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This time’s Nostalgia takes us to Buenos Aires, home to hundreds of football clubs, including Sacachispas, whose origin story is as unique as it is fascinating.
Buenos Aires is arguably the most football-centric city in the world. While global giants like River Plate and Boca Juniors dominate headlines, the Argentine capital also boasts countless smaller clubs, each with a rich history. Among these is the lower-league side Sacachispas Futbol Club, a team with one of the most unusual origins in the world of football.
The name Sacachispas, meaning "those who make sparks," was coined by the legendary sports journalist Ricardo Lorenzo, better known by his pen name Borocoto. Writing for the influential sports weekly El Grafico, Borocoto crafted the archetype of the Argentine footballer as a scrappy, unkempt street kid, a description that many later saw as a prophetic depiction of Diego Maradona.
In the late 1940s, when populist leader Juan Peron came to power, Borocoto wrote a series of columns about a fictional group of underprivileged boys who formed the Sacachispas team. The stories gained so much popularity that they inspired the 1948 film Pelota de Trapo ("Rabbit Ball"), in which the fictional Sacachispas team even makes it to the national team.
Reality soon began to mirror fiction. Influenced by Borocoto’s stories, two young men from the working-class neighborhood of Nueva Pompeya, Roberto Gonzalez and Aldo Vazquez, decided to create a real youth team called Sacachispas in October 1948. Borocoto himself supported the initiative and became involved with the club.
The team entered the inaugural Campeonatos Evita, a youth competition founded by Evita Peron to promote sports among boys aged 13 to 15. By 1950, when over 200,000 children were participating in various sports, Sacachispas proved unstoppable, eventually winning the final played at the iconic Monumental Stadium, home of River Plate. After their victory, they were presented with the trophy by Evita Peron herself.
As a reward for their success, President Juan Peron granted the young champions a plot of land in Villa Soldati, where the club’s modest Roberto Larossa pitch still stands. In 1954, Sacachispas officially joined the Argentine Football Association and began competing in the lower leagues.
Despite their cinematic beginnings, Sacachispas never reached the first division. Their highest point came in 2022, when they played in the second division (Primera Nacional), but they currently compete in the third tier (Primera B Metropolitana), struggling near the bottom of the table.
The club’s stadium, located in the far south of Buenos Aires, feels worlds apart from the bustling city center. Hidden beneath an unfinished overpass near shantytowns, the pitch is accessed via a potholed dirt road. Horses graze nearby, and behind a low white wall lie a few concrete stands and a small shack marked "Secretaria"—the club’s administrative office. This modest setup is all that remains of Sacachispas’ grandiose beginnings tied to Peronist propaganda.
As for the Campeonatos Evita, the competitions endured a turbulent history. They were first abolished in 1955 after Peron’s fall, revived in 1973 during his return to power, and canceled again in 1976 following a military coup. The games finally returned in 2003 as the Juegos Deportivos Nacionales Evita, and continue to be held annually.