Platense returned to the first division of the Argentine Championship in 2021, after almost 50 years, and this month it became national champion
It took 120 years for Platense to win the Argentine Championship for the first time. A little over a week ago, on June 2, the modest club with 8,000 members beat Huracán 1-0, lifting the national trophy and securing a spot in next season’s Copa Libertadores.
The history of the Florida club, in the Metropolitan Region of Buenos Aires, began on May 25, 1905, when five young men went to the Hipódromo Nacional to bet on a horse named “Gay Simon”. Since the animal they chose was the winner of the race, the young men won 445 pesos, which made them extremely happy. As a way of celebrating, they decided to found a club that would be named after the stable that housed the horse. From 1972 to 2020, the club was far from the top flight of Argentine football. During that period, it alternated between the second and third divisions of the country.
When Platense returned to the first division, anyone who said that El Calamar (the squid in Portuguese) would be crowned national champion in less than five years could have been considered crazy – especially considering the way it turned out.
One of the most curious facts about the brown and white campaign is the team’s coaching staff. This is because, unlike usual, the players are not led by one, but by two coaches: Favio Orsi and Sergio Gómez. Former Platense players, they have worked together since 2011, when they were assistants to Argentine club Fénix. As head coaches, they worked at Godoy Cruz and Atlético de Tucumán before taking over the champions in February 2024.
This season, the Argentine Championship was divided into the Apertura and Clausura tournaments, as was the case in previous years. In this model, a phase is first played with two groups of 15 clubs, with the top eight from each advancing to the knockout stage. In the first phase, Platense was part of Group B, the same as River Plate, Rosario Central and San Lorenzo. The champions advanced in sixth place, with 20 points.
In the round of 16, they faced Racing, Cruzeiro’s executioner in the 2024 Copa Sudamericana final. In a single game played at El Cilindro, striker Nicolás Orsini scored in the 39th minute of the second half and guaranteed Platense’s qualification with a 1-0 victory. If beating Racing had already been difficult, the next phase had another tough opponent in store: River Plate. At the Monumental de Núñez, the duel was marked by controversy.
Platense took the lead, but saw River equalize with a penalty kick that angered the Florida team’s players, since they believed that Millonarios had committed a foul in the play. The tie remained until the final whistle, and the spot had to be decided on the penalty spot. Before the match began, when the captains drew lots to decide the order of the kicks, defender Ignacio Vázquez, still indignant, refused to look referee Yael Falcon Perez in the face. Shortly after, the anger turned to happiness for qualifying.
Another Libertadores champion stood in Platense’s way to the final. The penultimate battle for glory was with San Lorenzo, who lost the semifinal 1-0. Platense played all of the knockout games away from the Ciudad de Vicente López Stadium, the club’s home ground. The final was no different. The neutral venue chosen for the grand final was the Único Madre de Ciudades Stadium in Santiago del Estero. The final of surprises, since Platense’s opponent was Hurácan, which is not among the traditional teams in Argentina, ended with a 1-0 victory for the team coached by Favio Orsi and Sergio Gómez. Thus, the highest point in a century-old history was reached.
According to the annual report published by the AFA (Argentine Football Association), Platense is the 22nd club with the most members in Argentine football, with 8,332 fans with up-to-date membership cards. In this regard, El Calamar is far from the more traditional clubs.River Plate leads the ranking with 351,487, closely followed by Boca Juniors with 323,586. In addition to the two giants, other clubs have many members: Independiente (146,570), Rosario Central (96,297), San Lorenzo (89,717) and Racing (86,289).
