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San Lorenzo de Almagro
Club Atlético 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 neighbourhood would invite gangs from other neighborhoods to play street football by writing in graffiti: Los Forzosos de Almagrodesafían (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 México avenue. Under his guidance, San Lorenzo de Almagro was formally established on April 1, 1908 honoringFather Massa, the Battle of San Lorenzo, Saint Lawrence and, of course, 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, Independiente, River Plate and Racing.
In the 1930s, Isidro Lángara and other players of Basque descent endeared San Lorenzo to theBasque community. The team also relied on players from the provinces, known as los gauchos, and won its first professional title in 1933.











San Lorenzo players before a friendly match in Spain, January 16, 1947
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 ofthe 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 René Pontoni was offered a contract with Barcelona but declined to leave Argentina (Barcelona then drafted River Plate's Alfredo Di Stéfano). Fellow player Reinaldo Martino did stay inEuropean football and would later become a star with Juventus.
In the 1960s, a generation of players known as carasucias (literally: dirty faces) were the darling of Argentine fans because of their offensive, careless playing and their bad-boy antics off the pitch. The 1968 team was nicknamed los matadores as it won the championship without losing a single game, this team was recognized as the bestteam in the world by many journalists. In the years 1968-1974 San Lorenzo won a total of four league titles, its best harvest ever. In 1972, the club became the first Argentine team to win two league titles in one year.
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 toreturn 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 (inwhich the team achieved 11 consecutive victories). San Lorenzo finished the Clausura 2001 with 47 points in a tournament of 19 matches, setting the record for the highest points haul since the inception of the Apertura and Clausura system in 1990. In late 2001, San Lorenzo won their first international title: the Copa Mercosur 2001, becoming the only Argentine team to win that international cup,because the others champions were all from Brazil.
San Lorenzo also won the first edition of the Copa Sudamericana in December 2002, claiming their second international title, and getting the opportunity to play the Recopa against the Copa Libertadores champion Olimpia. San Lorenzo is identified with the middle class atmosphere of the Boedo neighborhood. Its derby rival from the southern part...