Last update February 17, 2020 by Javier Argudo
San Lorenzo de Almagro It is one of the most renowned football clubs worldwide. It occupies the third position in the historical classification of Liga Argentina, after Boca Juniors Y River Plate. And it is a so-called "Big 5 Argentina", a select group where the most relevant Argentine clubs are included socially seniority, path or number of followers.
Both the club and their fans are known to own two major nicknames: Cyclone O Cuervo, but also it holds other less common as saints or matadors. But nevertheless, decades was known by another who has fallen into oblivion but links it directly to Spain, San Lorenzo de Almagro was known as "The Spanish club". At present, In our country, San Lorenzo is best known for the amazing support of Pope Francisco, for his defeat in the World Club vs. Real Madrid 2014 or original chants of their fans, la Gloriosa Butt bigotry. It has almost forgotten its historical links with our country.
Not since the Civil War (1936-1939), the fraternal struggle that divided Spain. War in the Basque Country was especially hard, President Aguirre decides to send a team composed by Basque football players to an international tour that would receive outside financial resources and support. Among those selected are real stars of Spanish football: LANG, Regueiro, Gorostiza... which accept the difficult mission leaving family and friends in a critical situation without the certainty of seeing them again. France, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia ... impregnates the journey of despair as the war shifts towards the Franco side. The fall of the city of Bilbao divides the team, a return and others are forced to change continent.
The arrival of the Euzkadi team to America leave an indelible mark on the Continent of Hope. While players expect an international resolution of the Spanish conflict, offering survive playing exhibition matches in various countries. In the season 38/39 Mexican league enroll getting a creditable second place. Time passes and with it, hopes of returning home are lost. No possibility of returning to Spain the personal stories of those Basque players are beginning to scatter across America. Here come a adventure forever San Lorenzo de Almagro with Spain.
You need to understand the course of this story, know the peculiarity of the neighborhood that gave birth to the club San Lorenzo, Boedo. Humble and essentially emigrant, its streets were populated by those European travelers first of the twentieth century who came to Argentina blinded by its cosmopolitan character, including a large community of Spaniards and whose dreams and melancholy would turn Boedo Buenos Aires in the bohemian neighborhood par excellence.
The Cyclone It was then one of the biggest clubs in America and this position will prevail to tempt Basque exiles. First will be the great scorer Isidro Langara, top scorer in the Spanish league 1934, 1935 Y 1936, which he arrives in Buenos Aires; soon she will accompany Angel Zubieta, a young squad of Athletic Bilbao just before the start of the war had made debut with the Spanish team with just 17 years (precocity record that still, almost ninety years later, still in force). Lángara image and Zubieta carried on the shoulders of the Spanish community Boedo on the lawn of the Gasometer He went around the world, as a representation of Franco's repression.
Chance and politics made the bond of affection between Spanish and San Lorenzo de Almagro It is crystallized in an unthinkable Argentine club tour by Spain at a time when the fascist regime asphyxiated in an international blockade ironclad. Peron offered a partnership program Franco, in the middle of the economic and social benefits, Argentine champion would dispute a series of parties in Spain. She wanted her chance to win the championship San Lorenzo.
In December 1946, the rain congratulatory an exultant press, San Lorenzo came to Spain. Play a dozen games at various points of the Iberian Peninsula, facing Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia, Port, even against a combination of Spanish and Portuguese national team players own. Wherever the party disputed, the Cyclone It was received with great expectation and the preliminaries of each of them became a real party. Argentine, eager to return the affection the fans, They jumped to the pitch with a Spanish flag. Random Hearts, this was carried by one of those who had bicolor forced to leave their homeland.
The performance of the Argentine team was brilliant and the tour turned out to be a resounding success that spilled rivers of ink after each of those meetings. But nevertheless, there was not a letter to the eleventh of them and that was, definitely, the most special of all. The 6 of January of 1947, Zubieta, the Spanish captain of the Argentine team led Barca to home, Galdácano, to play a match against neighbors and former colleagues in the field where he started kicking a ball. On that day kings, Zubieta received the most desired gift, the embrace of his mother on the same platform of the small stadium in the so-called "forgotten San Lorenzo party", silenced by a party Franco regime.
San Lorenzo de Almagro leaving Argentina again amazed the Spanish fans of Spain to continue delighting fans Spanish Argentina. Walking and other, He is separating the policy, San Lorenzo he united, for Forever “club de los españoles”.