CONCACAF CHAMPIONS CUP
How many trophies have Monterrey won in their history? Have they ever won the CONCACAF Champions Cup?
Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami famously won their first competition in 2023, but Rayados have a long history of success.
Before the start of the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup quarter-finals, Inter Miami were the bookmakers’ favourites to win the tournament and qualify for the “new and improved” FIFA Club World Cup in 2025. Lionel Messi famously led The Herons to their first ever trophy in the 2023 Leagues Cup but they will have to overcome a number of clubs with rich histories of success, including last eight opponents Monterrey, if they are to double their haul.
Rayados’ continental glory trumps Liga MX glory
Rayados, founded in 1945, almost 73 years earlier than Inter Miami, have rather peculiarly enjoyed almost as much continental glory as domestic, and all in recent memory.
The team from Nuevo León have won five Liga MX titles, which only puts them in 10th place in the all-time honours list in the Mexican top flight.
Club América lead the way on 14, while Guadalajara (12) and Toluca (10) are also on double figures. Cruz Azul (nine), León, Tigres (both eight), Pumas, Pachuca (both seven) and Santos Laguna (six) have all won more league championships than Monterrey, whose last triumph came in the Apertura 2019 tournament.
They find themselves in a similar position when it comes to the now abolished Copa MX, with nine clubs having won the competition more than three times.
What is Monterrey’s record in the CONCACAF Champions Cup? How many times have they won it?
However, their recent record in the CONCACAF Champions Cup/League means they are envied across North and Central America, and the Caribbean.
After defeating Real Salt Lake to win the tournament for the first time in 2011, they then defended their title twice, beating fellow Mexicans Santos Laguna on both occasions. After a five-year drought, they then won two edition in three years (2019 and 2021), again defeating Liga MX opposition (Tigers and América) in the finals.
Their five victories in the competition are matched by Pachuca (between 2002 and 2017), with only América (seven) and Cruz Azul (six) ahead of them. Since Rayados’ first win in 2011, Las Águilas are the only club to lifted the trophy more than once, and have only done so twice.
That Monterrey have played in five finals and won them all, like Pachuca, means they can rightly consider themselves CONCACAF Champions Cup specialists. Inter Miami, beware.