Situated in the small south-eastern city of Rosario, Club Atlético Everton were founded in 1920 by railway workers who were completing the line from the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo. Eleven years earlier Everton FC, while on their groundbreaking tour of South America, had defeated a Uruguayan League XI in the capital, and the name still carried resonance within the country.
A tiny club by comparison to its English and Chilean namesakes, the club serves as a focal point for its local community. It possesses its own bar, indoor sports hall, restaurant area and ‘bocha’ court (a form of bowls). It has won the local Rosarina League Championship on nine occasions.
IN 2009 the club were visited by members of Ruleteros Society, the organisation formed to promote closer links between Everton FC and its South American cousins. The delegation were guests of honour at Club Atlético Everton’s 89th birthday celebrations and exchanged commemorative gifts with club officials.
‘It is amazing that, across the three countries that make up the southern cone (Cono Sur) of South America, there should be three clubs named after Everton FC,’ recorded Paul Wharton, who travelled with the Ruleteros. ‘Especially in the absence of any other British club name in the region (with the exception of Rangers in the Chilean town of Talca); Liverpool in Uruguay was actually named after our fair city.
‘All three clubs had shown incredible hospitality to the visiting party – from the terraces to the Board Room... The one thing that united them all was the name “Everton” – all Evertonians following their own particular colour and flavour of the great name.’