Club Bolívar

Club Bolívar () is a Bolivian professional football club that currently plays in the Bolivian Primera División. Founded in 1925 in honor of Venezuelan military leader Simón Bolívar, it is the most successful and popular club in the history of Bolivian football, with 30 titles. The club was founded with a light blue color, which is why it is sometimes nicknamed "Celeste" (The Sky Blue).

The club has two stadiums. Estadio Libertador Simón Bolívar, which has a capacity for 5,000 people and is located in the Tembladerani neighborhood of La Paz, is only used for training sessions and friendly matches. Estadio Hernando Siles, which holds a capacity for 41,143 people, is the club's main stadium, and is used for official matches.

Bolívar began playing the amateur era two years after its foundation, in 1927, where it finished runner-up, and it was in the 1932 tournament that the club won its first championship title. The club won consecutive championships in the years of 1939, 1940, 1941, and 1942, becoming the second team to achieve a four-time championship. In this way, from 1927 to 1949 the club obtained a total of 6 amateur titles.

In the professional era, the club won the first tournament of the Bolivian Primera División in 1950. According to International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) statistics, Club Bolívar is the best Bolivian football team of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century.

At an international level, Club Bolívar is statistically the club that has best represented Bolivia in international tournaments. The Bolivian club is in the 11th position of the Historical table of the Copa Libertadores; it has participated 35 times in this tournament, being in this way the seventh team at the South American level with the most participations and also the eleventh team with most victories in the history of the Libertadores, with 92 in total. Among its 34 appearances in the Copa Libertadores, its best performances were in the 1986 and 2014 editions, where Bolivar finished as a semi-finalist.

Bolívar played its first international final in 2004, where it was runner-up to Boca Juniors in that year's Copa Sudamericana. Bolivar has 10 participations in this tournament.

Among the best players in Bolivar's history are Marco "El Diablo" Etcheverry, Erwin "Platini" Sanchez, Julio Baldivieso, Carlos Borja, Vladimir Soria, Ramiro Blacut, Víctor Ugarte, Carlos Aragones, Juan Miguel "Juanmi" Callejon, Walter Flores, Juan Carlos Arce, Joaquín Botero and many more.

History

Foundation

Until well into the 1980s there was controversy regarding the date of creation of the institution. The year 1927 was considered accurate until it became clear that it had been founded in 1925, the year of the country's centenary.

The club was born on April 12, 1925 by a group of friends who had the idea of forming a social club whose objective was to practice sport, especially football. They met in a modest colonial center house of La Paz, specifically on Junín street and less than two blocks from Plaza Murillo, where it was decided to create the club with an unusual name, Bolívar, contrary to the usual names of Bolivian teams back then, as most of them were created with names in English. Names such as Franz Tamayo or Antonio José de Sucre were thought of, but in homage to the Liberator Simón Bolívar, the group decided for Bolívar.

Despite the fact that the founders had as a dominant passion for the practice of football, as was the style at the time, they decided to add the additional denominative of "musical literary club; that is, the club was originally founded with the name of ''"Club Atlético Literario Musical Bolívar"'' which was soon diluted by the strength of the football team and its distinctive achievements, being reduced only to Club Bolívar.

Don Humberto Bonifacio was in charge of the club's management on a provisional basis, until the first president was elected by a democratic election. The first president was Carlos Terán, who was accompanied by Ernesto Sainz, Héctor Salcedo, Rafael Navarro, and Felipe Gutiérrez.

Amateur Age

In 1927, two years after its founding, the Club Bolívar officially enrolled in La Paz Fútbol Association, Bolívar for the first time participated in an official championship, which was played on the Miraflores field, where the club was runner-up.

The first team that disputed the 1927 championship in which, as a debutante, they achieved the runner-up behind ''Nimbles Sport'' was made up of Walter Miranda, Enrique Tellería, Felipe Gutiérrez Nieto, Víctor Leclere, Carlos Terán, Germán Garnica , Roberto Segaline, Miguel Carreón, Luis Ernesto Sanz, and the captain Humberto Barreda. Alfredo Molina, Roberto Gómez and Carlos Álvarez were incorporated a year later.

The club's first international friendly match was played on June 3, 1927 against Coquimbo Unido of Chile in La Paz, losing 2-1. On May 11, 1930, the official championship begins and ends on July 30 at the main stadium Estadio Hernando Siles, with Bolívar finishing runner-up on seven points.

In 1931 the tournament was fulfilled with poor performances by teams that did not have good youth divisions, limiting the championship to only four teams. That same year, on July 8, Club Bolívar obtained its first international victory against Gimnasia y Tiro de Salta, which it defeated 2-1 in La Paz.

A fundamental event in this first part of the club's history occurred in 1932 when Bolívar achieved the first championship in its history played in two series. The captain of that Bolívar and one of the great South American players in history was center forward Mario Alborta, who was also captain of the Bolivia national team. The contest began on May 26, but had to be suspended for a month due to the events of the Chaco War

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