CA Peñarol: Uruguayan giants
Club Atletico Peñarol is a Uruguayan professional sports club based in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay. Though it takes part in multiple sports like Basketball, Cycling and Rugby just to name a few, it is most well-known for its football team. The club was founded in 1891 and it is named after the Peñarol neighbourhood on the outskirts of Montevideo. Peñarol share a fierce rivalry with Nacional. Matches between these two clubs are often called ‘Uruguayan Clasico’. In fact, this rivalry is the oldest outside the British Isles. Peñarol, along with Nacional, have never been relegated from the top flight of Uruguayan football.
Peñarol is the most successful club in the top tier of Uruguayan club football having won the Primera Division a record 50 times, most recently in 2018. Peñarol is also the most successful Uruguayan club in the Copa Libertadores with 5 titles to their name which makes them the 3rd most successful club in the history of the Copa Libertadores behind Independiente and Boca Juniors. In fact, the inaugural Copa Libertadores in 1960 was won by Peñarol. However, their last victory in the tournament came way back in 1987. Peñarol have also finished as runners-up in the Libertadores 5 times, most recently in 2011. They also are the joint most successful team along with Uruguayan rivals Nacional, Boca Juniors, AC Milan and Real Madrid in the former Intercontinental Cup. Each of these teams won 3 Intercontinental Cups each. Other achievements of the club include being awarded the South American Club of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS). Peñarol finished ahead of Independiente in 2nd place and arch-rivals Nacional in 3rd place.
Peñarol has always made a big benefaction to Uruguayan national team. There were 5 players in the Uruguay squad that won the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930 (Jules Rimet Trophy). That number went up to 9 in the 1950 FIFA World Cup which Uruguay won shocking the favourites and hosts Brazil in a match known as Maracanazo (Agony of Maracanã). Three of those included the captain Obdulio Varela and the goalscorers of the final, Juan Alberto Schiaffino and Alcides Ghiggia. Recently, the likes of Darwin Nunez, Nahitan Nandez, Facundo Pellistri and Federico Valverde have played for Peñarol.
Peñarol have always been a very successful club in Uruguay. However, they last tasted continental success in 1987 as mentioned above. If they are to succeed in the continental level, they will need to step up their level of football in order to compete with the Brazilian and Argentine clubs.
