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Club Atletico San Lorenzo de Almagro
San Lorenzo de Almagro is a football club based in the barrio (neighbourhood) of
Boedo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Its colors are blue and red vertical stripes.
History
In the early 1900s, a street gang based in the Almagro barrio (neighborhood) would invite gangs from other neighborhoods to play street football by writing in graffiti: Los Forzosos de Almagro desafian (Almagro's strongmen dare you). As tramway and bus lines extended into Almagro, street playing became dangerous; following an accident in which a tramway car seriously injured a footballer, Catholic priest Lorenzo Massa started hosting the games in the backyard of his parish church in Mexico avenue. Under his guidance, a football club was formally established April 1 1908 and named San Lorenzo de Almagro honoring both Father Massa and the barrio.
San Lorenzo soon became one of the top clubs in Buenos Aires; ever since the start of professionalism in 1931, it was counted in the top five (cinco grandes) together with Boca Juniors, River Plate, Racing and Independiente.
In the 1930s, Isidro Langara and other players of Basque descent endeared San Lorenzo to the Basque community. The team also relied on players from the provinces, known as los gauchos, and won its first professional title in 1933.
In 1946, San Lorenzo broke the River Plate monopoly and won the league title; the team then went on to a tour of Spain and Portugal that was one of the highlights of the club's history. After losing to Real Madrid, it went on to defeat Barcelona and both the Spanish and Portuguese national teams; the Spanish press acclaimed San Lorenzo as "the best team in the world". Player Rene Pontoni was offered a contract with Barcelona but declined to leave Argentina (Barcelona then drafted River Plate's Alfredo Di Stefano). Fellow player Reinaldo Martino did stay in European football and would later become a star with Juventus.
In the 1960s, a generation of players known as carasucias were the darling of Argentine fans because of their offensive, careless playing and their bad-boy antics outside the pitch. The 1968 team was nicknamed los matadores as it won the championship without losing a single game. In the years 1968-1974 San Lorenzo won a total of four league titles, its best harvest ever.
Unfortunately, poor administrations led San Lorenzo to a huge economic crisis, that even forced it to sell their well located stadium. The team was relegated in 1981, only to return to the top division with great fanfare in the 1982 season, which set all-time attendance records for the club.
By that time, the club had no stadium and was plagued by debt and irregularities. Controversial president Fernando Miele (1986-2001) delivered both the new stadium and two league titles: the Clausura '95 (after 21 years without winning a first division title) and the Clausura 2001 (in which the team achieved 11 consecutive victories). In late 2001 Alberto Guil was elected as president, and a month later San Lorenzo achieved its first international title: the Copa Mercosur 2001. San Lorenzo also won the first edition of the Copa Sudamericana in December 2002. The current president is Rafael Savino, and the club finances are running a deficit of near half a million dollars per month.
San Lorenzo is identified with the working class atmosphere of the Boedo neighborhood. Its derby rival from the southern part of Buenos Aires is Huracan, which was promoted back to the first division for the 2007/08 season.
Stadium
The old Estadio Gasometro stadium in Boedo was a venue of great renown, where many international games were held. Due to debts, it was sold in 1979 and torn down. The new stadium, called the Nuevo Gasometro was opened December 1993 in the intersection of the Perito Moreno and Varela avenues in the Flores, Buenos Aires neighborhood.
The official name of the stadium is Estadio Pedro Bidegain after a former club president. It has a capacity of 43,494 and the pitch size is 110 x 70 m.
Titles
Amateur titles
1914 (Ascenso)
1923 AAmF
1924 AAmF
1927 AFA
Professional titles
1933
1936 (Copa de Honor)
1946
1959
1968 Metropolitano (unbeaten)
1972 Metropolitano
1972 Nacional (unbeaten)
1974 Nacional
1982 Primera B
1988 (Liguilla Pre-Libertadores)
1991 (Liguilla Pre-Libertadores)
1995 Clausura
2001 Clausura
2007 Clausura
International titles
Copa Mercosur 2001
Copa Sudamericana 2002
Current squad
[*]As of 10 February 2008
(captain)
Notable former players
Ezequiel Lavezzi
Sebastian Abreu
Alberto "Beto" Acosta
Rafael "Tucu" Albrecht (1963~1970)
Arturo Arrieta (1927~1939)
Ruben "Raton" Ayala (1968~1973)
Juan Benavidez (1951~1955)
Angel Berni (1953~1959)
Dario "Pampa" Biaggio (1994~1999)
Jorge Borelli (1992~1996)
Alfredo Carricaberry (1920~1930)
Jose Luis Chilavert(1985~1987)
Victorio Nicolas Cocco (1968~1974)
Fabricio Coloccini(2001)
Ivan Cordoba(1998~2000)
Narciso "Loco" Doval
Walter Erviti (1998~2002)
Armando Farro (1945~1952)
Rodolfo "Lobo" Fischer
Jose Fossa (1919~1934)
Guillermo Franco(1996~2002)
Diego Garcia (1925~1940)
Blas Giunta(1983-1988)
Esteban Gonzalez (1994~1995)
Nestor "Pipo" Gorosito
Jorge "Pipa" Higuain (1982~1986)
Ruben Dario Insua (1978~1986)
Agustin "Mono" Irusta (1963~1976)
Isidro Langara (1939~1943)
Ricardo Lavolpe (1975~1979)
Rinaldo "Mamucho" Martino (1941~1948)
Pablo Michelini (1999~2005)
Claudio Morel Rodriguez (1998-2004)
Luis Monti (1922~1930)
Oscar Montiel(1981-1983)
Jorge Olguin (1971~1979)
Oscar "Negro" Ortiz (1971~1976)
Mario Papa (1948~1953)
Victor Caselli (1942~1945)
Aldo Paredes (1997~2005)
Walter Perazzo (1979~1988)
Rene Pontoni
Armando Quinteros
Alberto "Toscano" Rendo (1965~1969)
Jorge "Chancha" Rinaldi
Leonardo Rodriguez
Leandro Romagnoli (el Pipi)(1999~2004)
Bernardo Romeo
Oscar "Cabezon" Ruggeri (1994~1997)
Jose Sanfilippo
Hector Gringo Scotta
Paulo Silas(1993~1997)
Roberto "Oveja" Telch (1962~1975)
Carlos Veglio (1968~1975)
Hector Veira
Sergio Bismarck Villar (1968~1981)
Angel Zubieta (1939~1952)
see also
Nicknames
Los gauchos de Boedo (after the many players from the provinces who played in the 1933 champions)
Los santos (the saints) (from the club's name)
Los cuervos (the crows) (after the black color of Father Massa's robe)
El ciclon (the cyclone)
Los azulgrana (the blue-and-red)
Los matadores (originally used for the unbeaten 1968 champions)
The fans' collective calls itself la gloriosa (the glorious)
External links
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Club Atletico San Lorenzo de Almagro
