Was a May 1, but it has nothing to do with him Labor Daythe holiday or the socialismwhich would have to do with the club in 1919. It was simply a group of friends who wanted to play soccer and decided to open up from Defensores de Chacarita where they played and form a new club, which they named Chacarita Juniors. And not because of the neighborhood, but simply, in homage to the street where the Lema brothers lived, the soul of that foundation that is 117 years old. That street was called “Chacarita” and today it is Jorge Newbery, a fashionable gastronomic pole among locals and tourists
The club of kids who were less than 20 years old, who only wanted to play football and that they started using a White T-shirt with the shield, were the origin of a club that was the founder and entertainer of professional soccer tournaments, which nurtured the national team with its players, which put on a show when it emerged as first division champion in the 1969 Metropolitan Championship and? danced for Bayern Munich multi-champion of the ’60s and ’70s, today he has a promising present in the First National, seeking to once again rub shoulders with the greats of Argentina.
“New clubs. On the 1st of the current meeting, several young people from the parish of S. Bernardo decided to found a football club that has been called Chacarita Juniors FC. They form their IV team: Manuel Lema, Aristides Ronchieri, Eduardo Terry, M. Lema, Juan Facio , Alfredo Lema, J. Manolon, A. Brazil, C. Jose, B. Antonio, Maximino Lema. Accept challenges for your IV and V team. The secretariat has been located at Chacarita 3728. Mr. Alfredo Fernández has been named honorary president, partners are invited to the meeting that will take place on Tuesday the 15th of this year to elect their board of directors.”
Chacarita Juniors kept the classic and beat Atlanta 3-0
This is how the already disappeared published newspaper Argentina A few days later, on May 12 of that 1906, the news of the birth of Chacarita Juniors, the only document that is preserved, since the official documentation of the club begins with the reorganization of 1919.
José Manuel Lema was a fundamental part of that foundation, and also joined the reorganization that took place years later. In a magazine in favor of the club, years later, he commented on the origins of the institution as follows: “The foundation date was May 1, 1906, carried out by a group of boys who were part of the “Club Atlético Defensores de Chacarita”, later missing. The attitude assumed by them originated in the insouciance of the club authorities towards the lower division clubs, which had no other interest than organizing matches for their first squad. Faced with this situation, they decided to separate from the Defensores de Chacarita club, to create another one in the same neighborhood where they could more effectively develop their enthusiasm for the game of soccer and at the same time be a center of social activity.
According to Lema’s account, “the first meeting was held at the home of Antonio Fernández, who was the first treasurer, and was attended by Messrs. Maximino Lema, Alfredo Juan Lema, Arístides and Domingo Ronchieri, Eduardo and Andrés Ducasse, Miguel Pereyra, Alfredo Palacios ( namesake of the politician to whom he was not related) Manuel Hernández, Juan Faccio, José Fiúdice, Manuel Andrés Lema, José Manuel Lema, JJ Zaffaroni and some others who have vanished from his memory”. The first board of directors was made up of: President, Maximino Lema; Secretary, Alfredo Juan Lema; Treasurer, Antonio Fernández; Members: José Manuel Lema, Eduardo Ducasse, Juan Faccio and Arístides Ronchieri. At this first meeting, it was decided to collect old newspapers in order to raise the necessary money to buy the ball and the inflator. For the arches, the sticks of the subdivision signs were used, since at that time, it was an area that was beginning to be urbanized and many of the streets of what is now the Chacarita neighborhood were not even open.
The day the fans dressed Chacarita
In that first stage, they were all young people between the ages of 16 and 20 and they did not take into account the need to register minutes or pay social contributions. The partners did not exceed 30.
According to what was published by the newspaper “La Argentina”, the first game played was a friendly that took place on Sunday, May 20, 1906 at 2 in the afternoon. The setting was the “field” (English terminology that was still used at the time) of the Victoria Juniors club, which was located on Dorrego y Muñecas, in Villa Crespo, a few meters from where, years later, the two fields that the club had in that neighborhood. Chacarita Juniors had only formed its IV team, that is, it had a team for children under 16 years of age. In that first “match”, Chacarita Juniors formed with Manuel Lema, Arístides Ronchieri, Eduardo Terry, C. José, Juan Facio, M. Lema, Maximino Lema, A. Miguel, A. Brasil, Antonio Fernández, M Hernández; substitute: Alfredo Lema. The result was 0 to 0.
The activity and excitement of those first few days was fabulous. Day by day proposals for challenges appeared with other clubs in the neighborhood. It was always commented how important the club’s seal was when it came to carrying out the challenges, but reading the newspapers of the time, it is understood that it was the newsrooms of the newspapers who demanded that each communication from the clubs be accompanied by the seal. At the time of the 1919 reorganization, that label marked the life and name of Chacarita Juniors. It was gifted to the club by Maximino Lema.
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The second match was played the following Sunday, May 27, on the May 25 field, in Cramer and Ushuaia (it was already called that in that area at that time) and also ended 0-0, although the Chaca kids presented his IV team and those of May 25, the I team, that is, older, and according to the newspaper La Argentina, Chacarita was awarded the victory because his rival withdrew from the game before regulation time.
In early June, Chacarita had also formed the V team, under 15 years old, had established his “field” in Rivera (today Córdoba) and Dorrego, and joined the secretariat of the Lema brothers’ house, at Chacarita (Jorge Newbery) 3728, the address of Castillo 126, where Antonio Fernández lived to receive correspondence.
The jacket used at the beginning was white, with the shield with the club’s initials in the upper left pocket, still far from the tricolor that would appear years later. According to Lema’s story, that first set of shirts was donated by Alfredo Palacios’ sister.
The 114 most curious facts about Chacarita Juniors on its anniversary
In the year of its foundation, Chacarita Juniors was facing challenges with other neighborhood clubs, which was the way to agree matches, through the aforementioned newspaper, showing intense activity, which would increase in 1907 and decline in the following years. Of course, it was about neighborhood challenges and tournaments, still far from the Associations that governed the destinations of Argentine soccer, where River Plate, Boca Juniors, Huracán and many other clubs that still exist played, with others that dissolved or dedicated themselves to other sports and social activities.
Finally, in 1913 a somewhat confusing event occurred, but decisive in the history of Chacarita Juniors. On February 7, it was decided to join the Ferrocarril Central Buenos Aires club, which was a member of the Argentine Football Association, and which played in Villa Lynch, with third division teams (the same ones that had played in the fourth division the previous year). That club had its headquarters at Guevara 535.
According to the story of Miguel Perticone, son of Nicodemo, one of the most enthusiastic reorganizers of Chacarita Juniors in 1919, it would be around those days that the Lema brothers decided to dissolve Chacarita Juniors. In addition to the publication in the newspapers announcing that they were joining another club, they asked for all the shirts that were in the possession of the players and threw the seal of the club at the foot of a tree on the corner of Jorge Newbery and Charlone. But that seal, which was raised by Nicodemo Perticone and kept for years in the drawer of the kitchen table in the mythical Café de la Curva by Julio Arata.
However, despite having joined the FCCBA, Chacarita Juniors continued to have activity and some friendly and league games, although without the fullness that it reached in the reorganization of 1919.
Chacarita Juniors, the only undefeated player in AFA football in 2023
Chacarita Juniors is at the forefront of one of the two zones into which the First National is divided in 2023. Led by Aníbal Biggeri, the tricolor won 6 and drew 6 games, still without defeat. On the last date, they tied as a visitor against Ferrocarril Oeste.
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