While Brazilian and Argentinian football have dominated most of the spotlight and fame when it comes to South American football and its global impact, it is a fact that Uruguayan football has had a historic influence predating its counterparts in Brazil and Argentina by decades. Football is the world’s leading sport on the South American continent, the rest of the world, and even at the Olympics. Football in Uruguay has a rich history that spans over a century, with the country winning many continental, international and Olympic titles, rivalling Brazil and Argentina and even surpassing them during certain eras. The strength of the Uruguayan Primera Division has played a major role in enabling the national team to win many international titles. Uruguay’s population is much smaller than most South American countries, but it has produced strong clubs that have fiercely competed for titles on the continent and gained widespread support. The Uruguayan Primera Division began in 1900 and is one of the oldest leagues in the world. Since the start of the league, the historic Peaarol and Nacional clubs established their dominance over the competition, with the former holding the current record for the number of championship titles won with 51, compared to 49 titles for Nacional. No other club has come close to them in terms of the number of titles, with those in third place in the championship’s golden register having won only four titles. Throughout its history, the championship has produced many stars who have played in Uruguayan stadiums and on the world stage, leaving legacies of professionalism in Europe, such as Diego Forlan, Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez, while others may not have received the same level of fame but also left distinctive marks, such as 71-year-old former Peaarol striker Fernando Morena. Despite Morena’s short professional career with both Rayo Vallecano and Valencia in Spain, as well as with Boca Juniors in Argentina, he achieved many successes with the Peaarol team, where he won the league title six times, as well as two Copa Libertadores and an Intercontinental Cup. Morena also won the Copa America with the Uruguay national team in 1983 and established himself as the all-time top scorer in the history of the Uruguayan league. At a continental level, Uruguayan clubs have won a good share of titles, including eight championships in the Copa Libertadores, ranking third on the list of the competition’s most successful clubs, after Argentinian clubs with 25 titles and Brazilian clubs with 22 titles. Peaarol is third on the list of teams with the most championship titles, with five, compared to seven for Argentina’s Independiente and six for Boca Juniors. Nacional has also won three titles for Uruguay in this prestigious continental championship. At the international level, the Uruguay national team, wearing their iconic “sky blue” jersey, has even surpassed its club counterparts, winning the first edition of the Copa America in 1916, becoming the first team among 15 to win the title, and sharing the top position in the list with the Argentine national team in terms of the most titles. The Uruguayan national team won the Copa America six times in the championship’s first ten editions. The 1920s and 1930s were a golden age for the Uruguayan national team, when it won the gold medal in football at the 1924 and 1928 Olympics, becoming the first South American team to win the Olympic title. The team’s achievements on the Olympic stage supported the establishment of the World Cup. FIFA granted Uruguay the right to host the first edition of the World Cup in 1930 in appreciation of its Olympic success in the 1920s. The Uruguayan national team took advantage of this, marking its name with a golden record in the World Cup by winning the title on home soil in 1930 after defeating Argentina in the final. The Uruguayan team also reclaimed the world title in the edition hosted by Brazil in 1950, winning the championship in one of the biggest shocks in the history of the game at the final of the tournament held in a league format against the Brazilian team and against a hostile home crowd at the famous MaracanaPound Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian team only needed a draw to be crowned world champions for the first time in its history, but the Uruguayan team snatched victory and won the title. Over the past two decades, Uruguay also provided another golden generation to world football, which many consider the best in the team’s history. Led by their famous coach ascar Tabarez and with outstanding players such as Suarez, Forlan, Diego Lugano and Diego Godin, the team reached the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and won fourth place. Forlan also won the “Golden Ball” award during the tournament, and the team had more than one player in the list of top scorers. Despite the retirement of stars from this generation, the Uruguay team is on course for another golden generation in the coming years, led by Federico Valverde of Real Madrid and Ronald Araujo of Barcelona.

Source: Emirates News Agency