UNAM Pumas Football Kit

Club Universidad Nacional, UNAM Pumas or Pumas are one of the biggest and most influential clubs in Mexico.

The team is also known as Universidad but are more commonly known by their nickname of Pumas. Pumas play in the Primera División de México which is the top professional Mexican Soccer league.

Both the nickname and the Club colurs are derived from American Football. The nickname being from the UNAM American football team – the Pumas Dorados de la UNAM.

The club colours were adopted in tribute to coaches from Notre Dame Universtiy in the US helped develop the training palns for the university American Football team.

Pumas football shirt is somewhat unique. While most clubs are content with the club crest on the top left hand side of the jersey Pumas soccer shirts are different. Unam Pumas decided, in the 1970’s, to emblazon the Pumas logo on the front of the shirt.

The UNAM Pumas home football shirt is white with blue sleeves. The unmistakeable PUMA adornes the front of this jersey in blue with the sponsors Banamex just above it.

The Pumas away shirt is all gold again with the Puma Club crest across the front with the club sponsors above it.

You can get these Pumas Soccer shirts in the US from World Soccer shop.com.

Alternatively if you are based in Europe there is a great selection of mexican football shirts at the UK Soccer shop.

The dean of the university first tried to get the university team into the professional leagues but unfortunately they were rejected in favour of Club Martes de Morelos.

In the 1940’s the team played in many university tournaments with a high degree of success.

The club finally secured professional status in 1954 playing their first game against Club de Futbol Monterrey. A.C.

The club stayed in the second division until 1962 when the Pumas won promotion to the Primera División. It was around this time that the Pumas began to develop their own talent through the set up of the youth academy. This was to benefit the team in years to come in the form of such names as Hugo Sanchez.

The 70’s showed a progression in the clubs development. By the mid to late 70’s the club won the Copa Mexico and the Champion of Champions cup.

The culmination of these achievements was the league title in the 1976-77 season. It was towards the end of the decade that Hugo Sanchez, arguably the greatest Mexican player of all time, made his debut for the club. He led the club to its second league title in 1980-81 before moving to Atletico Madrid at the end of that season.

Sanchez returned early in the 2000’s and was again successful but this time as a manger. The greatest achievement being the 2004 season. Pumas recorded a clean sweep in 2004 which included the 2004 Clausura Championship, the Campeon de Campeones playoff, the Santiago Bernabeu trophy against Real Madrid, and the 2004 Apertura Championship.

Biggest Rivals
The Pumas nearest rivals are considered to be Cruz Azul, Chivas and Club América. The most intense of these rivalries is with América. This is made even more intense as both clubs are based in Mexico City.

Stadium
The Pumas home ground is the Estadio Olímpico Universitario and was host to the 1968 Olympic games. The stadium was opened in 1952 and is shared with the University American Football team. It has a capacity for 72,449 fans.

The Stadium is located within the UNAM campus, the largest university in Latin America, so it is close to its’ main fan base.

Club Honours

League Championships: 5
1977, 1981, 1991, Clausura 2004, Apertura 2004

Cup Titles: 1
1975

Champion of Champions: 2
1975, 2004

CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 3
1980, 1982, 1989

Interamerican Cup: 1
1981

Santiago Bernabeu Cup: 1
2004

The UNAM Pumas Official club site is where you can find the information on the club. It is in Spanish so you may get more informaton in English at Wikipedia.

If it isn't UNAM Pumas Kit info you are looking for click here to return to the Mexican soccer page.