Sports

Peñarol, club born out of the railroads 130 years ago

By Federico Anfitti

Montevideo, Sep 27 (EFE).- From the tracks of the English trains that forged the identity of a country, with the colors of gold and coal intermingled for 130 years full of glory, Peñarol, a club that has transcended football, was born.

Peñarol, one of Uruguay’s top two clubs alongside arch-rival Nacional, have bagged five Libertadores cups, three Intercontinental trophies and more than 50 local titles across its 130 years that it turns on Tuesday.

But since its inception, when the institution started with cricket it has been more than a mere club; it provided workers and bosses with a shared identity that was shaped in workshops and wagons.

With a yellow and black jacket, the Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club was born in 1891, before taking its current name in 1913.

The Peñarol neighborhood, Uruguay’s largest industrial estate, still maintains that essence of the first English trains that unified the country and gave life to the club.

Heraldo Yanuzzi, a Peñarol resident who knows every corner of the area, is passionate about its history, the trains and about making clear the importance of this community for the rest of the country.

The arrival of English railways allowed both workers and bosses to settle in the neighborhood. With time and the growth of the site, soccer was spread by the British among the locals.

“Soccer as a sport was brought by the English and they transmitted it to those who were their workers, their employees,” Yanuzzi told Efe.

“People liked it a lot and that is why the CURCC was created as the first organized football team,” added Yanuzzi, a Nacional fan.

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