Formed in 1905 by a group of Italian boys in the La Boca neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Club Atlético Boca Juniors are one of Argentina’s most successful clubs. They are one of only eight teams to win the CONMEBOL treble. Playing in the famous Estadio Alberto J. Armando or more commonly known by La Bombonera (the Chocolate Box) their Superclásico matches against cross-city rivals River Plate are the stuff of legend and appear on most discerning groundhopper’s football bucket lists.
The 49,000 capacity venue gets its nickname from its flat stand running the length of one side of the pitch with three steep stands on the others. A League of Ireland XI played a friendly at the venue in 1978 as a warm up for the hosts in the run up to the World Cup in the country. The pitch is the minimum size under FIFA regulations lending to the incredible atmospheres on match days. Maradona, one of the teams most famous former players, is a huge fan has his own executive box at the stadium.
The club originally played in a white shirt with black pinstripes but varying reports that they might have played in a pink ensemble are unsubstantiated. According to legend, because Boca and Nottingham de Almagro had such similar coloured shirts, a game was played to decide which team got to keep their colours. The Buenos Aires side lost and decided to adopt the colours of the next ship’s flag to enter the port of La Boca. A boat from Sweden can therefore be attributed to the distinctive colours of the famous Argentine club.
Laurel leaves were added to celebrate 50 years since its foundation in 1955 but the shape of the Boca crest has not changed radically since its inception. Since 1970 a new star has been added for each trophy won. For domestic titles it is added above the CABJ initials and for international honours it is added below them in the bottom section. 52 stars appear in the badge at present.
