Club Atlético River Plate (Uruguay)

Club Atlético River Plate, commonly known as River Plate, is an Argentine professional
sports club based in the Núñez neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Founded in 1901, the club is named after the English name for the city's estuary, Río de la Plata. Although many sports are practiced at the club, River Plate is best known for its professional football team, which has won Argentina's Primera División championship a record of 37 times, its latest title in 2021. Domestic achievements also include 14 national cups, with the 2021 Trofeo de Campeones as the most recent, making River Plate the country's most successful team in domestic competitions with a total of 51 top-division titles.Campeones – Primera División
on AFA website, 6 July 2015

At international level, River Plate has won 18 titles, with 12 organised by CONMEBOL and other international bodies. River Plate's official international achievements include four Copa Libertadores, one Intercontinental Cup, one Supercopa Sudamericana, one Copa Sudamericana, three Recopa Sudamericana, one Copa Interamericana and one Suruga Bank Championship. Furthermore, the club has also won six tournaments organized by AFA and AUF together: five Copa Dr. Ricardo Aldao, and one Tie Cup. In addition, River Plate's reserve team won the U-20 Copa Libertadores in 2012. River Plate is the first and only team to simultaneously hold CONMEBOL's three current major international competitions, after winning the 2014 Copa Sudamericana, 2015 Recopa Sudamericana and the 2015 Copa Libertadores.

In a survey published by the Argentine Football Association in 2016, 6 out of 11 players in the all-time Argentina national team had played for River Plate. The club placed ninth in the FIFA Club of the Century poll in December 2000, and in 2010, the International Federation of Football History & Statistics also placed River Plate in ninth place in a list of the best teams in the world during the 1990s and 2000s, ranking as the top South American club. Among other achievements, River Plate is at the top of the list in the All-time Argentine Primera División table, being the Argentine team with most games won, fewest losses, most points accumulated, most goals scored, fewest goals against and best goal difference since the first championship held in 1891, and is first in the Historical table of the Copa Libertadores, being the South American team with most games won.

River has a fierce rivalry with Boca Juniors. Matches between them are known as '' Superclásico'', and the two teams' rivalry is amongst the most heated in the sport, due to their local and global popularity. River's home stadium, Estadio Monumental is the largest in the country. Apart from football, the club hosts a large variety of sports such as athletics, basque pelota, bowls, chess, basketball, handball, cestoball, gymnastics, field hockey, karate, roller hockey, roller skating, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, waterpolo, and eSports.

History

According with the club's official version, River Plate was founded on 25 May 1901, close to the La Boca neighborhood (later the home of fierce rivals Boca Juniors). The institution was formed after the merger of two clubs, "Santa Rosa" and "La Rosales", with Leopoldo Bard being elected as its first president. The name was chosen because of an incident during the construction of Buenos Aires Port: one of the members had seen how the workers of Dique nº 3 left their duties for a while to play a football match. The boxes they were working with just said "The River Plate" (the name the English gave to the Río de la Plata) and that inscription was taken to name the new club.

River Plate affiliated to the Argentine Football Association in 1905, debuting in the third division against Facultad de Medicina. On 13 December 1908, the team was promoted to first division after beating Racing Club 2–1. However, the match was declared null due to River supporters jumping onto the field to celebrate with the players, so a new match had to be played. River again won, this time 7–0, to achieve promotion.

In 1914 River won its first domestic championship, the Copa de Competencia Jockey Club and its first international title, the Copa de Competencia Chevallier Boutell. The nickname ''Los Millonarios'' came after the acquisition of winger Carlos Peucelle in 1931 for $10,000 and Bernabé Ferreyra for $35,000 (Large sum of money for the period) in 1932.

In the following years, River Plate consolidated its place as one of the most popular teams of Argentina, and the 20th century brought much success. The club's record of 28 official tournaments saw them dubbed ''El Campeón del Siglo'' (The Champions of the Century).

Uniform

Kit evolution

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Kit suppliers and shirt sponsors

Adidas has been River Plate's uniform supplier since 1982, becoming one of the company's largest sponsorship deals in the world, only behind German club Bayern Munich. The US$60 million partnership with the German sports company signed in 2015 (extending the deal to 2021) marked the most expensive kit agreement in the history of Argentine football.

Badge

As in many football shirts and sports in general, the team's jersey has a badge on its front, as a symbol of the institution. When the River Plate jersey was created it did not have a badge, and its presence varied throughout the history, according to the designs of each era. Currently it is embroidered on the jersey, with three colors (red, white and black). Its format resembles that of the jersey, as it has a red stripe that crosses it, along with the acronym of the club (CARP) in black, and the background is white, in a stylized design.

When Hugo Santilli became chairman in 1984, he soon called to a competition where a new emblem would be chosen. The main objective of this new image was to eradicate the nickname ''Gallinas (Chicken)'' that River's rivals (Boca Juniors fans mainly) used to mock them. Artists from Argentina took part in that competition. The club finally chose a logo designed by the artist Caloi. This emblem showed the figure of a lion (wearing a River jersey) rising from the Monumental stadium. The lion logo was immediately added to the uniforms (on the field and training clothes) having River Plate won the Copa Libertadores de América and European/South American Cup using the lion logo. In 1989, when Santilli left the club so the lion went with him and has not been reestablished since.

In February 2022, River Plate launched its new corporate image, which included an update to the logo and a typography designed exclusively for the club. The corporate image was created and developed by "Grupo Berro", a branding and design studio that had been working on the corporate image for over two years.

Rivalry

River Plate and Boca Juniors are the two largest football clubs in Argentina, with more than half the country's football fans supporting the clubs. Due to the rivalry between them, the Boca Juniors vs River Plate '' Superclásico'' local derby match was listed by the BBC
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