Another of Argentina’s famous “Big Five” clubs, San Lorenzo are based in the Bajo Flores district of Buenos Aires, one of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. They gained additional street cred when Pope Francis, a huge fan of the club, was elected as leader of the worlds Catholics in 2013. In fact, he still has his San Lorenzo membership card. This team is the San Lorenzo of Pope Francis’ youth, the one he grew up watching and supporting. Like with many other residents of Buenos Aires, it was the silky skills of the “Golden Trio” that attracted Francis to the club. The Golden Trio comprised of three extremely talented players who enjoy legendary status in Argentina today: Armando Farro, Rene Pontoni and Rinaldo Martino. Joining these three was a number of players recruited from the provinces, known as Los Gauchos, plus another group of players of Basque decent which endeared the club to the Basque community of Buenos Aires.

 

The AFA put two separate championships on in 1936, with San Lorenzo winning the Copa de Honor and River Plate winning the Copa Campeonato. The Association recognized both titles, but the two sides had to enter a play-off called the Copa de Oro to decide who would be competing against the champions of neighbouring Uruguay for the Copa Aldao. In the end, River won 4-2 and went on to face Penarol. In 1943, San Lorenzo took part in what was called the Championship of the Republic and beat 35 participating teams to the title, claiming the Copa General Pedro Ramirez, a trophy named in honour of the then de-facto Argentine president. In the first round, San Lorenzo managed to defeat River Plate 4-2, before going on to eliminate Estudiantes de la Plata and their arch rivals, Huracan. In the final, they thrashed General Paz Juniors from Cordoba 8-3 to lift the trophy.

 

It was around this time that the famed Golden Trio came to the fore. In a thrilling race for the 1946 Argentine championship, they helped San Lorenzo keep the pace with Boca Juniors and River Plate eventually beating them to the line by four points to claim the title. That season, they scored 90 goals in 30 games and conceded only 27. In the crowd at all of San Lorenzo’s home games that year was a youngster named Jorge Mario Bergoglio – the future Pope Francis. After this victory, San Lorenzo embarked on a tour to Europe in which they had outstanding results. The trip to Spain and Portugal became a highlight in the clubs history in which they defeated Atletico Aviacion 4-1, toppled the Spanish national team in a 7-5 thriller before crushing them 6-1 in another meeting (the Spanish crowd proclaimed San Lorenzo to be “the best team in the world”) then going on to embarrass Porto and the Portuguese national team on their own turf, 9-4 and 10-4 respectively.

 

The only team that managed to best San Lorenzo was Real Madrid, who defeated the Argentines 4-1. The tour was so successful that Rene Pontoni was offered a contract with Barcelona, however he declined to leave Argentina so the club drafted Alfredo di Stefano from River Plate instead, and the rest is history. Golden Trio member Rinaldo Martino did, however, opt to stay in Europe and he went on to become a star with Italian giants Juventus. 

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Achievements:
Copa de la Honour – Winners x1
Argentine Primera Division – Champions x1
Copa de la Rupublica – Winners x1

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Star player: Rinaldo Martino, dob 6 November 1921, pob Rosario, Argentina, nickname: Mamucho

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An Italian/Argentine dual national, Martino was famed for being part of the Golden Trio and armed with a lethal goalscoring ability, playmaking skills and technique. Signed by San Lorenzo at 19, he became the top scorer of the Primera Division with 25 goals in 30 games in the 1942 season. After winning the title in 1946 and San Lorenzo’s subsequent visit to Europe, Martino was signed by Juventus who he helped to achieve their first title since the 1930’s. He played for the Italian national team, albeit only on one occasion in 1949. Before that, he represented Argentina with whom he scored 15 goals in 20 appearances and played a part in their 1945 and 1946 Copa America wins. After Juventus, Martino returned to South America to play for Nacional with whom he won a Uruguayan championship in 1950, the year Uruguay won the World Cup. He returned to Argentina briefly after being signed by Boca Juniors, but they then sold him back to Nacional where he remained for another three years, winning another league title and several other trophies. After his retirement, Martino became president of a mutual society for Argentine ex-footballers, and, as a lover of Argentine tango, he opened a tango club/restaurant that remained open for 18 years. Martino died in his home of Buenos Aires in 2000.