On 15 February 1901 a group of youngsters from Chacaritas, a poor neighbourhood of Lima, formed their own team. On 15 February 2027 Alianza Lima turns 126. This is the club named after a horse stable, and one that changes colour every October for the sake of its faith.

The kids of Chacaritas

The founders included the Cucalón brothers and the Pedreschi brothers, along with other young people from the area. The meeting took place on Cotabambas street. What they lacked was a pitch.

They found it at the "Alianza" racing stable, owned by Augusto B. Leguía, who later became president of Peru. The stable workers let the kids play there, and so the team took the name Sport Alianza.

Later "Sport" was dropped and Alianza Lima remained, though sources disagree on when, some giving 1920 and others 1928. Fans call the club "Íntimos", the "close friends", because of the family atmosphere among the founders.

Green, blue and white

The first kit was green and white, in honour of Eduardo Pedreschi's Italian roots. Very soon, though, the team switched to the colours of the stable that hosted it: blue, white and black.

Between 1912 and 1919 it also alternated with a white shirt with a single vertical blue band down the middle. By the 1920s the shirt with blue and white vertical stripes was firmly established, and it is still worn today with blue shorts.

October's purple shirt

Every October Alianza puts the blue aside and wears purple and white, in honour of the Señor de los Milagros, the "Lord of Miracles", Lima's great religious festival. It is often described as the only team in the world that changes its shirt colour for a religious tradition.

According to a story told in the Peruvian press, it all began in 1956: the shirts had not dried after the rain, and a player sewed kits from the purple cloth used for the procession robes. The team won 2-1, and the custom was revived for good in 1971.

The 1987 tragedy

On 8 December 1987 the team was returning from a 1-0 win in Pucallpa, one match away from another title. The Navy Fokker plane crashed into the sea near Lima, killing 43 people, among them 16 footballers.

The pilot was the only survivor. To finish the season, Chile's Colo-Colo loaned four players, and the two clubs have been bound by friendship ever since.

Matute, idols and the clásico

Home is the Estadio Alejandro Villanueva, known as "Matute" after its neighbourhood in La Victoria, opened in 1974. It is named after Alejandro Villanueva, the great idol of the 1920s and 1930s.

Big names have worn the stripes, such as Teófilo Cubillas, César Cueto, Hugo Sotil and record scorer Waldir Sáenz. The great rival is Universitario, with the Peruvian clásico played since 1928.

Alianza counts 25 official league titles, while the club also claims a 26th. Traditionally it is the team of the people and of the capital's working-class districts.

Celebrate with us

From a horse stable to Matute, Alianza Lima carries the neighbourhood, the memory and the faith of an entire people on its shirt. Few teams have two such distinctive shirts, one for the whole year and one for October.

Happy 126th birthday, Alianza! Arriba Alianza!

See our collectible jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Estadio Alejandro Villanueva (Matute) from above – Carlos Pozo Albirena, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.