Club The Strongest - History

 Since the appearance in 1899 of the first soccer club in La Paz, "La Paz Football Club", which two years later became the "Bolivian Rangers FC" and its great rival of the time "The Thunders FC" (1902), a large number of clubs burst into the soccer firmament of the city, Clubs of different types appeared and disappeared with great ease, their life was so ephemeral that very few made it to the second decade of soccer in La Paz and even less to the third, which is why a group of boys, were determined to found a really strong club, "the strongest" of the time and that was imperishable in time.

They held their meetings in a nice kiosk located in the Plaza Murillo, some of the young men already had experience in founding and organizing clubs, as they had founded a few years before the Victory Club, the Club 20 de Octubre and the Dread Club.

On the afternoon of April 8, 1908, they decided to found the dreamed club and that same night, in the house of Alberto Requena Crespo, located on the corner of Buenaventura Bueno and Juan de la Riva streets, the pleasing name of Strong Football Club was born: Strong Football Club.

A few days later, at the home of Francisco Kochiche Guachalla's CLUB THE STRONGEST - 82 - the boys reconsidered the name and agreed that Strong was not strong enough... we said! - "the strongest". There came the voice of Victor Manuel Franco who studied English to add the article "The" and Ramon "Pachacha" Gonzales to add to Strong the superlative "est" and then the name sounded strong and beautiful: "The Strongest Football Club" which in Spanish means "the strongest soccer club".

The founders were: José López Villamil, Alberto Requena, Víctor Franco, Francisco Guachalla, Juancho González, Alberto Tavel, Adrián Deheza, Felipe González, Armando Elio, Luis Rivera, Isaac González, Luis Felipe Dick, Isaac Alípaz".

In an extensive note made to one of the founders on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the club, in the morning paper El Diario, Don Hugo Alípaz, pointed out that, Luis Felipe Dick presided over the first meeting for the founding of the club, the honor of the first official presidency falling on José López Villamil.

The first sessions were held in a kiosk in the Plaza Murillo and sometimes on a bench in the Paseo de El Prado. Later the meetings were held in the house of "Khochichi" Guachalla, in the house of "Pachacha" González or in the Montes' residence.

At the beginning only football was practiced, but later the club's scope was expanded to include basketball, tennis, swimming, among others. Alípaz mentioned in the interview that: "our first field (court) was the 'pampita de la Tejería' behind the Church of San Pedro, playing with a ball made with a cow's bladder. When the regulation leather balls appeared, we played on the field on Arce Avenue," which the Ernst brothers had set up on their father's farm....

The first amateur match for the Club was against Nimbles Sport Association, a team founded in 1909, which was undoubtedly our fiercest rival in this early period.

From the moment The Strongest played its final match to become champion of the first Cup tournament played in Bolivia in 1911, organized by the Prefecture of the Department of La Paz, in which it defeated by 3 goals to 1 its great rival of the time, the Nimbles Sport Association, it was constantly linked with victories, logically its rich history is also tinged with falls, - 83 - but undoubtedly the fans have more reasons to celebrate and feel proud to belong to the largest sports institution in the country, through these more than one hundred years of rich sports and social history, written in letters:

"GOLD AND BLACK".

Association football is governed internationally by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA; French: Fédération Internationale de Football Association), which organizes World Cups for both men and women.