The origins of Argentine sports club Boca Juniors can be traced to the early 1900s, when a group of teenagers decided to establish a football club in La Boca, a working-class neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Most of the original founders of the club were of Italian descent, as the southern barrio had been settled by Ligurian migrants during the 19th century;[1] to this day, Boca supporters are known as "Xeneizes" (a deformation of "Zeneise", meaning "Genoese" in the Ligurian language).[2]
During the first years of its existence, the club developed a strong rivalry with then neighbor team River Plate, that would continue throughout the years, despite River Plate having left La Boca to establish itself in Belgrano. In the 20th century, Boca consolidated as one of the most popular and successful clubs in Argentina, giving its first step in 1913 when the team promoted to Primera División.
Although Boca Juniors won its first official title in 1919 (the Primera División championship),[3] the first milestone in the history of the club came in 1925 with the successful tour to Europe, where Boca Juniors played 19 matches, winning 15 of them.[4] That tour was the first time an Argentine team played abroad, and it helped Boca considerably increase its number of fans in Argentina. Besides, the term "player number 12" was used for the first time during that tour.[5]
Before La Bombonera was opened in 1940, Boca Juniors played its home venues at many locations, with its first field located in Dársena Sud (south of current Puerto Madero neighborhood). Other locations include fields in Isla Demarchi, and Wilde in Avellaneda Partido. The first stadium in La Boca was at Ministro Brin and Senguel streets which lasted until 1924 when the club moved to Brandsen and Del Crucero.
Although football was the main interest of the club (and the sport which the club is mostly renowned for) at the moment of having been founded, Boca Juniors also added other sports, most notably basketball (which team has won several titles since the section was created in 1929), and volleyball. In football, Boca Juniors is considered one of the "Big Five" since 1937, when the Argentine Football Association (AFA) arranged a system of proportional representation for the affiliated clubs.[6]
- ^ Italia y su huella en La Boca on GCBA
- ^ ¿Por qué a Boca Juniors se le conoce como los ‘Xeneizes’?, As, 30 Sep 2019
- ^ Argentina 1919 on the RSSSF
- ^ Historia: 1925 on Boca Juniors website
- ^ A 95 años del exitoso regreso de Boca, Página/12,
- ^ ¿Cómo nació el apodo de los cinco grandes del fútbol argentino? by Oscar Barnade on Clarín, 10 Aug 2017