Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro

San Lorenzo de Almagro

Full name	Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro
Nickname(s)	El Ciclón (The Cyclone) Los Cuervos (The Crows) Los Santos (The Saints) CASLA Los Gauchos de Boedo
Founded	April 1, 1908
Ground	Estadio Pedro Bidegain, El nuevo Gasómetro, Boedo, Buenos Aires (Capacity: 43,494)
Chairman	Rafael Savino
Manager	Miguel Ángel Russo
League	Argentine Primera División
Clausura 2008	4th
Home colours Away colours
Current season

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 (neighbourhood) would invite gangs from other neighborhoods to play street football by writing in graffiti: Los Forzosos de Almagro desafían (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, a football club was formally established April 1 1908 and named San Lorenzo de Almagro honoring Father 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, River Plate, Racing and Independiente.

In the 1930s, Isidro Lángara 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.

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 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 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 in European 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 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 Huracán, which was promoted back to the first division for the 2007/08 season.

Stadium

View of Estadio Pedro Bidegain

The old Estadio Gasómetro 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 Gasómetro 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 October 30, 2008

No. Position Player 1 GK Agustín Orión 2 MF Adrián González (captain) 3 DF Germán Voboril 4 MF Juan Manuel Torres 5 MF Walter Acevedo 6 MF Santiago Solari 7 FW Andrés Silvera 8 MF Diego Rivero 9 FW Bernardo Romeo 10 MF Pablo Barrientos 11 MF Aureliano Torres 12 GK Nereo Champagne 13 DF Fernando Meza 14 FW Cristian Chávez 15 FW Gonzalo Bergessio

No. Position Player 16 DF Nicolás Bianchi Arce 17 DF Sebastián Méndez 18 MF Santiago Hirsig 19 MF Juan Carlos Menseguez 20 DF Gastón Aguirre 21 DF Cristian Tula 22 DF Damián Martínez 23 FW Claudio Acosta 24 GK Bruno Centeno 25 FW Hernán Peirone 26 MF Lionel Rinaldi 28 MF Cristan Ledesma FW Fabián Bordagaray MF Salvador Reynoso

Notable former players

see also Cat:San Lorenzo footballers

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 ciclón (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

• (Spanish) Official site
• (Spanish) Museo de San Lorenzo