or Club Deportes (CD) Everton

The formation of a Chilean football club bearing Everton’s name is the most enduring result of Everton’s groundbreaking 1909 tour of South America.

THREE WEEKS AFTER the end of the 1908/09 season, in which Everton had finished First Division runners-up, the squad made the three-week steamer journey from Southampton to Buenos Aires. They were joined by Tottenham Hotspur, that year’s Second Division runners-up, on what was essentially a tour to spread the gospel of football through South America.

Within hours of their arrival, the two English clubs played the first game ever played between two professional clubs in South America – a 2-2 draw watched by the Argentine President, José Figueroa Alcorta. Although all but on of the exhibition games Everton and Spurs played was in Argentina, the excitement of their visit transcended the country’s borders.

ON 24 JUNE 1909 – a day before Everton headed back to England – in the Chilean port of Valparaiso, a group of Anglo-Chileans formed a football club and decided to call it Everton. Valparaiso was a well-known stopover for British sailors and the eight included two expatriates, Cornishman Frank Boundy and Scot Malcolm Frazer, who would both return home on the outbreak of war five years later, and lose their lives on the Somme in July 1916. The leader of the group was David Newton Foxley Chapman (more commonly referred to as Eduardo de la Barra), a third-year humanities student whose parents had emigrated from Liverpool in 1859 and set up the port’s first steam-driven flour mill.

In its early days the club played friendly games against mostly expatriate opponents in the winter and practised athletics in the summer. In 1919 the name was changed to Club Deportes Everton, to reflect its prominence as a sporting club at both national and international level. Two Everton athletes – Rodolfo Hammersley and Harold Rosenqvist – had already been crowned South American champions by this stage.

In 1944 CD Everton were elected members of the Chilean national professional league on condition of their moving five miles up the coast to Viña del Mar. The transition was a success. In 1950 they became the first provincial club to lift the league title, a feat they repeated two years later. Further league titles came in 1976 and, following a dramatic play-off victory over giants Colo Colo, 2008. CD Everton have won one Copa Chile, in 1984.

The club’s Estadio Sausalito hosted group, quarter-final and semi-final games during the 1962 World Cup finals, just as Goodison would do four years later.

Since 2002 ties between the English and Chilean teams have greatly increased with the formation of the Ruleteros society, a fan-based organisation aimed at promoting friendship between the clubs.

Although the founding fathers of the two clubs never encountered each other, there are remarkable similarities in terms of ethos and tradition. ‘Our club certainly became a watchword for reliability and trustworthiness,’ Alfredo Aravena recorded on CD Everton’s 50th anniversary in 1959.

There is one point that should not be forgotten, and that is out of Everton grew the Corinthian spirit of sport.

‘It is for this reason that the current board and future directors should strive to ensure that this aspect of the game be safeguarded and encouraged in order to provide our youngsters with a healthy and enjoyable form of entertainment, which may, in turn, provide a sound basis for those who aspire to practise the sport at a professional level.’

On 4 August 2010 the close ties between the two clubs reached their apotheosis when Everton’s Chilean cousins made the long journey from South America for a pre-season friendly. Everton FC ran out 2-0 winners on a memorable evening, with goals from Jermaine Beckford and Marouane Fellaini.