 | ||||
| Full name | Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicknames | El Bicho (The Bug) El Semillero del Mundo (World's Seedbed) El Tifón de Boyacá (The Boyacá Typhoon) | |||
| Founded | 15 August 1904; 121 years ago (1904-08-15) | |||
| Ground | Estadio "Bumeran" Diego Armando Maradona | |||
| Capacity | 26,000 | |||
| Chairman | Cristian Malaspina | |||
| Manager | Nicolás Diez | |||
| League | Primera División | |||
| 2024 | 23rd | |||
| Website | argentinosjuniors | |||
 Current season | ||||
Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors is an Argentinesports club based inLa Paternal, Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for itsfootball team, which currently plays in theArgentine Primera División, and was recognized as one of the most important football teams ofSouth America byFIFA.[1] It is one of the eight Argentine first division teams that have won theCopa Libertadores. The continental trophy was won in the club's first entry to the contest, in1985.[2][3]
Nevertheless the most remarkable sign of Argentinos Juniors has been the talented players emerged from its youth divisions, withDiego Maradona as the greatest example of all.[4][5] This earned the club the nicknamesemillero del mundo ("seedbed of the world").[6][7] As a result, it has been described as "one of Argentina's most distinctive football clubs".[8][9]
The club was founded in theVilla Crespo neighbourhood ofBuenos Aires on 14 August 1904, by a group ofanarchist boys that were part of club "Mártires de Chicago" (chosen in homage to the eight anarchists imprisoned or hanged after the 1886Haymarket Riot in Chicago).[10] Leandro Ravera Bianchi was named president of the recently created club.
The club immediately adopted the red and white colors as an homage to deputyAlfredo Palacios, the first congressman elected from theSocialist Party in Argentina. The club affiliated itself with the Liga Central de Football, a minor league in which small clubs and companies took part. 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 inVilla Ballester, returning to their neighborhood of origin in 1907. After a brief stint inVilla Urquiza, the club returned toCaballito, later moving to Fraga and Estomba streets inVilla Ortúzar. In 1909, Argentinos gained affiliation with theArgentine Football Association, but in 1912 the club was involved in the first schism inArgentine 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 withEl 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 the1922 season, where Argentinos finished 6th.
In 1925, the Argentinos Juniors moved to its current location inLa Paternal neighborhood, acquiring land at San Martín Avenue and Punta Arenas Street and building a stadium with a capacity of 10,000. With the new stadium finished, Argentinos Juniors was runner-up in1926 behind championsBoca Juniors. 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.
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 unifiedfirst division. As part of this move, Argentinos Juniors were unified withClub Atlético Atlanta, 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 the2nd division,[11] 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 championsIndependiente. Although the team didn't win the championship, it is fondly remembered by those old enough to have seen them play.[12] In the following years the team did not live up to expectations, rarely finishing in the top half of the table.
1967 saw the introduction of theMetropolitano andNacional 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 travelingTalleres de Córdoba fans witnessed probably the most important debut in the history of Argentine football. With Argentinos losing 1–0 the manager, Juan Carlos Montes sent on a fifteen-year-old debutant namedDiego Armando Maradona making him the league's youngest ever player until his record was broken bySergio Agüero in 2003. Argentinos lost the game but Diego went on to propel the club forward over the next four years and to achieve great successes with other clubs and theArgentina national team. In the1979 Metropolitano Diego became the youngest topscorer in the history of Argentine football with 14 goals, he went on to becometop scorer in the following three tournaments, matchingJosé Sanfilippo'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 toBoca 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 overSan 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 ofÁngel Labruna, he had brought in a new group of players a new system of play and moved them to theEstadio Ricardo Etcheverry ofFerro Carril Oeste to give the team a wider pitch to play on. The team were making good progress, they had made it to the semi-finals of the Nacional and were in the middle of the Metropolitano when Labruna died suddenly on 20 September 1983, the team held themselves together under new managerRoberto Saporiti for a mid table finish. They then made it to the quarter-finals of the Nacional in1984.
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 theCopa Libertadores in1985.
Saporiti was replaced as manager byJosé Yudica who had worked wonders in previous seasons including leading unfashionableQuilmes Atlético Club to the Metropolitano championship in 1978 and rescuing San Lorenzo from the 2nd division at the first time of asking. The Nacional championship of 1985 was the last, and featured by far the most complicated structure in the history of the Argentine Primera. Once the competition reached the knockout stage, the eliminated teams got another chance to play on in the losers knockout. Argentinos won the winners group with a 4–2 penalties win againstVélez Sársfield 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.
The1985 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 withBrazilian teamsFluminense andVasco da Gama. 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 andclub Blooming ofBolivia. Argentinos progressed thanks to a 2–1 win inIndependiente's stadium in the last fixture of the group.
Thefinal was againstAmérica de Cali ofColombia, after a 1–0 home win each, the final went to a deciding game inAsunción, Paraguay. The game finished 1–1 and Argentinos won 5–4 onpenalties. 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:Enrique Vidallé,Carmelo Villalba,José Luis Pavoni,Jorge Olguín,Adrián Domenech,Emilio Commisso,Sergio Batista,Mario Videla, "Pepe" Castro,Claudio Borghi, Carlos Ereros. The team was coached byJosé Yudica.
In 1985 Argentinos Juniors represented South America in theIntercontinental Cup againstJuventus 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 theCopa Interamericana againstDefence Force ofTrinidad 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, behindRiver 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 againstRacing 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 theApertura 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.
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 managerOsvaldo 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 the2nd division before returning in2004 through aplayoff withTalleres de Córdoba 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 in2005 by beatingAtlético de Rafaela in aplayoff. The following season it survived aplayoff againstHuracán. The2006–2007 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 the2008 Copa Sudamericana. The team eventually progressed to the semi-final where it was eliminated byEstudiantes de La Plata overtwo legs despite beating them 5–0 in the league game which was sandwiched between the cup ties.
In June 2009, former star playerClaudio 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 the2010 Clausura championship, 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 theEstadio Tomás Adolfo Ducó.
After the 2010 Clausura, Borghi stepped down as coach and was replaced byPedro Troglio. The 2010 Apertura was a poor tournament overall, finishing 13th in the table. With the 2010 Clausura title, Argentinos qualified directly to the 2011 Copa Libertadores group stage. Their first game was a 2-2 draw againstFluminense in Rio de Janeiro. After winning two additional matches, the team went on to lose their next three. The final game, a 2–4 home defeat to Fluminense that sealed their elimination, was marred by an infamous brawl at the end.[13] However, the team had a good campaign in the 2011 Apertura, finishing 5th and qualifying to the 2011 Copa Sudamericana.
The teams results started to worsen in the 2012 Apertura, with the team finishing 16th with 19 points. The 2013 Torneo Final was worse, with the team finishing 18th of 20. In the following tournament, the 2013 Torneo Inicial, things improved, with the team finishing 13th. Things did not improve in the 2014 Torneo Final, with the team finishing 19th and being relegated to thePrimera B Nacional in April 2014.
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 theArgentine Football Association did not allow Argentinos Juniors to register a red uniform due to it having been previously adopted byClub Atlético Independiente.[14]
        1904–17 |  1917–present[note 1] |
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
|
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
|
 |
To appear in this section a player must have played at least 50 games for the club or set a club record. Players inbold are still active.[17]
Óscar Di Stéfano (1921–59) Héctor Ingunza (1943–46) Héctor Pederzoli (1953–59)Orlando Nappe (1956–59)Osvaldo "Chiche" Sosa (1966–68, 1970–71)José Pekerman (1970–74)Carlos Fren (1973–78) Carlos Barone (1974–76)Óscar Quintabani (1974–76)Ricardo Giusti (1979 –80)Quique Wolff (1979 –81)Diego Maradona (1976–81)Pedro Pasculli (1980–85)Sergio Batista (1981–88, 1991)Claudio "Bichi" Borghi (1981–86)Adrián Domenech (1982–87)Mario Videla (1982–87)Carmelo Villalba (1982–88) Carlos Ereros (1982–89)
Armando Dely Valdés† (1983–88)Ubaldo Fillol (1983–84)
Renato Corsi (1983–87)José Antonio Castro (1983–87) Ángel Landucci (1983)José Luis Pavoni (1983–88)Juan José López (1984–86)Carlos Morete (1984–86)Jorge Pellegrini (1984–87)Enrique Vidallé (1984–87)Emilio Commisso (1984–88)Jorge Olguín (1984–88)Néstor Lorenzo (1985–89)Fernando Redondo (1985–90)Fernando Cáceres (1986–91, 2006–07)Carlos MacAllister (1986–92)Julio Olarticoechea (1987–88)Oscar Dertycia (1988–89)
Ramiro Castillo (1988–90)Fernando Cáceres (1988–92, 2006–07)Diego Cagna (1988–92)Roberto Mogrovejo (1989–93)Leonel Gancedo (1990–96)Cristian Traverso (1991–94)Juan Gomez (1991–95)Christian Dollberg (1992–94)
Faryd Mondragón (1993–94)Leonardo Mas (1993–97)Jorge Quinteros (1993–97, 1998–99, 2003–04, 2006)Juan Pablo Sorín (1994–95)
Líber Vespa (1994–98)
Eduardo Bennet (1995–99, 2000)Raul Sanzotti (1995–03)Diego Placente (1995–97, 2012–2013)Esteban Cambiasso (1995–96)Rolando Schiavi (1996–01)Fabián Garfagnoli (1996–02)
Hugo Brizuela (1997–99)Marcelo Pontiroli (1997–99, 2005–07)Cristian Ledesma (1997–99, 2006, 2014–2016)Federico Insúa (1997–02, 2016)Mariano Herrón (1998–02)Fernando Zagharián (1998–02)Facundo Pérez Castro (1999–07)Pablo De Muner (2000–07)Ariel Seltzer (2000–08)Pablo Barzola (2001–03, 2006–08, 2011–2014)Gastón Machín (2002–05, 2016-)Leonardo Pisculichi (2002–05, 2014)Leandro Fleitas (2003–06, 2007–08)Lucas Barrios (2003–04)Nicolás Pareja (2004–06)Lucas Biglia (2004–05)Julio Barroso (2004–05)Franco Niell (2004–07, 2010–11)Nicolás Navarro (2004–07, 2010–11)Néstor Ortigoza (2004–11)Gustavo Oberman (2004–05, 2006–07, 2009–12)Juan Manuel Martínez (2005–06)Leonel Núñez (2005–07, 2012–13)Matías Caruzzo (2006–10, 2014)Gabriel Hauche (2006–10)Álvaro Pereira (2007–08)Andrés Scotti (2007–09)Juan Mercier (2007–11)Gonzalo Prósperi (2006–12)Juan Sabia (2007–12, 2014)Sergio Escudero (2007–08, 2010–12)Gabriel Peñalba (2007–09, 2012)Nicolas Pavlovich (2008–10)Andrés Romero (2008–12)
Nicolás Peric (2009–10)Facundo Coria (2009–10, 2013–2014)Ismael Sosa (2009–10)Santiago Raymonda (2009–10)Federico Dominguez (2009–11)German Basualdo (2009–12, 2014)Ciro Rius (2009–12, 2013, 2014)José Luis Calderón (2010)Santiago Gentiletti (2010–11)Emilio Hernandez (2010–12)Matias Laba (2010–13)Luis Ojeda (2010–2015)Miguel Torren (2010–)Santiago Salcedo (2011)Juan Ramirez (2011–2014)Lucas Rodriguez (2011–2016)Pablo Hernandez (2011–13)Nicolás Freire (2012-)Gaspar Iñiguez (2012–2015)Reinaldo Lenis (2013-2015)Juan Román Riquelme (2014)Luciano Cabral (2014-2016)Nicolás González (footballer, born 1998) (2016-2018)Alexis Mac Allister (2016-2019)
| 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 |
| 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 |
Ramón Muttis (1940)Francisco Fandiño (1955)Carlos Cavagnaro (1969)Oswaldo Panzuto (1970)Osvaldo "Chiche" Sosa (1970–71), (1974)Francisco Cornejo (1976)José Varacka (1981)Osvaldo "Chiche" Sosa (1981)Juan Carlos Lorenzo (1981)Ángel Labruna (1981–84)Roberto Saporiti (1984)José Yudica (1985–86)Roberto Saporiti (1986)Roberto Fleitas (1987)Jorge Olguín (1988)José Yudica (1991–92)Patricio Hernández (1992)Osvaldo "Chiche" Sosa (1992–94)Luis Garisto (1994)Roberto Saporiti (1995–96)Carlos Fren (1996)Jorge Olguín (1996)Osvaldo "Chiche" Sosa (1997–00)Jorge Solari (1 July 2001–30 June 02)Ricardo Rezza (1 July 2002–30 Dec 02)Ricardo Gareca (3 Jan 2003–30 Dec 03)Sergio Batista (1 Jan 2004–30 June 04)Osvaldo "Chiche" Sosa (2004–05)Gregorio Pérez (1 Aug 2005–16 July 06)Adrián Domenech (2006)Ricardo Caruso Lombardi (1 Jan 2007–31 Aug 07)Néstor Gorosito (10 Sept 2007–31 Dec 08)Claudio Vivas (22 Dec 2008–25 May 09)Claudio Borghi (26 May 2009–30 June 10)Pedro Troglio (6 June 2010–18 Sept 11)Néstor Gorosito (20 Sept 2011–28 Feb 12)Jorge Borelli(interim) (28 Feb 2012–1 March 12)Leonardo Astrada (1 March 2012–4 Nov 12)Carlos Mayor(interim) (6 Nov 2012–21 Nov 12)Gabriel Schurrer (15 Nov 2012–22 Feb 13)Ricardo Caruso Lombardi (13 March 2013–11 Dec 13)Claudio Borghi (1 Jan 2014–24 Oct 2014)Nestor Gorosito (30 Oct 2014–30 Nov 2015)Carlos Alberto Mayor (10 Dic 2015–4 Mar 2016)Raúl Celis Sanzotti (4 Mar 2016–28 Apr 2016)Gabriel Heinze (20 Jun 2016–31 Jul 2017)Alfredo Berti (4 Aug 2017–)[18]The club currently plays in theEstadio Diego Armando Maradona which is also often referred to asLa Paternal after theLa Paternal district ofBuenos Aires where the club is based. The stadium was named afterDiego Maradona because he started his career in the Argentinos youth team. Between 1983 and 2003 Argentinos had a groundshare withFerro Carril Oeste atEstadio Ricardo Etcheverry. The club has had a number of other homes in its history, all based in the city of Buenos Aires.
The club, which is nicknamedBichos Colorados (Red Bugs), is one of the most prolific sources of football players in Argentina.Diego Maradona,Fernando Redondo,Juan Román Riquelme andAlexis Mac Allister being some of the most famous players who began their career at the club. This ability to keep producing world class players has given them the nicknameEl Semillero, meaning theNursery or the "Seed Garden".
| General | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venues | |||||
| Seasons | |||||
| Matches |
| ||||
