (to Boca Juniors de Cali). The star was Argentine striker Carlos Gambina, who led the league with 21 goals. Economic troubles plagued the team in the late 1950s, and during 1958 the club was briefly forced to merge with crosstown rivals Independiente Medellín. These financial problems and occasional returns to the club's policy of only signing Colombian players hampered results, and the club failed to win another title for nineteen years. The drought was