Ascent to 3rd league
© Deutscher/Marcelo Seghpoian
There are many German football clubs, but only the German football club in Uruguay. The club from the capital Montevideo has disappeared from the football map for over 100 years, now it starts again. With the promotion to the third -class Primera División Amateur, the Teutones made the first big step.
One would probably call Germans – according to the common short form – today as a traditional club if it would not have disappeared in the sinking for a century. The story begins in 1896 with the foundation by German emigrants in Montevideo. After the Albion FC and Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club (both 1891), from which the record champion Cañarol later emerged, the third oldest football club Uruguays is German.
The Trio and the Uruguay Athletic Club, which was created two years later, founded the Uruguayian Football Association in 1900 and formed the field of participants in the first national championship. German landed in last place with just one win from six games. The team was provided by the German tram company Transátlantica a sports field in the Gran Parque Central, where today the Top-Club of the same name is Nacional.
Deutscher achieved the best result in the slowly growing championship in 1902 and 1903 with third place, which had to suspend in 1904 due to the civil war. After that, the club changed its statutes and opened for non -German Uruguayers. The club name was subsequently changed in Sport Club Teutonia and 1906 in Centro Atlético Montevideo.
The Creole influence increased more and more, such as the jersey: the white gap was added to thin, blue vertical stripes, as can also be found horizontally on the Uruguay flag. In the championship, however, the club only landed in the back seats. After ninth out of eleven jumped out in 1909, the club no longer competed next season. Nothing is known about the reasons for the disappearance, the club was completely forgotten – for 110 years.
German football club back in Uruguay after 110 years
In 2019 the idea came up in Montevideo to revive the third oldest club Uruguays. Due to the Corona pandemic, however, the procedure lasted over a good two years. Although the history of the team was put in the foreground right from the start, there was no direct connection to the former German football club or a connection to German emigrants after such a long time. In 2021, the successor association, which himself was titled, was one of eight clubs, which was approved by the Uruguayan Football Association for the newly implemented, fourth -class divisional D, the second division in the amateur area.
“New beginnings, same ideas,” wrote the club in its first social media articles and himself described it as “returning one of the pioneers of Uruguayian football”. The German Football Club will “rise again as Phoenix from the ashes.” The posts were provided with the hashtags “Vamos Teutones” and “Come Germanic”. The club colors are the same today as before: red, white and black, removed from the flag of the German Empire. The logo also adorns the blue stripes known from formerly.
However, the jerseys have changed. At the beginning, the team went to the pitch in the black dress, the colors of Germany have long since come to the fore. The white home jersey has a large black-red-gold strip on the chest. The away jerseys are traditionally in green due to the German national team due to the DFB logo.
The premiere year, in which no climb was yet possible, ran sobering for Germans with that in the preliminary round. In 2022 it went on a round, but only the last place jumped out. In 2023 it was just over in the preliminary round, but last year not only the jump into the playoffs, but Germans prevailed in mid -December in the final against Paso de la Arena with 5: 1 and 0: 0 and celebrated the promotion to the 3. League.
German football club wants to go back to 1st league as a founding member
The long-term goal is to re-establish the club in professional football, those responsible explain to TM demand. This also goes hand in hand with the establishment of a youth department, at least one U19 and U17. Of course, it is also about “sporty goals such as the fight for the promotion that we have reached from the 4th league. And this year we want to reach the climb from the 3rd to the 2nd league. ” The CSD Cooper can serve as a model, which was the first promoted from the divisional D 2022 to march through the Liga de Ascenso. In the past season, only two points were missing to stay in the league.
For the big plans, Germans already have some players with first and second division experience in the ranks. The first newcomer after the climb also illustrates the ambitions again: Mittelfeldroutinier Lucas Tamareo came from the first division relegation Rampla Juniors FC. The 33-year-old can look back on 142 missions in the Uruguayan Oberhaus and also played internationally in the Copa Sudamericana.
German also focuses on young, capable of development. “We also want to be a breeding ground for players for players,” explains the club, who recently brought the first player to Europe to Bulgarian first division team Beroe Stara Zagora with striker Gianluca Colla (24). “We are proud of (…) and also that several players who have gone through the Germans are now playing at a professional and international level.” The Colombian central defender Geiner Martínez (22) switched to the second division club Ca Juventud around last summer and directly managed to promote the league.
However, the high football density for Germans is added to Germans in the Uruguayan capital. 21 of the 30 professional clubs are currently playing in Montevideo. Unlike the majority of German, Germans does not represent a certain district or area, which restricts the possibilities of gaining a larger fan base. Last year, the home games took place in the Estadio Charrúa and Completejo Rentstas, which were almost 15 kilometers and a good 40 minutes by car.
By the way, the Uruguayers are not all alone with their project. The German Football Club Prague, 1903 first runner-up in German football and in 1939 as a “Jewish club” and was banned and dissolved, was founded in 2016 by a group of Germans after 77 years. So far, however, the association from the Czech capital has only participated in the game with youth teams.