The Sport Boys are historically considered the fourth most prominent club of Peruvian football with 6 national titles and the most continental appearances after Lima's big three clubs, Universitario, Sporting Cristal and Alianza Lima. Their most recent title was in 1984, where they beat Colegio Nacional Iquitos to qualify for the 1985 Copa Libertadores. This was the first title in the professional era of Peru's top flight.[1]
The Boys' original uniform had red and yellow stripes before they switched to the current pink and black color scheme. They are also the first football club in Peru to feature cheerleading.
History
Foundation
The Sport Boys Association was founded on 28 July 1927 by a group of young football fans in Callao, who wanted to help one Gualberto Lizárraga start his own club. The day before Independence Day in Peru, 27 July, the group held a meeting, sang the national anthem and at midnight proclaimed the club's foundation, with Lizárraga as president.
Golden age
The Sport Boys in 1950
The Sport Boys participated in the Provincial League of Lima and Callao from 1929 to 1932 (finishing third in 1930 and runners-up in both 1931 and the 1932 Intermediate Division), managing to ascend to the first category of national football, called the Honor Division at that time. A few years after being promoted to the Peruvian Primera División, they won their first national title, winning the 1935 Peruvian Primera División undefeated, eight points ahead of their closest competitor. Two years later, the club won the First Division again in 1937 and the year after became runners-up after losing to Universitario. They went trophyless until 1942 with yet another league title.
In 1951, after having finished second the year before, the Sport Boys won their first national league title in the professional era and their fourth overall. In 1958, Marcos Calderón became their as head coach. He would bring the Boys to win their fifth title in 1958 and eventually led the Peruvian national team to win the 1975 Copa América.
After finishing second place in the 1966 Torneo Descentralizado, the Sport Boys qualified for the newly-created Copa Libertadores in 1967 but were eliminated in the first round. The club won their most recent title in 1984. Before 1984, they came second in the First Division five times, in 1952, 1959, 1960, 1966 and 1976. After winning the 1985 Torneo Descentralizado, the Boys qualified for the Copa Libertadores once again in 1985 and reached the quarter-finals, a feat they previously achieved in 1977 after becoming runners-up of the 1976 Torneo Descentralizado.
Downfall
Sport Boys was going through an economic crisis and a long drought of titles. The club was relegated to the Peruvian Segunda División in 1987 and stayed for two years, until they won the 1989 tournament and got promoted back to the First Division. They won the Torneo Regional in 1990 and qualified for the 1991 Copa Libertadores. Sport Boys qualified for the next edition as well. They were eliminated in the first round in both editions.
Sport Boys against Sporting Cristal in 2023
Recent years
The last time Sport Boys became champions of the Primera División Peruana was 1984. Since then they have had a rollercoaster of ups and downs. Some of the ups have been being runners-up in the 1990 and 1991 First Division after having won the Segunda División Peruana to gain promotion. In 1999 the Sport Boys qualified for the Copa CONMEBOL, and in 2001 for the 2001 Copa Libertadores. Since then that team has had more downs than ups by avoiding relegation to the Segunda División Peruana by winning an end of season playoff match that went down to a penalty shootout against José Gálvez in the 2006 season. During 2008 their campaign was worse than the 2007 campaign leaving the Sport Boys in the bottom of the standings for most of the Apertura tournament. Financial issues were also haunting the club in 2008, so severe that they have not been able to pay their players from March 2008. Some players like midfielder Montenegro have had to do taxi work at night to be able to support their families. That year they were relegated to the Segunda División Peruana but on 17 October 2009, after a great season, Sport Boys went on to beat Cobresol 3–2 for the Segunda División Peruana finals to go back into the Primera Division Peruana, where it played for three seasons before been inundated with economical problems, and then finishing 15th during the 2012 season which relegated them back to the Peruvian Segunda Division.
Sport Boys returned to the Peruvian Primera División after winning the 2017 Peruvian Segunda División. They placed 14th on the aggregate table on the brink of Relegation but were ahead of the relegation zone by 11 points and again in 2019. The club qualified for the 2022 Copa Sudamericana, their first participation in the tournament. They did not advance past the First Round.[2]
Kit and crest
The pink shirt is perhaps the most characteristic symbol of the Sport Boys of callao. After the club was founded, back in 1927, it was decided that the Boys' shirt would have red and yellow vertical stripes. However, in 1929, after the first championship in which the club participated - a children's tournament organized by the Raimondi Intellectual Club of La Victoria - it was decided to change the color of the uniform, adopting the pink jacket. And it has never been changed since then. However, the model of the shirt changed over the years, but not the colors that represent the club. The year 1981 was characterized by the club wearing a completely pink outfit, a uniform that was also used in some games in 1973, 1986, 2009 and 2010.
Due to the peculiarity of the shirt color, the club has rarely used an alternate jersey. In 1989 against Juventud Progreso, who also wore pink, they used an alternative yellow shirt for the first time. Then in 2004 they wore a black uniform in some games as a protest for having been stripped of the third place in the Copa Libertadores. They also wore black in 2010. In 2008 and 2014 they wanted to remember the club's original colors and adopted, as an alternative shirt, one with yellow and red vertical stripes that was used for the only time on matchday 16 of the Second Division. 2014 in Huacho against the Pacific, because both clubs have the starting uniform of the same color.
Before this stadium was built, they had to use the 5,000 spectator capacity, Estadio Telmo Carbajo, a stadium that was in bad condition and unfit to host football matches. It was the first stadium constructed in Callao. Sport Boys were forced to play their games in the Estadio Nacional, where they would be far away from their fans.
Supporters
Sport Boys fans at Estadio Miguel Grau.
The pink team's ''barras'' had their formal beginning in 1966 when, at the initiative of Isaac Lastres after a championship match, a group of fans decided to group together forming the "Vamos Boys" barra. This barra was traditionally located in the west stand of stadiums. Some time later a group of fans separated from it, creating the team's second bar called "Somos Boys", which was located in the east stand.
The third barra of the pink team is called "Juventud Rosada", formed by the new generation of Sport Boys fans. It was founded on August 20, 1991 at the initiative of a group of twenty boys, gathered in the Isabel la Católica park, near the municipality of Bellavista. Following the tradition marked by the "Vamos Boys" bar, it is also characteristic of the "Pink Youth" to be very well organized, encourage the team for 90 minutes without stopping and accompany them to their presentations in the provinces. Its traditional location is in the south popular tribune. The club is the among most popular in Callao and competes for supporters with rivals Atlético Chalaco and Deportivo Municipal.
Rivalries
Clasico Porteño
The Clasico Porteño, or Clasico Chalaco, is the most important classic in Callao and is played between the two most important clubs in the Constitutional Province of Callao, Atlético Chalaco and Sport Boys. This derby was played regularly in the Peruvian Primera División, until Atlético Chalaco was relegated to the Copa Perú. The first official match was played on June 6, 1937, by the Amateur Tournament (ANA), Sport Boys and Atlético Chalaco. The game corresponded to the second date of the Division of Honor, which was the name that the highest division took from that year on. Since 1932, León Porteño had only participated in the Callao League and after winning it in 1935 it was invited, along with runner-up Telmo Carbajo, to be part of the aforementioned Honor Division of 1937 (in 1936 there was no tournament due to Peruvian participation in the Berlin Summer Olympics). In that tournament, among other teams that came from the First Division, there was Sport Boys, champion of 1935, whom they had not faced before because La Misilera debuted in the highest category only in 1933.
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