Charles Douglas Moffatt (5 July 1870 – 1 March 1953) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

, considered one of the pioneers of the sport in Argentina, active in the country as a player between 1891 and 1901.

Career

Born in London, Moffatt arrived in Argentina in November 1889 at the age of 19. He worked in some British-owned companies in the country, such as Walter Sons & Co, Hume Brothers, the

Buenos Aires Western Railway The Buenos Aires Western Railway (BAWR) (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Oeste de Buenos Aires), inaugurated in the city of Buenos Aires on 29 August 1857, was the first railway built in Argentina and the start of the extensive rail network which was ...

and last, the

Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway The Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway (BAGS) ( es, Ferrocarril del Sud) was one of the ''Big Four'' broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The company was founded by Edward Lumb in 1862 ...

from which he retired in 1928. One of his workmates in the Southern Railway was Alex Lamont of St. Andrew's Scots School, which would later establish the

Argentine Association Football League The Argentine Association Football League was the first football association of Argentina and predecessor of current Argentine Football Association. The association has a historic importance in football for having organised the first official cham ...

(the first football body in Argentina and predecessor of current

Argentine Football Association The Argentine Football Association ( es, Asociación del Fútbol Argentino, ; AFA) is the governing body of football in Argentina based in Buenos Aires. It organises the main divisions of Argentine league system (from Primera División to Tor ...

) that organized the first Primera División championship in

1891 Events January–March * January 1 ** Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany. ** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence. ** Germany takes formal possession of its new Af ...

. Moffatt participated in that tournament playing for St. Andrew's as an inside forward. At the end of the season, St. Andrew's and Old Caledonians shared the first position therefore a final match was played to award the medals. St. Andrew's won the match by 3–1 with Moffatt scoring a hat trick. Despite of being the champion, St. Andrew's Athletic Club was dissolved that same year. After his tenure on St. Andrew's, Moffatt played for

Lomas Athletic Club Lomas (Spanish for "hills"), also called fog oases and mist oases, are areas of fog-watered vegetation in the coastal desert of Peru and northern Chile. About 100 lomas near the Pacific Ocean are identified between 5°S and 30°S latitude, a nort ...

in 1892 and then moved to

Flores Athletic Club Flores Athletic Club was an Argentine sports club from Flores, Buenos Aires. The club was pioneer in the practise of some sports that would become popular in Argentina, such as football (competing in some of the first official championships hel ...

. The last team where Moffatt played was Banfield (founded in 1896), where he played the 1897 and 1898 seasons with the team. When the second division (current

Primera B Metropolitana Primera B Metropolitana is one of two professional leagues that form the third level of the Argentine football league system. The division is made up of 17 clubs mainly from the city of Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area, Greater Buenos Aires. ...

) was created in 1899, Banfield registered a team there that would win the championship, with Moffatt as one of its players. The other teams that took part in the first tournament were English High School, Belgrano AC,

Lomas Lomas (Spanish for "hills"), also called fog oases and mist oases, are areas of fog-watered vegetation in the coastal desert of Peru and northern Chile. About 100 lomas near the Pacific Ocean are identified between 5°S and 30°S latitude, a nort ...

, Lanús Athletic Club,

Porteño In Spanish, the term (feminine: ''Porteña'') means "port city person". It is used to refer to residents of port cities such as Buenos Aires, Argentina; El Puerto de Santa María, Spain; Valparaíso, Chile; Mazatlán, Veracruz, Acapulco and Tam ...

, Maldonado Football Club, Scots School Club and Lomas' Barker Memorial School. Moffat retired from football in 1901, although he continued practising sports, such as

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

. He is recognized as founder of the Gascón Lawn Tennis Club in

Banfield, Buenos Aires Banfield is a city in the district of Lomas de Zamora in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, south of the city center of Buenos Aires. It forms part of the Greater Buenos Aires metro area. History The area where the city is currently located, ha ...

and the Rowing Club in La Plata.Clan Moffatt at Genealogy.org
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Titles

; St. Andrew's * Primera División (1):

; Banfield * Segunda División (1): 1899

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moffatt, Charles Douglas English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Argentine Primera División players 1870 births 1953 deaths Club Atlético Banfield footballers English emigrants to Argentina Flores Athletic Club players Footballers from Greater London