Audax Italiano

Chilean football club

Audax Club Sportivo Italiano (ˈawðaks itaˈljano) is a Chilean football club based in La Florida. Founded in 1910, it plays in the Campeonato Nacional and has spent most of its history in the top tier of Chilean football. Audax has been national champions four times, joint sixth alongside Magallanes. The club also achieved three Copa Chile runner up finishes in 1981, 1998 and 2018. The club had their first major success in 1936, when they won the league title. During the 1940s, Audax won two further titles in 1946 and 1948, and a fourth in 1957.

The club was founded by Italian residents in Santiago, on November 30, 1910, as Audax Club Ciclista Italiano in Alberto Caffi's hat store, and was originally focused on cycling. As football developed quickly in Santiago, in 1917 the club began participating in that sport, and in 1922, when the popularity of football increased within Audax's supporters, the club changed its name to Audax Club Sportivo Italiano. In January 2007, the club was transformed into a limited liability corporation, and changed its name to Audax Italiano La Florida, adding the name of the comuna in which it's always been located. The club has always been a regular protagonist in Chilean football, but had never been able to participate in any major international competition until 2007, when they played in the Copa Libertadores. As a club founded by immigrants, it has a special rivalry with the other immigrant clubs Unión Española (founded by Spaniards) and Palestino (founded by Palestinian Arabs).