Argentinos Juniors

Argentinos Juniors

Full name	Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors
Nickname(s)	El Bicho (The Bug) El Semillero del Mundo (World's Seedbed) El Tifón de Boyacá (The Boyacá Typhoon)
Founded	15 August 1904; 119 years ago (1904-08-15)
Ground	Estadio Diego Armando Maradona
Capacity	26,000
Chairman	Cristian Malaspina
Manager	Pablo Guede
League	Primera División
2023	10th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Paternal, Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its football team, which currently plays in the Argentine Primera División, and was recognized as one of the most important football teams of South America by FIFA.^[1] It is one of the eight Argentine first division teams that have won the Copa Libertadores. The continental trophy was won in the club's first entry to the contest, in 1985. The most remarkable sign of this team is the power of its youth teams, which unveiled some of the most talented footballers in Argentine football history, with Diego Maradona as the greatest example of all. As a result, it has been described as "one of Argentina's most distinctive football clubs".^[2][3]

History

Early years

The club was founded in the

Leandro Ravera Bianchi was named president of the recently created club.

The club immediately adopted the red and white colors as an homage to deputy Alfredo Palacios, the first congressman elected from the Socialist Party in Argentina. The club affiliated itself with the Liga Central de Football, a minor league in which small clubs and companies took part of. The first match played by Argentinos Juniors was against Club La Prensa, which Argentinos Juniors lost by a catastrophic scoreline of 12–1. Nevertheless, the squad would be crowned champion at the end of the season. Argentinos Juniors played its home matches in the field located on Gaona Avenue and Añasco Street.

After the club was evicted, Argentinos Juniors played at several fields, first renting one in Villa Ballester, returning to their neighborhood of origin in 1907. After a brief stint in Villa Urquiza, the club returned to Caballito, later moving to Fraga and Estomba streets in Villa Ortúzar. In 1909, Argentinos gained affiliation with the Argentine Football Association, but in 1912 the club was involved in the first schism in Argentine football when Argentinos joined the breakaway "Federación Argentina de Football" (FAF). During those years, the club re-adopted its green and white colors as there were teams in the league using red jerseys.

In 1920, the Argentinos Juniors played a promotion play-off with El Porvenir, which saw El Porvenir prevail 3–2 on aggregate. In 1921, the team secured promotion to the Argentine top division, making its debut in the 1922 season, where Argentinos finished 6th.

In 1925, the Argentinos Juniors moved to its current location in

. The club had also increased its membership to 1,000.

In 1927, the two separate football associations were reunified and Argentinos played in a massive 34 team league. Later, the league was expanded to 36 and Argentinos managed to keep its place until 1930.

1931–1966

In 1931 Argentinos joined 17 other clubs in forming a breakaway professional league, a move that marked the beginning of the professional era of Argentine football. In 1934 the amateur league was broken up and Argentina once again had a unified

, the season progressed badly, and after 25 rounds the union was dissolved due to financial irregularities in the Atlanta books. Argentinos Juniors played on but finished bottom of the league with only 2 wins from 39 games.

Argentinos was allowed to keep its place in the Primera, but succumbed to relegation in 1937 after finishing second from bottom of the table.

In 1940 Argentinos enjoyed a good campaign in a new stadium, which ended up in winning the

but the club was not allowed promotion because their ground did not meet the requirements of the Primera División, and AFA would not make an exception for Argentinos to play at another ground, even though they had done so for several other promoted clubs in previous seasons.

In 1943 Hector Ingunza started playing for the club, and went on to become the top scorer in the club's history with 143 goals in official games between 1943 and 1946.

In 1948 Argentinos suffered another injustice at the hands of the AFA. They had qualified to the end of season playoff for promotion to the Primera and were top of the league after 7 of the 11 rounds when a players strike interrupted the competition. AFA eventually abandoned the playoff and gave automatic promotion to the teams that had been relegated in 1946 and 1947 instead.

In 1954 Argentinos finished 2nd in the league having scored 88 goals, making it the highest scoring team by far. In 1955 the team finally secured promotion back to the Primera after 18 long years. Argentinos returned to top flight competition in 1956 and after finishing near the bottom of the table that year, the team secured comfortable mid-table finishes over the next few seasons.

In 1960 there was a complete overhaul of the Argentinos Juniors team. The new team performed well and it was only in the last game of the season that they missed out on the championship. Argentinos finished in 3rd place, only 2 points below the eventual champions Independiente. Although the team didn't win the championship, it is fondly remembered by those old enough to have seen them play.^[6] In the following years the team did not live up to expectations, rarely finishing in the top half of the table.

1967–1984

1967 saw the introduction of the Metropolitano and Nacional system, Argentinos struggled to adapt and only just survived relegation from the Metropolitano in the inaugural season. Over the next few seasons Argentinos had to play in several short tournaments to earn the right to stay in the Metropolitano and were far from qualifying to play in the Nacional.

From 1971 Argentinos stabilized themselves and avoided the lower positions in the table, they also qualified to play in the expanded Nacional tournaments of the early '70s, they performed well enough, but failed to qualify for the final stages. In 1975 Argentinos Juniors finished 19th of 20 teams, but were fortunate in that no teams were relegated from the Metropolitano that season.

On Thursday 20 October 1976, fans of Argentinos Juniors and a few traveling

's record of being Argentina's topscorer on four consecutive occasions. In 1980 Argentinos finished 2nd in the Metropolitano and reached the quarter finals of the Nacional. The 2nd-place finish was their best since the beginning of the professional era in 1931.

Maradona was sold to Boca Juniors in 1981 for a fee of £1 million. Maradona never won a title with Argentinos but his massive transfer fee allowed Argentinos to strengthen their squad for the years ahead, although his departure almost cost Argentinos their place in the top flight as they needed a last day win over San Lorenzo to avoid relegation at San Lorenzo's expense.

In 1982 Argentinos failed to progress to the latter stages of the Nacional and finished in mid table in the Metropolitano. The season of 1983 saw a distinct improvement under the leadership of

.

1984–1985: First titles and Copa Libertadores

Saporiti had kept faith with Labruna's attacking style of play, and largely retained the same group of players. Argentinos managed to win the title by a single point over Ferro Carril Oeste on the last day of the season. This was the first major title in the club's history and gave them automatic qualification to the

.

Saporiti was replaced as manager by

after a 2–2 aggregate score, but Velez got another chance to play for the title after beating River Plate in the losers final. Argentinos and Velez played for the title and after a 1–1 draw, Velez won the penalty shootout, but because they had come from the losers group a new game was needed, which Argentinos won 2–1.

Claudio Borghi dribbling during the 1985 Intercontinental Cup vs. Juventus

The 1985 edition of the Copa Libertadores saw the inclusion of three Argentine teams, Independiente as the previous years champions, Ferro Carril Oeste as the champions of the 1984 Nacional and Argentinos Juniors as the champions of the 1984 Metropolitano.

In the first round Argentinos and Ferro were put into the same group with

. The group was dominated by the two Argentine teams, who finished level on points at the top of the group. This necessitated a playoff game to determine which team would progress to the semi-final, which Argentinos won 3–1.

In the semi-final round Argentinos found themselves in a group of three with Independiete who had received a bye to the semi-finals and club Blooming of Bolivia. Argentinos progressed thanks to a 2–1 win in Independiente's stadium in the last fixture of the group.

The

. It was only the second time the competition had been decided on penalties, and marked the finest achievement in the history of Argentinos Juniors.

The usual line-up was:

.

Decline

In 1985 Argentinos Juniors represented South America in the Intercontinental Cup against Juventus FC of Italy, the game ended in a 2–2 draw, but Argentinos lost in the penalty shootout. Argentinos went on to win another trophy in 1986. They won 1–0 in the Copa Interamericana against Defence Force of Trinidad and Tobago.

Argentinos qualified for the 1986 Copa Libertadores, receiving a bye to the second round as holders, but was eliminated in the group of three, behind River Plate of Argentina who went on to win the tournament.

1985–1986 saw the start of European-style seasons. Argentinos performed well, finishing in the top half of the table for most of the rest of the 1980s and never fearing relegation, although Argentinos also never really challenged as title contender. By 1988 the majority of the Libertadores champions had gone and Argentinos were a vastly different team.

On 20 November 1988 the club set a world record for the longest penalty shootout, which occurred in a league match against Racing Club, the shootout finished 20–19 to Argentinos after 44 penalties were taken. The rules of the time granted an extra point for the winner on penalties after a drawn match.

1990 saw the introduction of the Apertura and Clausura system in Argentina, Argentinos enjoyed a number of decent finishes, although the team finished 19th in Apertura 1992 and was saved from relegation by the points averaging system.

Relegation and return to Primera

Argentinos finished 20th and last in 1995 Clausura and was again saved by the points averaging system, the next year squad finished bottom of the Clausura and was relegated from the Primera División only eleven years after being champions of South America.

In the 1996–1997 season Argentinos won the second division under manager Osvaldo Sosa to bounce back into the Primera at the first attempt. The team remained in the top flight until it was relegated again after another sequence of poor finishes. The best finish Argentinos managed in that period was 4th in the 2001 Clausura.

Argentinos spent two seasons in the

who had finished the season in 3rd place in the Primera, but had to play in the relegation playoff due to effect of their poor form in the previous 2 seasons on their standings in the points averaging table.

Argentinos spent a couple of nervous seasons narrowly avoiding relegation in

2006–2007 season

saw Argentinos finally claw its way clear from the relegation places after over two years of flirting with relegation.

In 2008 Argentinos earned the right to play in an international tournament for the first time in 12 years by qualifying for the

despite beating them 5–0 in the league game which was sandwiched between the cup ties.

In June 2009, former star player

Claudio Borghi

took over as manager of the club following a poor performance in the 2009 Clausura tournament where the club had finished 20th and last in the table with only 2 wins from their 19 games.

At the beginning of the

.

The team recorded an impressive 6–3 win against Lanús in its second fixture of the campaign, but after 5 games this would be its only victory, with two draws and two defeats. Argentinos won its 6th fixture against Estudiantes de La Plata which was the start of a 14-game unbeaten streak that saw Argentinos finish 1-point ahead of Estudiantes at the end of the season. The most significant result in this 14-game run was in the penultimate fixture against title challengers Independiente, which saw Argentinos come back from 1–3 down to win 4–3, which featured two goals in the final minutes of the game to seal the win and leave Argentinos at the top of the table with one game to play. Argentinos finally won its first domestic championship in 25 years with a 1–2 away win against Huracán in the Estadio Tomás Adolfo Ducó.

In April 2014, they were relegated to the

.

Kit uniform evolution

Although the red color has been historically identified with Argentinos Juniors, the first jersey was green with white vertical stripes. Some sources state that this jersey was worn during the first years of the team because the Argentine Football Association did not allow Argentinos Juniors to register a red uniform due to it having been previously adopted by Club Atlético Independiente.^[7]

1904–17

1917–present [note 1]

Notes

Players

Current squad

As of 31 January, 2024.^[9]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  ARG Miguel Acosta 3 DF  ARG Luciano Sánchez 4 DF  ARG Érik Godoy 6 DF  ARG Román Vega 7 DF  ARG Santiago Montiel 8 MF  URU Alan Rodríguez 9 FW  ARG Maximiliano Romero 10 FW  ARG Gastón Verón 11 MF  ARG Damián Batallini 13 DF  ARG Tobías Palacio 15 MF  ARG Leonardo Heredia 16 DF  ARG Francisco Álvarez

No. Pos. Nation Player 17 MF  ARG Franco Moyano 18 DF  ARG Fernando Meza 19 DF  ARG Jonathan Galván 20 DF  ARG Sebastián Prieto 21 MF  ARG Nicolás Oroz 22 MF  ARG Alan Lescano 23 DF  ARG Thiago Santamaría 26 FW  ARG José Herrera 32 FW  ARG Luciano Gondou 50 GK  ARG Diego Rodríguez — DF  ARG Tomás Lecanda (loan from River Plate) — GK  ARG Federico Lanzillota

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  ARG Lucas Chaves (to Panetolikos until 31 December 2025) — DF  ARG Leonel Mosevich (to O'Higgins) — DF  ARG Carlos Quintana (to Rosario Central)

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  ARG Lucas Villalba (to Cruzeiro) — FW  ARG Lucas Ambrogio (to Atlético Tucumán) — MF  ARG Thiago Nuss (to Central Córdoba)

Notable players

This sports-related list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2021)

To appear in this section a player must have played at least 50 games for the club or set a club record. Players in bold are still active.^[10]

Top goalscorers

Rank.	Player	Tenure	Goals
1	Héctor Ingunza	1943–46, 1954	142
2	Diego Maradona	1976–81	116
3	Pedro Pasculli	1980–85	87
4	Rafael Moreno	1971–75, 1979	82
5	Miguel Turello	1938–42	71

Most appearances

Rank.	Player	Tenure	Match.
1	Oscar Di Stéfano	1948–59	333
2	Sergio Batista	1981–88, 1990–91	299
3	Miguel A. Torrén [note 1]	2010–present	286
4	Mario Sciarra	1952–61	279
5	Pascual Di Paola	1923–32, 1935–38	273

Notes

Former coaches

Presidents

Stadium

The club currently plays in the

. The club has had a number of other homes in its history, all based in the city of Buenos Aires.

Nicknames

The club, which is nicknamed Bichos Colorados (Red Bugs), is one of the most prolific sources of football players in Argentina.

or the "Seed Garden".

Honours

National

• Primera División (3): 1984 Metropolitano, 1985 Nacional, 2010 Clausura
• Primera B Nacional (2): 1996–97, 2016–17
• Primera B (3): 1940,^{[note 1]} 1948,^{[note 1]} 1955

International

• Copa Libertadores (1): 1985
• Copa Interamericana (1): 1985

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors.

• Official website
• Argentinos Juniors at the RSSSF
• Argentinos Pasión
• Pasión Paternal