Foundation and Amateur Era On 24 June 1909, a group of immigrants from England, led by David Foxley, founded Everton Football Club in Cerro Alegre of
Valparaíso. The choice of this name is still to this day a mystery, although there are various competing theories. The most accepted theory is that this was chosen in honour of the
namesake club in the city of
Liverpool, which was, by then, touring
Argentina. Another theory states the name of a toffee at the time. The first president was Francisco Boundy, while David Foxley was appointed honorary chairman. In 1950 the club was renamed Everton de Viña del Mar. The first match played was against Graphie FC with the starting lineup composed of Arturo Foxley as the
goalkeeper, Percy Holmes and Francisco Boundy as the
defenders; Alberto González, Hugo Boundy and Carlos González as the
midfielders and finally J. Escobar, A. Aravena, David Foxley, V. Estay and Malcolm Fraser as the
strikers. Originally the club was a compendium of different sports, the most important being
track and field,
human swimming,
badminton,
rugby,
gymnastics,
basketball and
football. Everton's first championship participation was the 1912 amateur championship of the Liga de Valparaíso.
The Golden age in 1950. Everton's first championship win was in 1950 under the Argentine coach Martín García. They defeated
Unión Española 1–0 away in a play-off on 14 January 1951. The lone goal was scored by
René Meléndez in the
Estadio Nacional de Chile before 45,000 spectators. In 1951, Everton finished the league in fourth, 5 points behind
Audax Italiano. The following year, Everton clinched the Primera División with two weeks to spare, as Martín García's side beat Audax Italiano 4–0 at home win. In the championship-winning squad the most prominent players were
José María Lourido,
Elías Cid and René Meléndez, top-scorer of the tournament with 30 goals. During this period the club also won against important clubs of South America, the most recorded match was against the Argentine club
Independiente of Avellaneda, in a 5–0 home win at Estadio El Tranque with 12,000 spectators. The performance of the club began to decline, and apart from a third-place finish in 1955, Everton's highest finish for the remainder of the 1950s would be sixth position in the 12-team league.
1970-present After many years of revolving between the
Primera División and the
2nd tier the club finally clinched their third Primera División championship in the 1976 Primera División under the guidance of manager
Pedro Morales. They have won the 2nd division championship on two occasions, the first in 1974 and most recently in 2003. The club has played in 2
Copa Libertadores tournaments, the first came in
1977 after their Primera División 1976 championship. In
Torneo Apertura 2007 the club ended in 12th position, but in the
Torneo Clausura the club made the worst campaign in its history ended in last position (21st). In the
Torneo Apertura 2008 Everton was proclaimed champion of the tournament, with a 3–2 aggregate result against
Colo-Colo in
Estadio Sausalito. In the first leg Everton lost 2–0 away at the
Estadio Monumental David Arellano with goals by
Lucas Barrios and
Gonzalo Fierro but in the second home leg at the
Estadio Sausalito Everton won 3–0 with two goals by
Ezequiel Miralles and one from
Jaime Riveros. In thanks to that tournament win in 2009 Everton qualified for the Copa Libertadotes, for the second time in their history. On 4 August 2010 at
Goodison Park in
Liverpool England, Everton de Viña del Mar for the first time played the club they were named in honour of, their namesakes
Everton. In a
friendly match for the Copa Hermandad (known in English as the Brotherhood Trophy), the match was to promote closer ties between the two Evertons. The match was won 2–0 by the original Everton with goals from
Jermaine Beckford and
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov. That year Everton de Viña, were relegated to
Primera B. Two seasons later, Everton de Viña featured in the Primera B promotion play-off against Universidad de Concepción, winning the first (home) leg on 18 November 2012 (1–0) with a goal from Angel Rojas. In the away leg on 26 November 2012 two goals from José Luis Muñoz and one from Yonathan Suazo secured a 1–3 win and a return to the top-flight of Chilean football in 2013. ==Rivalries==