El Clásico Uruguayo: The Roots of South America’s Oldest Derby

Between them, Peñarol and Nacional have won 98 of the 116 Uruguayan championships contested since the league’s launch in 1900. This is the story of how the oldest derby in South America.

The Estadio Centenario in Montevideo is a fitting venue for one of the world’s most historic fixtures. This art deco marvel was built for the 1930 World Cup, but as Uruguay’s national stadium, it is also the venue of the country’s fiercest and longest-running rivalry – El Clásico del Fútbol Uruguayo – The Uruguayan Football Classic.

Uruguay’s two giants first met in July 1900, well before many other great club rivalries in Spain, Argentina, Italy and elsewhere. Madrid Football Club – now Real Madrid – first met FC Barcelona in 1902 in the Spanish capital at the Copa de la Coronación (Coronation Cup), the precursor to the Copa del Rey. In Buenos Aires, Boca Juniors and River Plate did not compete against each other until 1908. In the same year over in Italy, Internazionale span out of Milan Cricket and Football Club, now AC Milan. The first Derby della Madonnina between the two Milan clubs took place later that year.

Why is Uruguay’s big derby older than these other intense rivalries?

The Roots of Uruguayan football

A football culture had developed in Uruguay and Argentina in the late 19^th century thanks largely to British industrialists and the schools that the British community established. By 1891, there was already a football league up and running in Buenos Aires – the first outside Britain and Ireland. However, the participating clubs would eventually fade away or pivot to playing rugby as locally formed clubs rose to prominence in the 1900s to eclipse the foreign founded sides.

In Uruguay, the origin story of football is similar, but – unlike in Argentina – its oldest clubs still remain, providing us with one of the world’s oldest derbies.

Club Atlético Peñarol started life as the footballing arm of the Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club (CURCC) on 28 September 1891, making it the second-oldest football club in Uruguay after Albion FC. While many British-founded sporting establishments around the world had been exclusive to British expats, CURCC was open to all from the off, and its members included local-born Uruguayans and Germans, as well as British railway workers.

The football club span out of CURCC completely in 1914 and took its name Peñarol from the district of Montevideo that it was based in. Its iconic yellow and black stripes were inspired by the colours of Stephenson’s Rocket, the world’s first train. Nacional fans have contacted me to say that Peñarol is a different entity to CURCC but a Uruguayan historian I spoke to says that they are a sociological continuation if not a legal one.

Club Nacional de Football was founded on 14 May 1899 by members of two early pioneer clubs, Montevideo Football Club and Uruguay Athletic Club. Significantly, Nacional was the first Uruguayan football club formed by local-born criollos at a time when the leading clubs were foreign-run. 

The first Uruguayan football championship was run in 1900 without Nacional. It was won by CURCC, the first of 50 national titles won by the club now known as Peñarol. Around the same time, Nacional’s match ball inflator, Miguel Prudencio Reyes Viola, made a name for himself on the touchline shouting ‘¡Arriba Nacional!’ in the austere environment of British-run football. Reyes became known as el hinchador – the puffer – and the term hincha is now ensconced in the Spanish language for football fan. 

One City, Two Giants

At the time of writing (April 2021), the Uruguayan duopoly of Nacional and Peñarol has claimed 84.4% of all Uruguayan championships. At a continental level, Peñarol has won five Copa Libertadores, although not since 1987, while Nacional has three.

Because of its large capacity, the Estadio Centenario hosts the Clásico Uruguayo, although both clubs have their own home stadiums. Nacional’s ground is the historic Gran Parque Central, built in 1900 and also a venue at the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930, while Peñarol moved into its new Estadio Campeón del Siglo (Champion of the Century Stadium) in 2016. The stadium is so named because of Peñarol’s top ranking as South America’s best-performing club by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS). Nacional came third.

For South America’s smallest country after Suriname, Uruguay has truly punched way above its weight at both club and national team level.

You can learn more about the roots of Uruguayan football in my new book Origin Stories: The Pioneers Who Took Football to the World – out now via Pitch Publishing.