A clubs nicknames can reveal great detail about a clubs history and culture or it can be merely a trivial name attached at a certain point in history that has stuck. In our series of how South American clubs got their nicknames we will pick out the most interesting ones in each country beginning with Uruguay.
Peñarol began their journey to becoming the most successful team of the 20th century or ‘el Campeon del Siglo’ as the sports club of the Uruguayan Railway Workers Association and were originally known as CURCC (Central Uruguayan Railway Company) and based in the Peñarol neighbourhood of Montevideo. Their first nickname Los Carboneros or the Coalmen is therefore relatively simple to work out, however it is the second nickname, Manya, that provides a longer and more head scratching story. There remains some debate as to how the name came about but the story revolves around Italian immigrant José Scarone and his son Carlos, who went to represent the Uruguayan National team. After Carlos left Peñarol to play for Boca Juniors he later returned to wear the shirt or arch rivals Nacional. Upon being told this by his son, José reportedly told his son in italian to ‘mangia merda’ (eat shit) which was adapted in Spanish to ‘Manya’. The loyalty of father to his football club over his own son became a thing of legend and ever since Peñarol fans have proudly adopted the name Manya. José would go on to suffer further disappointment from his other son Hector who went on to become a Nacional club legend although the legacy of the father has arguably outlasted that of both sons.
Nacional are known commonly as los Bolsos which has a far less interesting story than their great rivals. The club used to played with a pocket on their shirt thus the Spanish word for pocket (bolsillo) became shortened, the pocket is still prominent in the design of the clubs badge.
Wiki commons / Luis Suarez Nacional
The clue is very much in the name with Montevideo Wanderers who are commonly known as Bohemios or Vagabundos due to them not originally having a stadium upon inception and having to share stadiums with local sides or relocate on a game by game basis.
Defensor’s tag as los tuertos or the ‘one eyes’ is quite a unique one in global football nicknames. The first and more common version of how they earned this name is that the lighthouse on their badge appears to be only looking out in one direction as if it had one eye. The second and less common version is that an early Defensor side contained a number of players who were blind in one eye thus opposition players referred to them in this way.
Most others in Uruguay have names referring to the area they hail from or the colour of shirt in which they play with the exception of Rampla Juniors. The club with one of the most distinctive badges in world football are known locally as los Picapiedras (The Flintones). This tag shows how a nickname can be trivial as it derives from a period in which the Rambla stadium was being developed and their remained a number of building materials close to the surface of play from the works. These rocks had to be removed thus los picapiedras was born.
