Northeast of Paris, in what the French call banlieue (suburb), is the municipality of Colombes, a nice and quiet residential area that can be reached by metro and then by train. In this neighborhood of trees and silence is the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium, the old coliseum where the glory of South American football was born. On that centuries-old grass, the world discovered that on the other side of the ocean, in the Indian lands, there are individuals who play a lot of ball. They were not simple bats who ran without stopping: they were real artists who amazed with their touch, their grace, feints, brakes and feints. It was the Uruguayans who broke the shell of great recognition, giving life to the so-called “Olympic Burst”, which united Paris in 1924 and Amsterdam in 1928.

We couldn’t get to Paris without visiting Colombes Temple. Perhaps we were there for the fury caused by those phenomenal charrús. As that magnificent ad promoting Dominican tourism said: “Dominican Republic, where it all began.” It was there that Columbus landed on American soil for the first time. As for football, our landing was in Colombes.

Flowers and Thorns 2023

Yves-du-Manoir has shrunk, from 60,000 spectators to 7,000. Only one grandstand remains, the tin-roofed side stand that was the center stage of the 1924 Olympics and the 1938 World Cup. It is the home of Racing Club de Paris, a once-famous team that today wanders through the fourth division. The same Racing de Paris that in 1986, under the auspices of the Matrá motor company, made a revolution in world football by hiring Enzo Francescoli, Ruben Paz, Pierre Littbarski, Maxime Bossis, Luis Fernández and other stars. The result was a colossal fiasco, simply a pile of names. The fortune was squandered, the team was relegated, the sponsor fled, and the Racing Club sank into the morass of anonymity.

2023 in their own names

Even today, in a globalized world where everything is known, many French people would have a hard time locating Uruguay on a map. Let’s go back to 1924. There it was not known whether Uruguay was a fruit, a brand of tobacco or the name of a tribe. The name itself sounded so exotic… In the afternoon at the opening of the games, they say, they raised the Uruguayan flag upside down, with the sun down. They put him in the competition in the previous qualifying round against Yugoslavia. One way to preserve the seriousness of the tournament: if they didn’t know how to play, it was best for them to stay on the sidelines.

A new era in football begins

Legend has it that two Yugoslav “spies” went to the Uruguayan training to see what kind of strange individuals they are. And that’s where the Creole mischief appeared. Alarmed, the celestials did everything clumsily: they bumped into each other, hit wherever. The Balkans returned to concentration and, more than happy, saddened: “Poor people, they come from so far to be eliminated in the first game.” They felt sincere pity.

The next day they played and Uruguay beat them 7:0 with an unforgettable dance… And that with only 3025 people in the stands.

Wild: Spain 12 – Malta 1

The impact was so great that 10,455 people attended the second meeting. And the second one, and the next one. Each presentation was a party of touches, luxury and goals. The black José Leandro Andrade was nicknamed “Black Miracle” and the guest of honor of Lida. Nasazzi was called “The Great Captain”, Héctor Scarone “The Magician”, Pedro Petrone “Fiera”. Soccer owes Uruguay its first big shot at popularity, as its feat has crossed all borders. The reputation was born there that it is a sport in which anything can happen. There was a pattern.

After the defeat to Yugoslavia, four more victories made the ladder towards the Olympic laurel: USA 3-0, France 5-1, Netherlands 2-1 and Switzerland 3-0. After that last skirmish with the Helvetii, the public stood up and applauded the celestials as never before. A minute passed, two, three… people couldn’t stop clapping. To return the favor, Nasazzi told his teammates, “Hey, let’s go around the field to say goodbye.” This is how the Olympic Tour was born. They invented it without being aware of it. People threw hats and flowers as they passed, and the Uruguayan boys picked them up and threw them back. It’s been recorded, it’s very exciting.

The detail that elevates the feat to an epic level is that, in addition, Uruguay’s attendance at the tournament was reduced. In 1923, the Copa América was held in Montevideo. Eastern football had been divided since 1922 by a schism: Nacional remained in the Federation, Peñarol, enraged, pulled a bunch of small clubs to form the Federation. The association was affiliated with Conmebol and FIFA, with these players performing at international events. So bitter was the division between the two giants that one afternoon on November 25, 1923, two “Uruguayan national teams” appeared to play at the same time. In Central Park and for the Copa América, the Confederation (officially) defeated Brazil 2 to 1. About twenty blocks away, at the Peñarol field in Pocitos, the Confederation defeated Chile by the same score. The two played in a light blue jacket that marks history. They both said the same thing: “We are Uruguay.”

To win against Peñarol in front of the public, the president of Nacional and the Association Atilio Narancio made a masterful move; He promised the players: “If they win the Copa América, I will take them to the Olympics in Paris.” The football players delivered, won the title. The leader too. It wasn’t easy. Narancio, who was called the “Father of Victory”, already danced, danced: he mortgaged his country house in the Maroñas district to finance the trip. That’s not all: the Uruguayan Olympic Committee did not give approval for participation in the Games until the last moment; I was afraid of the mess. The point is that all the European powers would intervene, their power was not known, but it was thought that it would be enormous. And Uruguay had its football match. Peñarol, Central, South America, Defensor, Misiones, Miramar, River Plate and thirty other clubs would not be represented. It was a very high risk. The efforts even reached the President of the Nation. Just nine days after setting sail from Montevideo, with the ship on the high seas, the COU gave its approval. La Celeste would attend without the Federation footballers. It was half of Uruguay. For this reason, the Olympic feat of 1924 has a double value.

That June 9, 1924, thousands of Peñarol fans marched through Switzerland. There were no Mirasol footballers among the champions. “In the ’24 final. I wanted the team to lose. Without Peñarol, that team was not Uruguay,” architect Raúl Bove Ceriani, former president of the Uruguayan Olympic Committee, told us personally. At that time, Uruguay was a country with close to one and a half million inhabitants. However, 400,000 gathered at the port of Montevideo to cheer them on their way back.

Uruguayan Olympic champion… Incredible! We are entering the year of the hundredth anniversary of that eternal feat. We returned from Colombes floating among memories. And sad. Neither a photograph nor a bronze plaque immortalized the feat of those heroes who put South American football on the map of global importance. (OR)