Bayern Munich’s ongoing quest to identify and sign the best talents in Europe is a rather well known initiative of the club. It led Bayern-along with Los Angeles FC in the US- to creating the Red&Gold Football initiative, a footballing pipeline of sorts that connects from several connected clubs in order to give players a better pathway for development. The initiative has already included various clubs or academies into the fold such as South Korea’s Jeju SK FC, Gambia’s Gambinos Stars Africa and Uruguay’s
Racing De Montevideo since being formed in 2023.
Now the next club has joined up, with the official Red&Gold Football website announcing that Ecuadorian club Sociedad Deportiva Aucas is now part of the initiative as well. The website describes the club like this:
S.D. Aucas, founded in 1945, is a traditional force in Ecuadorian football and a regular competitor in Serie A. The club won the national championship in 2022 and frequently takes part in the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana. Aucas plays its home matches at the Aucas Stadium in Quito, which holds 18,799 spectators, and is well known for its strong youth academy.
Jochen Sauer, the managing director of Red&Gold Football (and Bayern’s academy director), had this to say: “Ecuador has consistently produced outstanding footballers, and we see tremendous potential in strengthening our presence in this dynamic football market. Our partnership with S.D. Aucas will allow us to work closely with an organization that shares our philosophy of long-term player development. Together, we want to offer Ecuador’s most exciting talents opportunities to grow within high-performance environments in Europe and the United States.”
BFW Analysis
This all comes off the back of recent rumors that Bayern had signed 17-year-old Ecuadorian prodigy Virgilio Olaya. Furthermore, there were confirmed complications with the deal as certain regulations stipulate that Olaya may not join the Bavarians’ youth teams and that Bayern may have to loan him out. Adding an Ecuadorian team to the Red&Gold Football initiative cannot be a coincidence. SD Aucas may just be the Olaya’s landing spot for the next few years.
But it is not just about Olaya. Ecuador is starting to produce a lot of footballing talent, with the likes of Moisés Caicedo, Piero Hincapié and Willian Pacho firmly in the center of the European spotlight at Chelsea FC, Arsenal FC and Paris Saint Germain, respectively. Making the partnership with SD Aucas could be the Bavarians’ attempt to get ahead of the curve and scoop up as many Ecuadorian talents as possible.
The history of SD Aucas
For those curious to learn more about Red&Gold Football’s (and by extension Bayern’s) new partner club, writer Agustín De Julio wrote a great article on the club’s history on footballmakeshistory.eu. The cliff notes are this: SD Aucas directly originate from British-Dutch oil digging company Shell PLC, formed back in the 1940’s. Shell came to Ecuador in search of oil veins but had to fight the indigenous people of the land to get to the oil. Shell dubbed these indigenous people “Aucas”, which actually translates to “savage” in English.
Yes, SD Aucas’ name originated from the word Shell used to belittle the indigenous people of Ecuador in the 1940’s. Deciding on the name due to how they overcame the opposition of Ecuador’s citizens, Shell then financed SD Aucas, immediately allowing them to poach some of the land’s greatest players and dominate the league early in its’ life. It struggled in following decades, but a recent revival has brought it back to the top division of Ecuadorian football. They even managed to win a match against Brazilian giants Flamengo 2-1 in the 2023 Copa Libertadores (even though Flamengo got their revenge a couple of months later with a 4-0 thrashing). The club are in quite a good place right now.
