THE HISTORY OF BOCA JUNIORS

Boca Juniors was founded in the year 1905 in Buenos Aires.

Since the beginning of Boca Juniors, football is the most important sport. From 1905 to 1930 the club was amateur, then it became professional.

Is the second institution with the most amount of international titles of the world…but, how did it all start? 

The foundation of Boca Juniors was a work of six teenagers, children of Italians and neighbors of La Boca, neighborhood of immigrant workers and strong Genoese identity –‘xeneize’ in its dialect-: Esteban Baglietto, Alfredo Scarpatti, Santiago Pedro Sana, Tomás Movio and the brothers Juan Antonio Farenga and Teodoro Farenga.

The club recognized Esteban Baglietto as its first president. Esteban was born in 1888 in Buenos Aires -though his parents were Genoese- in the bosom of a very humble family. He was the first president of the institution and also a player of the first team.

The certain thing is that it turns out to be inappropriate to speak about a president since –back then- Boca Juniors was just a boys' team joined by the only desire to play football; very distant from answering to an institutional worry or to an organization with legal status.

The first football team was formed by eleven players who, by that first participation, have a place in history. Some of them were the following: 

De los Santos (goalkeeper), Vergara and Cerezo (defenders), Priano, Antonio Farenga and Bacigaluppi (scorers).

THE SUPER-CLASSIC

The super-classic of Argentine Football is the match in which the two most popular football teams play against each other: Boca Juniors and River Plate. The first official super-classic was disputed on August 24, 1993: River won 2-1 to Boca.

The ‘Super-classic’ of Argentine football is the party that faces the most popular soccer teams of the country: River Plate and Boca Juniors. This sports’ spectacle concentrates the attention of the big masses not only in Argentina, but in many countries of the world. 

Very few international matches have the heat, the color, and the vibration of a River-Boca: the previous reunion of friends, sharing food and beer, the coffee conversations over the match, the discussions between ‘xeneizes’ and ‘hens’, everything is part of the best folklore that football has to offer to fans. 

This rivalry began at the beginning of the 20th century when the above mentioned clubs were sharing the neighborhood of La Boca.

The most important players throughout the history of Boca Juniors are:

Juan Román Riquelme

Diego Armando Maradona

Gabriel Batistuta

Carlos Tévez

Martín Palermo

Bruno Blas, Felipe Tozzini and Agustín Converso - 3rd Year

THE FIVE GIANTS

How many times did we hear people talking about the 'Five Giants' of Argentinean football? How come these five are the ones chosen to be 'giants'? 

In 1934, when the Argentinean Association of Football (AFA) was created, the most popular clubs wanted to have more power to make important decisions, such as the election of the president of the AFA, the approval of materials used within the football field and so on. 

In a reunion, which took place on 5 August of 1937, they decided to establish a proportional votes system. Following this new system, the clubs were divided into three categories, according to the number of associates and championships won. 

The clubs that had more than 15000 people associated, 20 years of consecutive participation in the first division and had been champions of that category 2 or more times, had three votes. 

Those clubs with more than 10000 associates but less than 15000; or those that had been champions of the first division once only, had two votes.

The clubs that didn't cover the previous requirements only had one vote.

Boca Juniors, Independiente, Racing Club, River Plate and San Lorenzo were the five clubs that had the opportunity of voting three times. Because of this, they're called ‘The Five Giants’. 

But people often discuss about this, which teams are the five giants for you?

Emiliano Colombo, Ignacio Lauzao, Facundo Paiz, Franco Henriquez – 4^th Year