Club Atletico Corrales (Paraguay)
Founded in
1919, Club Atletico Corrales, also known as Atletico Corrales, or also CALT, was
a football club based in Ascuncion, Paraguay. The club colours were red and
navy and they played their home matches at the Estadio Atletico Corrales. Like many football clubs created in the early
20th century, they were formed by a group of workers from a company,
Compañia Americana de Luz y
Tracción. (CALT) A private company that oversaw the electricity and tramline in
Paraguay. The club started off in the lower divisions of the Paraguayan
football pyramid, finally gaining promotion to the top tier after winning the
Paraguayan Second Division, or the Division Intermedia as it was known back
then in 1929. The club competed in the top tier in 1930, but things weren’t
exactly organised in Paraguay with regards football. Due to the World Cup being
hosted in 1930, and the extension of the league to fourteen clubs, only half of
the league started in September. CALT would eventually finish 11th
that year.
The 1931 season was one that went on for over a year. A huge
break during the season due to disagreements and misunderstanding within
Paraguayan football meant the season which started on 3rd May 1931
didn’t end until the 26th of June 1932. The whole thing was a huge
mess, with two factions threatening to separate and create their own football
leagues. It posed questions as to whether it was a good decision for Paraguay
football’s top tier to go professional that year. In the end the football continued,
and a split never happened. CALT finished a respectable 9th in the league that
year, which was eventually won by Olympia. It wouldn’t be until 1935 when the
Paraguay football league would return after being cancelled due to civil unrest
in the country. It would also be the first season that the Paraguay Premier
Division would officially be seen as fully professional, and therefore Cerro
Porteno are seen as the first ever professional winners of the Paraguay Premier
Division. CALT finished 6th that season, but it would be the last
time they would be named CALT. The Paraguayan Football Association made a rule
that clubs could no longer have the name of a company for a football club, so
from then on they were known as Atletico Corrales. The 1936 season saw Atletico
Corrales finish second bottom, 10th out of 11 clubs, but the 1937
season saw a huge improvement with the club finishing 4th. A drop down of two places in the 1938 season
saw the club finish 6th. But it wasn’t Atletico Corrales’ domestic
form that made them stand out from the other Paraguayan football clubs. In 1939
the club were given permission to miss the 1939 season so that they could
embark on a tour of Latin America to face clubs from various countries. This
would be the equivalent of Crystal Palace asking the FA if they could take a
season off to travel around Europe to play different football clubs from
different European countries. But the club were given permission to do so and
off they went, playing against clubs from eleven different countries. They were
Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Dutch
Antilles, Surinam, Venezuela, and Ecuador. The tour began on April 4th,
1939, and finished on April 19th, 1940, lasting just over a year. It
was financed by the board of directors of CALT, in which they made eye catching
signings, not least the Mexican born player, Luis de le Fuente, also nicknamed
“The Pirate”. De le Fuente is known as one of the all-time greats of Mexican
football, being the first Mexican born player to play in four different
countries, which included, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, and Paraguay. He started
his professional career at the age oof 15 years old, when he made his debut for
Mexican club, Aurrera in 1929. “The Pirate” was known for his dazzling
footballing skills and was a real entertainer for the fans. He had an eye for a
pass but also an eye for goal, in which he could score from any way possible.
Strong in the air and two footed, he was a handful to deal with for many
opposition defences. He helped C.D Veracruz to two Primera Division de Mexico
championships between 1945 and 1949, cementing his status as one of the
all-time greats of Mexican football. In 2021 he was named in the IFFHS CONCACAF
Men’s team of all time.
In Argentina, they played two games against Mendoza, winning
the first of these games on the 15th of April 4-3 but losing the
second game, the next day on the 16th of April 6-2. They then played
three games in Chile against a Chile XI in Santiago, winning two and losing
one. A total of seven games were played in Mexico, where they only won twice,
drew one and lost four. It was one of the more eventful countries in which they
visited. The sides they faced were Club
America. June 4th, losing 4-2, Espana-Asturias (Two clubs combined)
June 11th, losing 4-1, Euskadi, June 18th, drawing 4-4, Necaxa,
June 25th, winning 3-1, Asturias FC, July 2nd, losing
5-2, Atlante, July 9th, winning 3-1 and Espana, July 16th,
losing 10-3. Next up was a trip to El Salvador, in which they played three
times, winning two and losing one to a combined XI in that country. Costa Rica
proved to be an easier task for the Paraguayan side, playing five games there,
winning four and losing just one. They started off on the 20th of
August, playing against Orion FC and winning 4-1. Next up was a game against CS
La Libertad, in which they won easily, 6-1. They had a few days off until they
played their third game in San Jose, this time on September the 3rd,
against CS Herediano and once again they won, 3-1. It wasn’t until their fourth
game on the 10th of September when the fell to defeat to SG Espanola,
3-1. But Corrales recovered for their final game in Costa Rica to beat LD
Alajuelense 4-2 on the 17th of September.
And so, it was onto Panama where Corrales payed one game
against a Panama XI and easily beat them 9-3. Colombia was the next
destination, playing a total of seven games, winning just three, drawing two
and losing two. The only known result was against Boca Juniors de Cali, in
which the game was recorded as a 3-2 defeat. November and December of 1939
ended with a trip to Curacao and Venezuela, with a trip to Suriname in between.
Their results in Curacao saw them play five, winning four and drawing one. All
of their four wins came against a Curacao XI with the one draw coming against a
Suriname XI that were based in Curacao at the time (3-3). They then travelled
to Suriname to play but there is no record of the individual matches there that
can be found. They finished the year off in Venezuela, playing four games and
winning all four, beating Venezuela three times, (2-1, 2-0 and 5-2) whilst also
beating club side Dos Caminos, on the 31st of January, 2-0. Ecuador
was another country in which they visited just before they re-visited Colombia
again, playing CA Atlanta twice, drawing 4-4 in one of those games. The other
was played against Millonarious in which they lost 5-3. In total, the tour
consisted of 53 games in total, in which Corrales won 30, drew 9 and lost 14,
scoring a total of 159 goals and conceding 121. It was seen as a money-making
project by the CALT board, who had already lost naming rights to the club and
were looking to cash in on the club by playing these exhibition matches.
The club returned to domestic business for the 1940 season,
finishing 7th in the league that year. The 1941 season saw the club
finish bottom of the league, 11th out of 11 and relegated them to
the second division. That’s where they remained until 1949 when the Paraguayan
government decided to nationalise the electricity services which meant the
private company C.A.L.T was no longer functional and therefore Atletico
Corrales ceased to exists as they had nobody backing them financially anymore.
The story of Atletico Corrales is a strange one in that they
just decided to go off and play a load of matches, 53 in total, around a
continent, instead of playing in their domestic league. Yes, clubs play tournaments
at various different times of the season, but it’s not usually done during a
season, and a club would rarely ask for permission to be omitted from their
domestic league to do this either. But that is the nature of South American
football, it is quite complicated with so many controversies and weird
situations and circumstances happening throughout it’s history. As for
Corrales, they didn’t really make a mark in regards football in Paraguay, with
their only honour being a second division title, but they definitely made an
impression in the countries around them, with Mexico and Colombia being two
countries that seemed to benefit in regards being entertained when they
embarked on their Latin American Tour. I think it was always inevitable that
when the company C.A.L.T went then the club would too, although it does seem to
surprise me that nobody stepped in to run the club. Id imagines this was
because of the time it went defunct, as in 1949 wasn’t a time when clubs were
being bought or even taken over by others, instead the clubs were either merged
with another or in the case of Corrales, just let die. I wonder if any other
club nowadays would think that a ‘Continental Tour’ would be better to take
part in than their actual domestic league? Maybe if some of those chairmen of
those mid table clubs might get some ideas if they read about Atletico
Corrales, The Latin American champions of 1939-40. If that’s even a thing.