South America

A Short History of Boca Juniors

By Chris Anderson ⋅ April 11, 2008 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

With Juan Román Riquelme moving to Boca Juniors in January, Mauro Zarate’s recent successes at Birmingham City and Tottenham Hotspur’s recently reported interest in Rodrigo Palacio, it’s no wonder that the focus of the footballing world is still firmly on Argentina, still one of the top footballing nations in the world.

In fact, the first recorded match that ever took place in Argentina was between two English teams well before the first league was formed in 1891, the first outside of the British Isles, although the professional league wasn’t created until 1931.

Boca Juniors enjoys status as one of the biggest teams in Argentina and has done for many years. It was founded on the 3rd of April 1905 by five young Italian immigrants living in the area already known as Boca decided to form a football club.

The name Boca (”mouth” in Spanish) comes directly from the name of the area, which is, in turn, believed to have taken its name from the Boccadasse, a region of Genoa in Italy from which a lot of immigrants arrived at that time. In fact, the team’s nickname, Los Xeneizes, literally means “The ones from Genoa”. And the word “Juniors” was simply to add an English tone to the name, which they felt would add something prestigious to the team.

Boca’s colours, blue and gold, are taken from the Swedish flag as a ship happened to be moored in the port at that time, and this has led to these colours becoming an integral part of Boca’s rich history.

Many well-known Argentinian players have played for Boca Juniors at some time during their career, including Martín Palermo (the current top scorer in team, second only to Roberto Cherro), Palacio, Riquelme, Diego Maradona (still a high-profile, avid supporter of Boca, with his own personal bench at the stadium), Gabriel Batistuta and of course Carlos Tevez, currently plying his trade for Manchester United.

Tags: Argentina, Boca Juniors, Carlos Tevez, Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta, Juan Roman Riquelme, Martin Palermo, Mauro Zarate, Rodrigo Palacio

Related Articles

• World Cup Select XI
• World Cup 2006: Goals Of The Tournament
• The curtain draws over Germany
• Seven star signings who will rock the Premier League
• Quarter-final Preview: The Case For Upsets