Almirante Brown · History

The Estadio Fragata Presidente Sarmiento, opened on 14 June 1969 with room for 25,000 spectators, stands at José Mármol 5400, on the corner of José I. Rucci, on the border between San Justo and Isidro Casanova, in the La Matanza district of Buenos Aires province. It is the home of Club Almirante Brown, the black-and-gold side known as the Fragata, the Mirasol and the Aurinegro. The club traces its roots to 1 July 1912, when it was founded in San Justo as Club Atlético Almirante Brown. It went inactive in 1919 and was refounded on 17 January 1922 as Centro Atlético y Recreativo Almirante Brown.

Founding and name

The name honours Admiral William Brown and coincided with the centenary of his Argentine citizenship in 1812. The draft founding minutes name Juan Sábas Nicolini and Alejandro Guzzoni as its promoters, and the first president was Carlos E. Massa. The yellow and black colours come from the kit of Montevideo’s Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club, which the team copied in 1912. The statutes were approved on 21 May 1915. The club took its present name, Club Almirante Brown, on 29 July 1967.

The amateur years

Its first official tournament in the Argentine Football Association was the 1916 Third Division. The debut came on 16 April that year, a 3-1 defeat to Del Plata. After the 1919 hiatus and the 1922 refounding, the club moved between leagues and sporting alliances. It played in the División Intermedia in 1931 and 1932 and joined the Second Division in 1934. It won the Doble Knock Out cups in 1943 and 1944, and in 1945 it represented Buenos Aires province in the Argentine Amateur Championship.

AFA affiliation and first promotions

In 1956 the club rejoined the AFA for good and that same year went through the Tercera de Ascenso unbeaten to win the title, its first official honour. It was runner-up in the Segunda de Ascenso in 1960. In 1965 it won Primera C, scoring 68 goals and conceding 28, with 21 of them from Horacio Onzari, and went up to Primera B. As runner-up in that division in 1970, it played the Reclassification Tournament against Quilmes, Ferro Carril Oeste and Colón, but lost all three games and stayed down. It finished second in Primera B again in 1972, 1976 and 1978.

Nacional B and the 1992 final

In 1987 the club won the Torneo Zonal Sureste, beating Villa Dálmine 4-2 on aggregate in the final (3-1 in Campana and 1-1 in San Justo), and moved up to Nacional B. It spent eleven seasons in the second tier. In 1991-92 it reached the playoff final for promotion to the Primera División but lost to San Martín de Tucumán, 1-0 away and 1-1 at home. In 1998 it was relegated to Primera B Metropolitana.

Ups and downs in the second tier

After finishing runner-up in 2002-03, the team won Primera B Metropolitana in 2006-07. It took the Clausura with a 1-0 win over Central Córdoba in Rosario and beat Estudiantes de Buenos Aires 1-0 in the final, with Sebastián Penco scoring, to return to Nacional B after nine years. An 18-point deduction sent it down in 2008. It came straight back by winning Primera B Metropolitana in 2009-10, one point ahead of Sarmiento de Junín. Four more seasons in Nacional B followed, until a 1-0 defeat to Huracán on 8 June 2014 sent it back to the third tier.

Primera Nacional and the 2023 final

The club topped the 2019 Apertura of Primera B Metropolitana and in 2020 won the Transition Championship with a four-point lead and one round to spare, earning promotion to the Primera Nacional. In 2023 it finished first in Zone A and played the promotion final to the Primera División against Independiente Rivadavia on 29 October at the Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes in Córdoba, with about 25,000 supporters in the stands. The match was 0-0 after 90 minutes, and the Mendoza side won 2-0 in extra time. The club’s derby rival is Deportivo Morón, a rivalry the AFA has recognised since 1957.