Club Nacional de Football (, National Football Club; simply referred to as Nacional) is a professional sports club based in La Blanqueada, Montevideo, Uruguay including basketball, futsal, tennis, cycling, volleyball, and chess, but are primarily known for their focus on association football. The football branch currently competes in the Uruguayan Primera División, the highest tier in the Uruguayan football league system.
Founded in 1899 following the merger of Uruguay Athletic Club and Montevideo Football Club, Nacional was established by a group of students of the University of Montevideo who sought to create a football club for Uruguayan-born players in response to the dominance of foreign clubs and players (mostly from the British and German communities) in the country, thus making it one of the first clubs in the continent founded by locals. In February 2013, Nacional reached 60,000 associates. Nacional have historically been associated with the white, blue, and red colors inspired by the flag of José Gervasio Artigas to represent its patriotic identity. Although the club occasionally plays at the Estadio Centenario, it hosts most of its home matches at the Gran Parque Central, one of the three venues selected for the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930 and hosting one of the tournament's two opening matches. The stadium also hosted the World Cup debuts of several national football teams. Gran Parque Central was also the only venue featured in the 1923 and 1924 editions of the Copa América.
Nacional is among the most decorated football clubs in the sport, having won 103 domestic tournaments, including the Uruguayan Primera División on 50 occasions. At intercontinental/international level, Nacional has won 9 titles recognized by FIFA/CONMEBOL,Las competiciones oficiales de la CONMEBOL on Conmebol website, 19 Ago 2015 including three Copa Libertadores (1971, 1980, 1988) and three Intercontinental Cups (1971, 1980, 1988), remaining undefeated in the latter. In addition, Nacional is the 2nd best all-time performing club of the Copa Libertadores (618 points). Nacional is also the only Uruguayan team to have won the Copa Interamericana (1972, 1989) and the Recopa Sudamericana in 1989, the inaugural edition. The club has never been relegated and many long-standing rivalries, most notably with Peñarol, known as the Uruguayan Clásico. CONMEBOL ranked Nacional as Uruguay's top international performer from 2007–2012; the IFFHS named it Uruguay's best team of 2001–2010 and the seventh best of South America.
History
Foundation and first years
Nacional is a result of the fusion between Montevideo Football Club and Uruguay Athletic Club, 14 May 1899. It was decided there that the club's flag should include the three colours (red, blue and white) historically connected to José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguay's national hero. The club's uniform was mostly red and blue. In 1900 Nacional included the Club Defensa and its players, and started playing at the Estadio Gran Parque Central. That same year four clubs governed by foreigners (Albion F.C., CURCC, Uruguay Athletic Club and Deutscher F.K.) founded the "Uruguay Association League". Nacional's petition to be included was dismissed on the thought that criollo clubs and their players lacked category. However, the League's clubs had to admit Nacional in 1901, after the club was invited to join the Argentinean League, due to their impressive performances in a number of friendly matches. In 1902 Nacional won their first Uruguayan Primera División title. The red jersey was substituted by the white jersey in 1902.
In September 1903 Nacional fully represented the Uruguay national football team and beat Argentina 3–2, winning the first international match ever (between national teams) in the history of Uruguayan football (the first international club match ever, was won by Albion over Argentine team Retiro A.C. 3–1 in 1896 in Buenos Aires). In 1905 Nacional won its first international title, the Copa de Honor Cousenier.
In a general assembly which took place in 1911, the populist majority led by club president José María Delgado obtained a victory over the elitist minority which resulted in an institutional transformation: the club opened its doors to players from lower classes, such as Abdón Porte, who would eventually become one of the club's biggest symbols, playing in Nacional until his premature death in 1918.Abdón Porte, el emblema de Nacional que no soportó ser suplente y se suicidó en la cancha by Joaquín Grasso on TyC Sports, 10 Dec 2020
Nacional's players started developing already around 1900 a new playing style that introduced a less physical and more imaginative game, made out of fast combinations and frequent dribbles. Magariños says: "The action of these teams [the British-Uruguayan team] was conducted according to the purest and standardized virtues of British sport: positional play, long passes, furious shots, and strong physical play. The body was used as a weapon, both offensively and defensively. (...) Nacional, formed mainly by smaller and faster players (...) abandoned the physical confrontation that was allowed back then, and chose to play according to their own possibilities. They chose to perform dribbling's, fast and short passing, very fast sprints, and a hectic activity in the pitch."[3 Magariños Pittaluga, "Del fútbol heroico", Montevideo, 1943, p. 74 ss.]
After winning the 1912 championship, they won the 1915 Triple Crown (tri-championship), which included the three major domestic and international tournaments of that time: Primera División, Tie Cup, and Copa de Honor Cousenier. Nacional would go on to win the first Copa Uruguaya en propiedad (meaning they were the first club to win three championships in a row), by winning both the 1916 and 1917 league championships, also winning the 1919, 1920, 1922, 1923 and 1924 league titles.
At international level, Nacional won three Copa Aldao (1916, 1919, 1920), three consecutive Copa de Honor Cousenier (1915, 1916, 1917), and two Tie Cup (1913, 1915).
International tours and success
After two very successful initial decades in the national league of Uruguay and at the regional level, Nacional became the foundation of Uruguay's first international success at the world level. In 1924, Nacional contributed players (Mazzali, Urdinarán, Scarone, Romano, Zibechi and Pascual Somma) for Uruguayan national representative that won the Summer Olympics in Paris. Nacional made also a substantial contribution to the Uruguayan teams of 1928 and 1930, Olympic and World champions respectively. Nacional is the only Uruguayan club that contributed players to every Uruguay national team that has won international tournaments.
In 1925, due to the success of Uruguay and players from Nacional in the 1924 Summer Olympics, Nacional was invited to make an extensive European tour, playing 38 matches over six months. During that tour, Nacional played against both national squads and professional club teams from 9 European countries. Nacional won 26 matches, tied 7, and lost 5, scoring 130 goals and allowing 30.European trip of Club Nacional de Football 1925 by Juan Da Silva on the RSSSF An estimate of 800,000 tickets were sold during that tour, where Nacional played friendlies in France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, and Portugal. which is considered the largest tour in the history of world football.Hace 95 años Nacional iniciaba una gira increíble por Europa by Luis Prats on El País, 8 March 2020
In 1927, Nacional made a North America tour, with similar results to the ones obtained in the European adventure made two years before, with 16 wins, 2 ties and 1 loss.
The show team: 1932–43
In 1932, football became professional in Uruguay and Nacional formed a team that would be nicknamed La Máquina Blanca (The White Machine). The team scored 28 goals in the first four games of the 1932 season. In 1933 Nacional won its 12th. first division title, repeating the next year. The 1933 championship is remembered as the longest ever, since it ended in November 1934, after a series of final games against Peñarol, the last won by Nacional by 3–2 with 3 goals by Héctor Castro.
In 1938, Argentine footballer Atilio García came to the club. That same year Nacional won the Torneo Internacional Nocturno Rioplatense, an international friendly championship. Between 1939 and 1943, coached by former player Héctor Castro, Nacional won the Quinquenio de Oro (five consecutive championships from 1939 to 1943). Some highlights of those times was the 5–1 victory over Peñarol, with 4 goals by Atilio García. Nacional also made an outstanding campaign in the 1941 season, winning all the games disputed (20/20). In those five years the team played 96 Copa Uruguaya games, won 77, tied 9 and only lost 10, made 318 goals and allowed 108.
Nacional's superiority over Peñarol during this era is best exemplified by some particular feats: Between 1938 and 1943 there were 23 clásicos, with 18 victories for Nacional and only 4 for their rivals. On 14 December 1941 Nacional obtained the largest win in the history of Uruguayan Clásico, defeating Peñarol 6 – 0. (That year, Nacional won all 20 games of the championship.) On 23 November 1943 Nacional won their tenth Campeonato uruguayo clásico in a row.
Notable players of that period include Atilio García (all-time Nacional's top scorer, also Uruguayan Clásico all-time top scorer with 34 goals, eight times Uruguayan Champion, eight times league's highest scorer); Aníbal Paz (nine times Uruguayan champion and World Champion defending Uruguay in 1950); Schubert Gambetta (nine times Uruguayan Champion and World Champion in 1950); Luis Ernesto Castro (seven times Uruguayan Champion); Aníbal Ciocca (eight times Uruguayan Champion), Eugenio Pato Galvalisi (seven times Uruguayan Champion), Roberto Porta (six times Uruguayan Champion), Bibiano Zapirain (six times Uruguayan Champion).
International achievements Nacional's international reputation relied on the tournaments played during the first half of the 20th century in the Río de la Plata region, where the most important international tournaments in America were played before the Copa Libertadores was created. Historical rivalries with longtime enemy Peñarol and famous Argentinian teams like Boca, River Plate, Racing, Independiente, San Lorenzo, Rosario Central and Newell's Old Boys, among others, were established in those championships.
Nacional participated in the Libertadores for the first time in 1962, when they were defeated in the semi-finals by Peñarol. They got to the Finals in 1964, but lost to Independiente, and in 1967 to Racing.
With President Miguel Restuccia, Nacional formed the basis of a team that would eventually achieve its goal, with players such as Ubiña, Mujica, Montero Castillo, Espárrago, Cascarilla Morales, Brazilian goalkeeper Manga, Cubilla and the great Argentinean striker Artime. In the 1969 Libertadores, after defeating Peñarol in semi-finals, Nacional lost its third Finals, this time against Estudiantes de La Plata.
In 1971, coached by Washington Etchamendi, Nacional finally won its first Copa Libertadores, beating Estudiantes de La Plata in Lima, Peru. That year, Nacional won its first World Club title, the 1971 Intercontinental Cup, in memorable matches against Panathinaikos from Greece, with goals from striker Luis Artime. Panathinaikos played because the reigning European champion, AFC Ajax, refused to play due to the violent conduct common among top South American teams during this period. The following year, Nacional won its first Copa Interamericana, defeating Cruz Azul from Mexico.