Ángel Zárraga

Another beautiful painting by Ángel Zárraga.

Ángel Zárraga

During the 1920's the Mexican artist Ángel Zárraga produced a series of vibrant paintings of footballers.
More to follow...

British Football Club

British Club, 1902-03

Early football in Mexico was essentially a British affair. The teams that contested the first league competition in 1902-03 were almost exclusively English and Scottish in composition.
One of the clubs in particular left no doubts about the members' origins, British Football Club Ciudad de México.
The club itself (Club Británico) had been founded in 1899, but the football section came into being in 1902. 
The club represented an ideal of good manners and gentlemanly conduct, and wore eye catching chocolate brown jerseys. 
The Primera Fuerza was first contested in 1902-03, and British Club finished 3rd (out of 5).  They won their only league title in 1907-08.
 In 1910–11 they won the Copa Tower, a precursor of the Copa México (named after the donor of the cup, the British Ambassador Reginald Tower).
British Club went into decline, struggling to make a full team for matches in the 1911-12 season. The club folded and a  number of British Club players went on to form The Rovers via a merger with the short lived Popo Park FC.

Mexico

When looking at the early days of Mexican international football we will find that Rafael Garza Gutiérrez (known popularly as Record) occupies centre stage.

Record was a founder of América (1916), the club which in 1922 became the first Mexican team to play abroad, taking part in a tournament in Guatemala.
América also figured large on the domestic front, being league champions 4 seasons in a row (1924-25 to 1927-28).
Garza Gutiérrez was a natural choice to lead Mexico.
Mexico's first 6 internationals were all played against Guatemala in 1923, 3 in Guatemala in January and 3 in Mexico City in December. Following this series of matches there was a 5 year hiatus -Mexico's next match being at the Amsterdam Olympics. In the meantime the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación had been formed (1927). 

Here we will look at the first three internationals, all played on a tour of Guatemala in January 1923. The Mexican squad was made up entirely of América players:

Ignacio de la Garza 

Pedro Legarreta 

Rafael Garza Gutiérrez "Record"(c)

Enrique Esquivel 

José Andrade 

Pablo Sarré 

Carlos Garcés 

Horacio Ortíz 

José Díaz Izquierdo 

Adeodato López 

Humberto Garza Ramos 

Agustín Ojeda  replaced Humberto Garza Ramos for the second game only.The team was managed by Adolfo Frías Beltrán.

Guatemala had previous experience of international football, havingh played 2 matches in September 1921 in which they beat Honduras 9-0 and lost 6-0 to Costa Rica.

1. 01.01.23 Guatemala 2-3 México
(Campo Marte, Guatemala: 10,000)
José Díaz Izquierdo scored Mexico's first international goal to put them 1-0 up in the 26th minute. Horacio Ortíz added a second before half time. 

Fernando Minondo scored for Guatemala on 65. Adeodato López extended Mexico's lead in the 70th minute and Constantino Kinhie got the hosts' second 2 minutes later.


2.04.01.23 Guatemala 3-1 México
(Campo Marte, Guatemala: 10,000)
Three days later Guatemala exacted some revenge on the visitors. José Minondo struck twice in the first half and completed his hattrick after Horacio Ortíz had pulled one back for Mexico.

3. 07.01.23 Guatemala 1-4 México
(Campo Marte, Guatemala: 6,000)
Mexico got off to a flying start in the third match, with José Díaz Izquierdo and Horacio Ortíz scoring in the opening 10 minutes. Adeodato López got the third in the 34th minute and completed the scoring 6 minutes from time. José Minondo had scored for the hosts in the 68th minute. 

Garza Gutiérrez later led Mexico in the 1928 Olympics and the 1930 World Cup. On retiring as a player he became the manager of the national team.

Mexico-Liga de Football Association Amateur 1902-03

The Liga de Football Association Amateur was founded in June 1902, and a national Mexican championship was held during the 1902/03 season , each team playing each other once. The league was formed by Duncan Macomish, Thomas Hanghey and Percy Clifford . Five clubs took part,  three from the capital and two the provinces. All of these clubs were essentially English in origin, and it was a few years before Mexican players began to make an impact.


The first champions, Orizaba Athletic Club (Albinegros de Orizaba) came from  Veracruz state.The club was founded by textile workers and European technicians in 1898. During the1902/03 season Orizaba had an exclusively  British squad . 
 The club was founded by a Scot, Duncan Macomish, who owned a  steel company. 

Reforma

Reforma was founded in 1894 by a group of Englishmen in Mexico City as a sports and social club.

British Football Club, based in Mexico City, was founded in 1902 by Percy Clifford, a Cornish immigrant, who at the time was a member of the Club Reforma.

Pachuca Athletic Club was founded in 1900 by Cornish mining engineers and workers of the Compañía Real del Monte. Pachuca is in Hidalgo state.
Pachuca was also an English dominated club- David Islas was the first  Mexican to play for them, in 1908.
Wikipedia credits Alfred C. Crowle as being  'the man who first introduced the sport to the mine workers, bringing the first footballs and the rules'. In fact Crowle, who was born in Mexico (his parents were from Cornwall), joined Pachuca in 1904 as a 13 year old. He played for the club for 23 seasons, and in 1935 became manager of the Mexican national team.


 Mexican National Cricket Club was founded in the small town San Pedro de los Pinos, now absorbed into the suburbs of Mexico City. The club was later known as Mexico Country Club (1906–08) and San Pedro Golf (1905–06).



1. Orizaba AC                                              4 3 1 0  5- 2     7
2. Reforma AC México                                  4 2 2 0 11- 5    6
3. British FC México                                     4 2 0 2   7- 3    4
4. Pachuca AC                                             4 0 2 2   2- 6    2
5. Mexican National Cricket Club                   4 0 1 3   2-11    1