Club Athletico Newell’s Old Boys is a popular football team from Rosario, Argentina, founded in 1903. It was named by ex-pupils of the English High School of Rosario, in homage to its director and football coach, English immigrant Isaac Newell. Newell’s Old Boys has an historic rivalry with Rosario Central, the other club from Rosario.
The team colors are black and red, from the flags of Great Britain and Germany (Isaac Newell being British and his wife German), and are often referred to as leprosos (lepers) because they promoted a charity match to raise funds for a leprosy clinic back in the 1920s.
Newell’s Old Boys have won the Argentine Championship five times (Metropolitano 1974, 1987/88, 1990/91, Clausura 1992 and Apertura 2004), and was the Sub-Champion of the Copa Libertadores de América twice (1988 and 1992). The 1990/91 Championship was disputed between the 1990 Apertura (Newell’s) and 1991 Clausura (Boca Juniors) Champions, which Newell’s won in home-and-away matches. Even though the 1990 Clausura was not considered official by itself, it is considered by Newell’s supporters to be their “sixth†championship.
Newell’s won also a mini-tournament called Little World Cup in 1988, against River Plate, Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid and Manchester United, and is, together with Boca Juniors, San Lorenzo and Racing, one of the few Argentine clubs that made a long and successful tour over Europe (in 1941), in which they defeated several important teams, like Valencia, Borussia, Real Madrid and the Spanish National “A†Team. These are the only major international achievements of the club until now (although several minor international summer tournaments were won).
Newell’s Old Boys leads all Argentine clubs in victories in the Rosario League (42), the Reserva tournaments (16), the Inferiores Young National Tournaments (78), the Latinoamerican U-17 Championships (5) and the Youth World Cups F.I.F.A. aka Nike Cup (1).
Newell’s Old Boys is one of a very few teams to have had all their players represent the National team in a single game (another is Queen’s Park of Scotland whose first team represented Scotland in the very first International match against England), when they represented Argentina in a Pre-Olympic Tournament with their non-defeated Reserva Team. It classified third all over America, after Brazil and Uruguay.
The team has also contributed an important number of players to the Argentina national team, and exported many players to Europe’s top leagues, mostly to Italy and Spain. Among its great players: Gabriel Batistuta, Balbo, Jorge Valdano, Gallego, Zanabria, Dezotti, Sensini, Samuel, Pochettino, Pontoni, Martino, Perucca and several more.
Its president and manager is Eduardo J. López and its coach is former player Arsenio Ribeca (following the resignation of Américo Rubén Gallego after obtaining the 2004 Apertura title).