In 1886, with Everton Football Club in Liverpool completing just it’s 8th year of existence, a football match took place in the Republic of Paraguay which would be historic on a number of levels.
Football had already caught the imagination in neighbouring Argentina and Uruguay alike but was still a number of years away from taking off in Paraguay.
The match itself took place in the location of Estación Borja – present day San Salvador – some 200 km from the capital, Asunción.
The pitch was laid out by British railway workers, in the area to extend the railway network from the capital to Brazil. All infrastructure work had had stopped in Paraguay with the onset of the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870). Paraguay, with a population of just over 500,000, went to war against the combined forces of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. By the end, the population had been halved with just over 20,000 adult males surviving.
The match was played between the British and local railway workers – the account of the meeting coming from former player and referee, Francisco Andreu Baldo and documented by Miguel Angel Bestard in his 1996 history – “Paraguay: 100 Años de Fútbol”.
San Salvador (Estación Borja) is now recognised as the birthplace of Paraguayan football:
- The first football pitch
- The first football match
- The first international match
And the name chosen by the British team – “Everton”