THE GOLDEN CENTURY By: Alejandro MejĂa,11°
Today, Colombia is a factory that is constantly producing world class athletes of many different sports and disciplines. Many of them are ECVGIQTK\GF KP VJG GNKVG ITQWR QH VJG ŎDGUV KP the world’ in their respective disciplines, but it hasn't always been like this. Colombian athletes have experienced major changes through the years, but these have been for good. There are many sports I can talk about, but my focus will be on the two main sports that are sticking out the most :soccer and tennis. It’s important for us, as Colombians, to understand the most important faces of these three disciplines through JKUVQT[ CPF YJ[ KU KV UQ UKIPKſECPV VJG HCEV VJCV Colombia is able to have some of the best athletes in the world.
committees had appeared and disappeared too, DWV KV YCUPĹ?V WPVKN VJG ĹŽ'N &QTCFQĹ? 'TC VJCV Colombian soccer became a mayor thing. In 1948 there was a crisis in Argentina, were soccer players were on strike against the general Juan Domingo Peron because of several delays in payments. This is when Colombian clubs are able to sign different players from Argentina. They signed many excellent players, but the biggest star was Alfredo Di Stefano, which was signed by Millonarios F.C, a club from Bogota. Soccer, the most popular sport in the world He was the leader of one of the biggest projand the most popular in Colombia too. Passion ects in Millonarios’ history. He was then sold and intensity, are only a couple of many words to Real Madrid, where he became a superstar. that can describe how Colombians feel when I know many of you are telling yourselfs, “he it comes to this. Soccer arrived to Colombia at wasn’t Colombian, so this is not importantâ€?. the start of the 20th century, but no one knows Yes, Di Stefano wasn’t from Colombia, but beexactly what year. According to Mike Urueta, a ECWUG QH JKO KV YCU VJG ĹżTUV VKOG VJCV C %QNQOJKUVQTKCP CPF LQWTPCNKUV VJG ĹżTUV QHĹżEKCN OCVEJ bian Club had some importance worldwide. ever disputed in Colombia was on August 6, 1904. Since then, a lot of aspects of the Colom- After this Era, Colombian soccer started to have bian soccer started to change constantly, dif- problems again due to bad management from a ferent leagues had appeared and disappeared, lot of Clubs Presidents through the 1960’s. Colombian soccer didn’t have any worldwide recognition until 1975 when Colombia won second place in the Copa America. That Era that was the base for today’s soccer, which started back in the 1990’s. This is when Colombian as a team and Colombian players started to be recognize in Europe and USA. They were able to classify to the world cup, with Francisco Maturana as a Coach and with players like el Pibe Valderrama, Freddy Rincon, Faustino Asprilla CPF 4GPG *KIWKVC 6JKU RNC[GTU YGTG VJG ĹżTUV ones to be recognized as important in some big clubs of Europe, USA and Mexico. After this era, there was a black period of time that noth-
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