Podcast: The Roots of Argentinian Football

I was in Buenos Aires recently and visited a number of places that I had already written about in my first book, Origin Stories: The Pioneers Who Took Football to the World. In this episode, I was privileged to have access to the British Cemetery in Buenos Aires, the Buenos Aires English High School, where football was pioneered, and spoke to a historian at Quilmes Atlético Club, the oldest club in Argentina that is still playing.

In this podcast, visit the site of the first football match in Argentina, which is marked by a small stone. Rugby and cricket was also played there at the Buenos Aires Cricket Club in the Palermo district. I speak to John Hunter, president of the British Cemetery in Buenos Aires, where many of the pioneers of Argentine football are buried; Estela Alzugaray de Rueda at the Buenos Aires English High School, founded by the ‘father of Argentine football’, Alexander Watson Hutton, originally from Glasgow; and Patricio Minig at Quilmes Atletico Club, the oldest club in Argentina that’s still playing.

We cover:

• Watson Hutton, his club Alumni, and its role in the foundation of what is now the Asociación Argentina de Fútbol (AFA -Argentine Football Association)
• Unsung heroes of early Argentine football, including the Hogg brothers – who organised the first Association rules match in Argentina – and Carlos Dickinson, who scored Argentina’s first international goal
• The influential Brown family and their role in early Argentinian football
• The takeover of ‘criollo’ (local-born)-formed clubs and the decline of British influence
• Quilmes Atlético Club and its role in early Argentine football

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The podcast is sponsored by Pibe de Barrio, the on-the-ground football experts in Buenos Aires, helping you live the Argentine matchday experience.