Libertad

Club Libertad is a sports organisation based in the Las Mercedes neighbourhood of the city of Asunción, Paraguay. It was founded on 30 July 1905 and has won a total of 25 APF top-flight championships and three Copa Paraguay titles. It has taken part in several editions of the Copa Libertadores and, in addition, is the Paraguayan team that has participated in the most editions of the Copa Sudamericana. In the continent's most important tournament it reached the semi-finals on two occasions, and in the Copa Sudamericana on three occasions.

The club is known as “Gumarelo” or “Libertad”. In February 2010 it was chosen as “Best Club of the Month in the World”. In the latest annual period, from 1 June 2011 to 1 May 2013, the IFFHS recognised it as the 10th best team in the world.

Several footballers stood out at the club, such as Manuel Ortega, Thiago Samaniego, Alejandro Castro, Octavio Ortega, Gustavo Samaniego, Basiliano Villamayor, Gerardo Rivas, Delfín Benítez Cáceres, Alfredo Vega, Hermes González, Porfirio Rolón, Eulogio Martínez, Robustiano Maciel, Antonio Cabrera, Manuel Gavilán, Higinio Benítez Casco, Rubén Fernández, Victoriano Leguizamón, Rogelio Bedoya, Antonio Ramón Gómez, Ireneo Hermosilla, Máximo Rolón, Domingo Benegas, Sebastián Fleitas, Cristóbal Maldonado, Arecio Colmán, Emigdio Dos Santos, Eugenio Morel, Milciades Morel, Fernando Alvez, Juan Bautista Torales, Ramón Hicks, Desiderio Díaz, Juan Samudio, Justo Villar, Carlos Bonet, Pedro Sarabia, Hernán Rodrigo López, Santiago Salcedo (the current all-time top scorer of Paraguayan football), Pablo Guiñazú, Sergio Aquino, and even Arsenio Erico (a Paraguayan regarded by FIFA as the best Paraguayan footballer of all time) wore the black-and-white shirt on a tour played in Brazil in November 1942.

Furthermore, Club Libertad has the distinction of having had in its squad the five all-time top scorers of Paraguayan football, who are Hernán Rodrigo López (2005–2007), (2014–2016). Santiago Salcedo (2016–2018), Juan Samudio (1996–1998), (2000–2006), (2008–2009), (2012). Fredy Bareiro (2003–2004), (2007), (2013) and Mauro Caballero (2001).

It plays the Blanco y Negro clásico against the doyen of Paraguayan football, Olimpia. And there is the so-called most contested top-flight clásico between teams that do not include Cerro Porteño and Olimpia: the one played against Guaraní, a team with which it has a great sporting rivalry, and one that has become much more heated among supporters in recent years. The matches played against Cerro Porteño are also called clásicos, as they involve two of the four most successful clubs in Paraguayan football. In basketball it stands out as the third team with the most titles in the country.