Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata
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| Full name | Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | Los Triperos, Mensanas, El Lobo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1887 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Juan Carlos Zerrillo El Bosque, La Plata, Argentina | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Capacity | 33,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman | Juan José Muñós | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manager | Pedro Troglio | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| League | Argentine Primera División | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2005 Apertura | 12th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata is a sports club in La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, mostly known for its successful basketball team of the 1970s and 1980s and for its professional football team.
The rest of this article is related to the football team.
| Contents |
History
The club was founded on June 3, 1887, and is the oldest Argentine first division side. In 1905, a group of students who felt left out by the management founded a second club, rivals Estudiantes de La Plata.
Gimnasia was relegated in 1979 but returned to the top division a few years later.
In 1995 Gimnasia took second place in the league championsip, and in the next year it repeated this performance; the championship title was denied to them at the last day of the 1996 season. Those were the two most successful seasons ever, with coach Carlos Timoteo Griguol at the helm.
The performances of the last several years have been inconsistent. Due to the averaging system used in Argentina (seePrimera División de Argentina), the team is in danger of relegation, although a string of wins near the end of the 2005 Clausura put this danger away for one more year.
Stadium
The "Juan Carlos Zerrillo" stadium is informally known as el Bosque (the forest) and is located in the La Plata park of the same name, within walking distance of Estudiantes' field. It has a capacity of roughly 33,000.
Even though a new stadium has been built for the city of La Plata, neither Gimnasia nor rivals Estudiantes have moved their home games.
Fan Base
Within the city of La Plata and its environs, the Gimnasia fan base is identified with the working class and is shorter than the (mostly middle-class) Estudiantes constituency. There are very few Gimnasia fans outside the La Plata area.
Nicknames
Gimnasia is called el lobo (the wolf) because its stadium is inside the bosque (forest).
Another nickname, Mens Sanas, derives from the Latin motto Mens Sana in Corpore Sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body). These are the preferred nicknames used by fans and the press.
The name triperos (intestine-handlers) comes from the many supporters who worked in the meat-processing plants of nearby Berisso. Curiously, the same nickname is used for the population of Porto in Portugal.
Rivals like to taunt Gimnasia by calling them subcampeones (runners-up) as they had two second-place finishes but never attained a championship title in the professional era.
The fans' collective calls itself la 22.
List of Famous Players
- Hugo Orlando Gatti (el Loco)
- Dominguez
- Alberto José Márcico (Beto)
- Andrés Guglielminpietro (Guly)
- Roberto Sosa (Pampa)
External Links
- Official Web Site (http://www.gelp.com.ar/)
- AFA site (http://www.afa.org.ar)
| Primera División Argentina |
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| Almagro | Argentinos Juniors | Arsenal de Sarandí | Banfield | Boca Juniors | Colón de Santa Fe | Estudiantes de La Plata | Gimnasia La Plata | Huracán (TA) | Independiente | Instituto | Lanús | Newell's Old Boys | Olimpo de Bahía Blanca | Quilmes | Racing Club | River Plate | Rosario Central | San Lorenzo | Vélez Sársfield |
