A brief intro to Argentina

(en.wikipedia.org)
Updated: 2009-08-23 17:51

Sports

Football (Association football) is the most popular sport in Argentina, whose national team was twice FIFA World Cup Champion and Olympic Gold medalist, as well as Copa América winners fourteen times. Including other international cups and club tournaments, Argentine football is the most decorated in the world, counting 227 international titles as of early 2008;Argentine players contribute greatly to other countries' football, as well: in early 2008, 1095 Argentine footballers played professionally in 63 other nations. Over 540,000 people are registered football players;this is about one in twenty-five adult males, though the sport has become increasingly popular among girls and women, who have organized their own national championships since 1991 and were South American champions in 2006.

River Plate Stadium, venue of the 1978 World Cup finals.

The Argentine Football Association was formed in 1893 and is the eighth oldest national football association in the world. The 1891 league tournament organized in Argentina made it the third in football history, following the ones in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The AFA today counts 390 professional teams, of which only 20 at any one time belong to the Premier Division. Among the fifteen teams honored with a national tournament title since the AFA went professional in 1931, River Plate has won 33 and Boca Juniors, 23. Other "big" teams are: Independiente (14 national titles), San Lorenzo de Almagro (10) and Racing (7).Over the last twenty years, futsal and beach football have garnered a growing following. The Argentine beach football team was one of four competitors in the first international championship for the sport, held in Miami, Florida, in 1993.

Volleyball and basketball are also popular; a number of basketball players participate in the United States National Basketball Association and European leagues. Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Carlos Delfino, and Fabricio Oberto are a few, and the national team won Olympic Gold in the Athens Olympics and the bronze medal in 2008. Argentina is currently ranked first at FIBA.

Argentina has an important rugby union football team, "Los Pumas" (see Argentina national rugby union team), with many of its players playing in Europe. Argentina beat host nation France twice in the Rugby World Cup 2007, placing them third in the competition. The Pumas are currently sixth in the International Rugby Board's official world rankings.

Argentine tennis is very competitive on the world stage, with dozens of players, male and female, in active tour.

Other popular sports include field hockey (the top female sport, see Las Leonas), golf, and sailing. Argentina has the highest number of highly ranked polo players in the world, and the national squad has been the uninterrupted world champion since 1949. Cricket is growing in popularity because of the National Team's recent successes where they came as the underdogs and finished runner's up of the Inaugural World Cricket League Division 3. Baseball is played in a most limited fashion, as well as the Gridiron.

Motorsports are well represented in Argentina, with Turismo Carretera and TC 2000 being the most popular car racing formats. The Rally Argentina is part of the World Rally Championship (currently held in Córdoba Province). In Formula One racing, the country produced one world champion (Juan Manuel Fangio, five times) and two runners-up (Froilán González and Carlos Reutemann, once each)

Enjoying a small, though loyal, following, the official national sport of Argentina is pato, played with a six-handle ball on horseback.

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