Sport Boys


Sport Boys Association, commonly referred to as Sport Boys or simply Boys, is a Peruvian football club based in the port city of Callao. It was founded on Peru's independence day, July 28, 1927.
Its classic and historic rival is the Atlético Chalaco against whom dispute the Clasico Porteño derby of Callao. It is considered the fourth most important club in the history of Peruvian football as they have won 6 national titles and have the largest number of international appearances after Universitario, Sporting Cristal and Alianza Lima, teams of Lima.

History

The club was founded on July 28, 1927 by a group of young enthusiasts from El Callao who got together to fulfill the dream of a very important local football fan Gualberto Lizárraga to start a football club. The day before Peru's independence day, July 27, they held a meeting and at midnight, the group sang the National Anthem. Afterwards, they declared the club founded and named Lizárraga president and unanimously voted for the club name to be Sport Boys Association.
The team's original uniform was not pink but striped red and yellow.
Sport Boys was the first Peruvian football club to feature cheerleaders. Many of them, including Anelhí Arias, Shirley Cherres, and others that have become Peruvian celebrities.

Recent years

The last time Sport Boys became champions of the Primera División Peruana was 1984. Since then they have had a rollercoaster of ups and downs. Some of the ups have been being runners-up in the 1990 and 1991 First Division after having won the Segunda División Peruana to gain promotion. In 1999 the Sport Boys qualified for the Copa CONMEBOL, and in 2001 for the 2001 Copa Libertadores. Since then that team has had more downs than ups by avoiding relegation to the Segunda División Peruana by winning an end of season playoff match that went down to a penalty shootout against José Gálvez in the 2006 season. During 2008 their campaign was worse than the 2007 campaign leaving the Sport Boys in the bottom of the standings for most of the Apertura tournament. Financial issues were also haunting the club in 2008, so severe that they have not been able to pay their players from March 2008. Some players like midfielder Montenegro have had to do taxi work at night to be able to support their families. That year they were relegated to the Segunda División Peruana but on October 17, 2009, after a great season, Sport Boys went on to beat Cobresol 3–2 for the Segunda División Peruana finals to go back into the Primera Division Peruana, where it played for three seasons before been inundated with economical problems, and then finishing 15th during the 2012 season which relegated them back to the Peruvian Segunda Division

Kit evolution

Rivalries

Sport Boys has had a long-standing rivalry with Atlético Chalaco, Alianza Lima, Sporting Cristal, Deportivo Municipal, and Universitario.

Stadium

Sport Boys plays its home games at the Estadio Miguel Grau. It has a capacity of about 17,000. Before this stadium was built, they had to use the 5,000 spectator capacity Telmo Carbajo, a stadium that was in bad condition and unfit to host football matches. It was the first stadium in Callao. Sport Boys were forced to play their games in the Estadio Nacional, where they would be far away from their fans.

Honours

National

League

Notable players