South Americans in Britain - 1950s to 1970s

[Merseman]

Inspired by the thread about Bela Vista...

I've a collection of South American sides touring in the British Isles.

Can anybody add missing games - or indeed entire club tours - to this list?

There are sometimes date gaps where they must've played other ties.

(Plus sometimes unlikely a team would visit for only 1 or 2 matches):



River Plate (Uruguay) 1952
P - Sat 2 Feb - Manchester City



Independiente (Argentina) 1954
P - Sat 30 Jan - Huddersfield Town

Portuguesa de Desportos (Brazil) 1954
P - Sat 20 Feb - Arsenal
P - Mon 22 Feb - Watford
P - Wed 24 Feb - Luton Town

Racing Buenos Aires (Argentina) 1954
P - Wed 10 Mar - Wolverhampton Wanderers
P - Sat 13 Mar - Chelsea

Olaria (Brazil) 1954
P - Tue 27 Apr - West Ham United



San Lorenzo (Argentina) 1956
P - Thu 19 Jan - Brentford
X - Sat 21 Jan - Rangers
P - Thu 26 Jan - Sheffield Wednesday
P - Sat 28 Jan - Wolverhampton Wanderers
P - Mon 30 Jan - Coventry City
P - Wed 1 Feb - Southampton

Botafogo (Brazil) 1956
P - Mon 9 Apr - Fulham
P - Tue 17 Apr - Burnley
P - Thu 19 Apr - Brentford

Rampla (Uruguay) 1956
P - Tue 10 Apr - Luton Town
P - Wed 11 Apr - Portsmouth
P - Mon 16 Apr - Leeds United
P - Wed 18 Apr - Queen's Park Rangers
P - Thu 19 Apr - Watford
P - Mon 23 Apr - Mansfield Town
P - Wed 25 Apr - Southampton

Vasco da Gama (Brazil) 1956
P - Sat 28 Apr - Everton
P - Mon 30 Apr - Hibernian



Esporte Bahia (Brazil) 1957
P - Tue 2 Apr - Chelsea
P - Thu 4 Apr - Brentford



Canto do Rio (Brazil) 1958
P - Tue 22 Apr - Chelsea
P - Thu 24 Apr - Tottenham Hotspur
P - Mon 28 Apr - Leicester City

Bela Vista (Brazil) 1958
P - Mon 29 Sep - Birmingham City
P - Wed 1 Oct - Newcastle United
P - Mon 6 Oct - Middlesbrough
P - Wed 8 Oct - Sheffield United
P - Mon 13 Oct - Luton Town
P - Tue 14 Oct - Tottenham Hotspur



Fluminense (Brazil) 1960
P - Mon 25 Apr - West Ham United
P - Wed 27 Apr - Brighton & Hove Albion
P - Mon 2 May - Middlesbrough

Flamengo (Brazil) 1960
P - Tue 26 Apr - Motherwell

Esporte Bahia (Brazil) 1960
P - Mon 26 Sep - Motherwell
? - Wed 28 Sep - Aberdeen



Bangu (Brazil) 1961
P - Mon 10 Apr - Sunderland
P - Wed 12 Apr - Everton
P - Fri 14 Apr - Crystal Palace
X - Mon 17 Apr - Kilmarnock

CAR La Paz (Bolivia) 1961
? - Tue 24 Oct - Aberdeen
P - Thu 26 Oct - Exeter City
P - Mon 30 Oct - Plymouth Argyle
P - Wed 1 Nov - Southampton
P - Thu 2 Nov - Luton Town
P - Mon 6 Nov - Scunthorpe United



Santos (Brazil) 1962
P - Mon 22 Oct - Sheffield Wednesday



FC America (Brazil) 1964
P - Thu 30 Apr - Coventry City



Brazil XI (players of Corinthians and Portuguesa de Desportes) 1965
P - Tue 16 Nov - Arsenal



Penarol (Uruguay) 1967
P - Tue 5 Sep - Celtic



Santos (Brazil) 1969
P - Tue 23 Sep - Stoke City



Nacional (Uruguay) 1971
P - Wed 1 Sep - Celtic



Santos (Brazil) 1972
P - Mon 21 Feb - Aston Villa
P - Wed 23 Feb - Sheffield Wednesday
P - Sat 26 Feb - Bohemians & Drumcondra XI (at Dalymount)

Nacional (Uruguay) 1972
P - Tue 11 Apr - Hull City



Santos (Brazil) 1973
P - Mon 12 Mar - Fulham
P - Wed 14 Mar - Plymouth Argyle



Internacional (Brazil) 1974
P - Tue 25 Feb - Oldham Athletic
P - Sat 8 Mar - Newcastle United

[Merseman]

For completeness here are visits by their national teams:


Argentina
P - Wed 9 May 1951 - England (at Wembley) - Festival of Britain
P - Sun 13 May 1951 - Eire (at Dalymount)
P - Wed 22 May 1974 - England (at Wembley)
P - Sat 29 May 1979 - Shamrock Rovers XI (at Lansdowne Road) - UNICEF
P - Wed 2 Jun 1979 - Scotland (at Hampden)


Brazil
P - Wed 9 May 1956 - England (at Wembley)
P - Wed 8 May 1963 - England (at Wembley) - FA Centenary
P - Sat 25 Jun 1966 - Scotland (at Hampden)
P - Sat 30 Jun 1973 - Scotland (at Hampden) - SFA Centenary
P - Tue 3 Jul 1973 - Shamrock Rovers XI (at Dalymount) - UNICEF
P - Wed 19 Apr 1978 - England (at Wembley)


Chile
P - Wed 30 Mar 1960 - Eire (at Dalymount)


Peru
P - Wed 26 Apr 1972 - Scotland (at Hampden)


Uruguay
P - Wed 2 May 1962 - Scotland (at Hampden)
P - Wed 29 Apr 1964 - Northern Ireland (at Windsor Park)
P - Wed 6 May 1964 - England (at Wembley)

[colchestersid]

A couple to add to your list

West Ham v Peru-Chile XI - 16/10/1933

West Ham v Botafogo - 11/08/1991

RSSSF has these from results from the 1933 tour by the Peru-Chile team

01/10/1933 Irish Free State, Dublin Bohemian FC 1-1 P.
02/10/1933 Northern Ireland, Belfast Glentoran FC 1-1 P.
04/10/1933 Scotland, Glasgow The Celtic FC 2-1 P.
09/10/1933 Scotland, Edinburgh Heart of Midlothian FC 3-0 P.
11/10/1933 England, Newcastle Newcastle United FC 6-1 P.
16/10/1933 England, Upton Park West Ham United FC 2-2 P

[colchestersid]

For Olaria 1954 the West Ham programme confirms it was their only game in England

Oddly though they did play Chelsea in Luxembourg on 1st May 1954

[seand]

You can trawl through the international friendlies section on the venerable RSSSF.com

http://rsssf.com/intclub-friend.html
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[Tynie Topics]

Hearts played Cruzerio (Belo Horizonte) on 09/08/1988, a programme was issued.
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[PeterE]

Hi Merseman,

Definitely no programme for Bahia at Aberdeen.

[PeterE]

And also no programme for La Paz at Aberdeen

[Jim LFC]

Man Utd v Estudiantes 16/10/1968

[Goonerak]

Arsenal v Estudiantes 21 October 1968
Birmingham City v Estudiantes 23 October 1968

Estudiantes left England on 17 October 1968 following the stormy game v Manchester United, seemingly on the orders of the President of Argentina.

A programme was produced for the Arsenal game with all but a few copies pulped.

[garyspain]

I have Bohemians v Peru/Chile XI 1933 and Glentoran v Peru/Chile XI definitely exists.

[manchesterunitedman1]

Jim LFC wrote:

Man Utd v Estudiantes 16/10/1968

this does not count Jim, Estudiantes were not touring the UK. World Club Championship or whatever it was called. Typical United fell at the last hurdle in the 1960's. Won just 2 championships, one fac up , one European Cup. lost 5 semi-finals on the trot and i maintain to this day we lost more with best law charlton than we won!
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[Rocky]

16.08.78 Middlesbrough 2 v 1 Huracan (Argentina). A single sheet was issued.

Huracan had previously participated in a tournament in Spain and on their journey home they made a detour for a friendly v Boro. The friendly was organised as part of the proposed transfer for Rene Houseman. You may recall it was flavour of the month to have a World Cup winner in your team in 1978, Ardiles, Villa, Tarantini et al.

After negotiating the transfer, it was called off weeks later when Housemen was offered more money by Huracan.
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[Merseman]

Thanks for responses.

I've read my programmes, and found references to:


Racing Buenos Aires (Argentina) 1954
"... on Saturday they are to visit Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and on Monday 15th March they play West Ham at Upton Park after which they conclude their European visit with a game in Paris on Wednesday..."


Botafogo (Brazil) 1956
"... they began their English itinerary by sharing four goals with Fulham at Craven Cottage, and subsequently they defeated Plymouth Argyle by three goals to two at Home Park. According to reports..."


Esporte Bahia (Brazil) 1960
played Aberdeen twice - on Mon 12 Sep as well as on Tue 27 Sep

[colchestersid]

Merseman wrote:

Racing Buenos Aires (Argentina) 1954 "... on Saturday they are to visit Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, and on Monday 15th March they play West Ham at Upton Park after which they conclude their European visit with a game in Paris on Wednesday..."

From the West Ham res v Chelsea res programme of Saturday 13th March 1954

We regret to announce that our proposed Floodlight Match v Racing Club Buenos Aires on Monday next ... has been cancelled

[martino]

Bangu were scheduled to play at Portsmouth on 18th May 1955 but the match was cancelled; not sure why they would come for one match or perhaps the whole tour was cancelled.

[sharrowblade]

Sheffield United v River Plate 30.8.78
Sheffield United v Estudiantes 1.8.10
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[pafcprogs]

Argyle played Trinidad & Tobago in 1953/4 ( not quite but almost South America)

Also played Botofogo in 55/6 on April 11th ( programme issued ...Pm me if you want a copy)

Lost 2-3 and crown was 9000

The Santos game at Home Park was infamous for Santos seeing the 37K crowd and demanding extra cash which was brought is a suitcase by all accounts.

I have the late referees programme copy, extensively autographed....
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[Merseman]

pafcprogs wrote:

Argyle played Trinidad & Tobago in 1953/4 ( not quite but almost South America) Also played Botofogo in 55/6 on April 11th ( programme issued ...Pm me if you want a copy) Lost 2-3 and crown was 9000 The Santos game at Home Park was infamous for Santos seeing the 37K crowd and demanding extra cash which was brought is a suitcase by all accounts. I have the late referees programme copy, extensively autographed....

PM sent!

[Jim LFC]

manchesterunitedman1 wrote:

Jim LFC wrote: Man Utd v Estudiantes 16/10/1968 this does not count Jim, Estudiantes were not touring the UK. World Club Championship or whatever it was called.

I take your point Leslie but I read that Estudiantes also had a game planned at Highbury and the programme was ultra rare, as confirmed by Goonerak. Also confirmed was a proposed game at Birmingham, so I would say that 3 games probably constitute a tour!