Estudiantes de La Plata

Club Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "Students from La Plata"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata, is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata.

The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, where it has spent most of its history.

The club is a successful team in Argentina.

The club was founded in 1905 when a group of players and fans decided to break away from Gimnasia de La Plata, which favored indoor sport rather than football.

Matches between the two clubs are known as the Clásico Platense.

Other sports where Estudiantes competes are basketball, team handball, field hockey, golf, swimming, judo, and volleyball.

In 1905, a group of football players and fans in the city of La Plata decided to break away from Gimnasia y Esgrima, the major club in the city, since Gimnasia's management neglected football after the closure of their field on 13th and 71st streets.

Thus, on August 4, 1905, in the shoestore "New York" on 7th Street, between 57 and 58 of the city of La Plata, the club was founded under the name "Club Atlético Estudiantes".

Its first president, Miguel Gutiérrez, was elected on the very same night, when the club charter was drafted by card-carrying member #1, Alfredo Lartigue.

Since its inception, the organization primarily was dedicated to football, but over the years the club expanded and incorporated basketball, handball, field hockey, tennis, swimming and golf, among others.

In those days, teams like Lomas A.C., Quilmes, Belgrano A.C., Estudiantil Porteño, San Isidro and Argentino de Quilmes, among others, faced each other in successive tournaments organized by the Argentine Football Association with Alumni (graduates of the Buenos Aires English High School) being one of the most successful.

The first pitch of the club was located at the intersection of 19th and 53rd streets in La Plata (now Plaza Islas Malvinas), with the first match being played on November 7, 1905, when Estudiantes faced Nacional Juniors from Buenos Aires.

A year later, Estudiantes enrolled in the Associación Amateurs de Football (AAF).

On 28 February 1906 Estudiantes adopted a jersey design of striped red and white, in honor of Alumni, that had won ten championships between 1900 and 1911.

However, during the early years, Estudiantes had to use a red shirt with a white stripe in the chest, because league authorities decided the uniform was too similar to Alumni's.

The stadium on 1st Avenue opened on 25 December 1907.

Estudiantes' first achievement was the 1911 Primera B title which allowed the team to play at the top tier of Argentine football, Primera División.

Just two years later Estudiantes won its first title in Primera, playing at the dissident Federación Argentina de Football (FAF).

That season the team disputed 18 matches, winning 14 with only 1 lost and scoring 64 goals (with an average of 3,55 goals per match).

In 1914 Estudiantes made another great campaign but the team finished second to Porteño.

1919 saw Estudiantes finishing second to champion Boca Juniors although the Association put an end to the tournament with 14 fixtures still to be played.

The Association alleged that "the championship took longer than expected" so it was suddenly finished.

In subsequent years, Estudiantes made irregular campaigns, in some cases finishing at the bottom of the table.

Nevertheless, the team made a great performance in 1928 when finishing third to champion Huracán and Boca Juniors.

The last year of amateur era saw Estudiantes being runner-up to Boca Juniors.

The team totalized 56 points in 35 matches, with 27 won and 7 losses.

Ferreira played for the national team in the 1928 Olympic Games and the 1930 World Cup; Guaita and Scopelli played for Italian national team that won the 1934 FIFA World Cup.

Saúl Calandra, the Sbarra brothers (Raúl and Roberto) and Armando Nery were feared defensive players.

When professionalism was adopted in Argentine football in 1931, Estudiantes had a famous offensive lineup: Miguel Ángel Lauri, Alejandro Scopelli, Alberto Zozaya, Manuel Ferreira and Enrique Guaita, known as Los Profesores ("The Professors"), and still regarded as one of Argentina's all-time finest.

Alberto Zozaya scored the first goal of professional football in Argentina and was the top goalscorer of the first professional tournament.

In 1937, a pioneering lighting system was installed in the stadium, allowing night games to be played.

The 1940s saw the emergence of goalkeeper Gabriel Ogando, and players such as Walter Garcerón, Alberto Bouché, Juan Urriolabeitía, Ricardo Infante, Héctor Antonio, as well as the final seasons of striker Manuel Pelegrina, who remains Estudiantes' all-time top scorer with 221 goals.

Following a confrontation with the Peronist government of Buenos Aires Province, the club's management was removed by authorities (allegedly for refusing to distribute copies of Eva Perón's book to club members) The government-appointed management disbanded the team: top scorers Infante and Pelegrina signed with Huracán.

The decimated team was relegated in 1953, but after the return of Pelegrina (who tricked Huracán by becoming a free agent without the club's consent), Estudiantes was promoted the following year.

The club was allowed to govern itself soon thereafter.

In the 1960s, Miguel Ignomiriello coached the Estudiantes under-19 team known as La Tercera que Mata ("The Killer Juveniles"), which would evolve, with a few acquisitions, into the team coached by Osvaldo Zubeldía that won the 1967 Metropolitano championship.

With this title, Estudiantes became the first club outside the "big five" (Boca Juniors, River Plate, Racing Club, Independiente and San Lorenzo) to obtain a professional title.

In 1967, Estudiantes was the first team outside the traditional "big five" to win a professional league title.

It has won four additional league titles and has had greater international success, having won six international titles.

Estudiantes' international title championships are four Copa Libertadores (including three straight from 1968 to 1970), an Intercontinental Cup, and an Interamerican Cup.