Gimnasia won its first Argentine title in 1929 following a campaign that finished with 14 victories and 3 defeats. They played Boca Juniors in the championship final on 9 Feburary 1930, winning the title at the old River Plate stadium, Alvear y Tagle. Their squad included Francisco Varallo, who went on to become Boca Juniors second all-time leading goal scorer and was the last surviving player from the 1930 World Cup when he died in 2010 at 100 years old. Between December 1930 and April 1931, Gimnasia undertook tours of Brazil and Europe. This made Gimnasia la Plata the first Argentine club from outside Buenos Aires to compete in Europe, and the first Argentine club ever to play in Portugal, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Italy. Their two warm up games, which they played in Brazil against Vasco da Gama and a Carioca XI, were unusual in that they were played at night under lights – something that had not yet been implemented in Argentina.  

 

After that, Gimnasia climbed aboard the ship “Asturias” and embarked towards Spain, where they famously played and defeated Real Madrid, thus becoming the first foreign team to beat that team on their own soil, with a 3-2 win. The Spanish press sang their praises, saying “The Argentines seem born to play football.” Five days later they also defeated Barcelona, achieving another momentous win. They played Red Star in France, then it was on to Germany with defeats of Bremen, Sportverein 1860, Polizer Sport, Dusseldolf XI and others. In Czechoslovakia, Gimnasia managed to topple Sparta Prague, one of Europe’s top teams at the time, and following positive results in Italy and Portugal they returned to Brazil, where their results were mixed. All in all, they played a gruelling 27 games across two continents in 4 months. 

Following a series of huge wins in the 1933 Argentine championship, including 4-0, 5-2, 7-1 and 5-1 against Velez Sarsfield, Boca Juniors, Tigre and Chacarita Juniors respectively, Gimnasia were nicknamed “El Expreso” (The Express) by the newspaper Critica, who compared the team with “a locomotive that can’t be stopped either by anything nor anyone”. This proved untrue. With 9 games remaining in the season, Gimnasia played Boca Juniors at La Bombonera. With Gimnasia leading 2-1, the referee awarded Boca a penalty for a foul that Gimnasia players felt was non-existent. Boca scored from the spot and went on to score another from a clear offside position, however the goal stood and Boca won 3-2. Two games later against San Lorenzo, referee Alberto Rojo Miro blatantly favoured Gimnasia’s opponents to the point where Gimnasia players stopped participating, going on strike in protest. They simply sat on the field while San Lorenzo continued scoring without opposition. While goalkeeper Herrera sat leaning on the goal post, Lorenzo scored goal after goal until the referee ended the match at 7-1. They finished the season in fourth place while San Lorenzo became champions. Despite this, the 1933 Gimnasia la Plata squad is considered to be their greatest team ever.

Achievements: Argentine Primera Division – Champions x1