Estudiantes History

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Description

Estudiantes de La Plata is a club located at La Plata, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.  Among its achievements in football are five international and four local litles. The logo of the club has nine stars to denote these triumphs. Estudiantes was established by university students on August 4, 1905. The students were left out by Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata, as it preferred indoor games to football.
From the onset, the jersey of the club had vertical red & white stripes and black shorts with grey/black socks. The players used to wear blue blazers while entering the ground.
The team opened its stadium on 25 December 1907 at 1st Avenue. 1937 was marked by the installation of a lighting system to enable night-time matches.


 

Introduction of professionalism

The first achievement of the team was the 1913 league title. 1931 saw the introduction of professionalism in football. By then, Estudiantes had formidable attacking squad consisting of Ferreyra, Guayta, Lauri, Scopelli and Zozaya who were commonly called ‘The Professors’. They are still reckoned as finest offence of all time.
The 1950s was the year of goalkeeper Ogando, Garcerón, Bouché, Urriolabeitia, Infante, Antonio coming to limelight and the last days of striker Manuel Pellegrina, who is the all-time top scorer with 221 goals.
Estudiantes was the first club to obtain a professional title apart from the "five greats" (Boca Juniors, River Plate, Racing Club, Independiente, and San Lorenzo).
Estudiantes won the Copa Libertadores de América three years in a row (1968 to 1970), and the 1968 Intercontinental Cup against the powerful Manchester United. It lost the series against A.C. Milan (1969) and Feyenoord (1970). In 1969 the club also won the Inter-american Cup.


 

Returned to the first division

Estudiantes was relegated in 1994 and returned to the first division the next season. In the following years, the club became known the breeding ground for strikers such as Martín Palermo, Luciano Galletti, Bernardo Romeo, Ernesto Farias and Mariano Pavone.
In 2004-2005, under Coach Reinaldo Merlo, Estudiantes finished both the Apertura and the Clausura tournaments in the fourth place. Mariano Pavone was top goalscorer of the 2005 Clausura. On 17 April 2005, Estudiantes de La Plata became the sixth team in Argentina to win 1,000 professional games, coming from behind to defeat Newell's Old Boys 3-2.

The team made history when it came from behind (0-3 at half-time) to win 4-3 against
Peru's Sporting Cristal in a Libertadores match played on 21 February, 2006. Estudiantes defeated Gimnasia by an unprecedented 7-0 score in the derby played October 15 2006, as part of the Apertura tournament, and as part of a string of 10 straight wins (tying the club record). The club finished in first place tied with Boca Juniors (per the Argentine rules, goal difference is not used).
The final was played on December 13, 2006; Estudiantes coming from behind to defeat Boca Juniors 2-1 and thus securing its first premiership title in 23 years. In this tournament, Estudiantes defeated all the "five greats", allowed the least goals, and had three of its players (Pavone, Verón and Braña) rank at the top of sports diary Ole's best player ranking.
Simeone left the team after the 2007 Apertura, in which the team suffered from a significant injury problem and the transfers of Sosa and Pavone. His tenure included one championship title and three wins over Gimnasia y Esgrima. Simeone's (and Verón's) former S.S. Lazio teammate Roberto Sensini was selected as new coach.
 



 

Fan Base


Estudiantes was considerded as the club of the middle class, within the La Plata area while rival side Gimnasia y Esgrima was identified with the working class. Statistics are inconclusive as to which club has the larger following in the city. Estudiantes fans are on friendly terms with most clubs from the South side of Greater Buenos Aires like Quilmes and Temperley who make it to the top divisions. Estudiantes on an international note is friendly with the Uruguayan fan base of Peñarol.


 

Stadium and Training Grounds

 

Project of the new Estudiantes' StadiumJorge Luis Hirschi Stadium is located on 1st Avenue, between 55th and 57th Streets, in central La Plata. Previously it had room for 23,000. For international games, Estudiantes has generally used the Boca Juniors field (La Bombonera).
After a modern stadium was built for the city of La Plata in the 1990s, both Estudiantes and Gimnasia decided initially against relocating their home games. Estudiantes was denied permission for upgrading its stadium that was closed down in September 2005 because of new safety regulations forbidding standing-only wooden stands. A restraining order exempted Estudiantes from the prohibition, but the city government refused to comply, straining the relations between the club and City Hall. As a stopgap measure in 2005 Apertura Estudiantes played its home games in the Gimnasia stadium, and then in the Quilmes field. There, Estudiantes made history with a come-from-behind 4-3 win against Sporting Cristal.

On April 2006 a court decree allowed the re-opening of 1 y 57, but Mayor Julio Alak intervened again to avoid this from happening. Estudiantes contemplated building a new stadium in the port town of Ensenada, a few kilometers east of La Plata, but this idea had a short life: in August 2006, an agreement was reached to rebuild the stands to allow a capacity of 20,000, while the city stadium will be used for games exceeding that capacity. Renovation work on the stadium started in 2007, even though City Hall delayed the demolition from taking place.
The training grounds are in the Country Club premises in City Bell, north of La Plata. These facilities are among the most advanced in Argentina; some upgrades were financed through donations by Juan Sebastián Verón.

 



 

Titles Amateur era


Campeonato de la Federación Argentina de Football: 1913
Segunda División Argentina: 1911
Copa Río de La Plata: 1913


 

Professional era


National titles
Primera División Argentina: Metropolitano 1967 and 1982, Nacional 1983,
Apertura 2006
Segunda división Argentina: Primera "B" 1954, Nacional "B" 1994/95.

International titles
Copa Libertadores de América: Thrice successively 1968, 1969, 1970
Copa Intercontinental: 1968
Copa Interamericana: 1969
FIFA World Cup: 1986

 



 

List of Famous Players


Miguel Angel Lauri (1928~1937),
Alejandro "Conejo" Scopelli (1928~1933),         
Alberto "Don Padilla" Zozaya (1930~1939),
Manuel "El Piloto Olímpico" Ferreira (1924~1933, 1935~1936),
Enrique Guaita (1931~1933, 1938~1940)
Gifted players of the team
Juan Ramón Verón, Right-back Manera

 



 

Top Goalscorers


Manuel Gregorio Pellegrina: 234 goals in 489 matches
Ricardo Roberto Infante: 180 goals in 328 matches
Alberto Máximo Zozaya: 144 goals in 181 matches
Hugo Ernesto Gottardi: 125 goals in 310 matches


Squad

NamePositionGrade FansGroups
Juan Sebastián Verón
Midfield
474
0
Agustín Ignacio Orión
Goal
89
0
Facundo Sebastián Roncaglia
Defense
25
0
Rodrigo Braña
Midfield
29
0
Nelson Fabián Benítez
Defense
2
0
Germán David Ré
Defense
34
0
Agustín Silva
Goal
1
0
Gastón Nicolás Fernández
Offense
1
0
César Omar Taborda
Goal
1
0
Leandro Desábato
Defense
1
0
Federico Fernández
Defense
2
0
Raúl Alejandro Iberbia
Defense
0
0
Leandro Damián Benítez
Midfield
1
0
Enzo Nicolás Pérez
Midfield
3
0
Gabriel Iván Mercado
Defense
2
0
Gabriel Martín Peñalba
Midfield
0
0
Carlos Auzqui
Midfield
0
0
Michael Ryan Hoyos
Midfield
0
0
Darío Gustavo Stefanatto
Midfield
0
0
Matías Ariel Sánchez
Midfield
0
0
Last edited by:
On: August 22, 2009
Version: 11