The 100 years of Sports Club Tenerifebut also the history of Santa Cruz First Team Soccerthe English Club, born in 1905 and which had its headquarters in a place in Plaza Candelaria, and which, as its name indicates, was made up of British citizens.
Then came Añaza, in 1912, and from the merger of both, Nivaria was born, which gave rise to the Tenerife Sporting Club. With this tour of soccer as a backbone element through the neighborhoods of Santa Cruz, the journalist Juan Galarza started his proclamation for the May Festival last night, an act with which the celebration of the 529th anniversary of the founding of the city begins.
The Isla de La Madera square hosted the reading of the proclamation, with the presence of the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, and the president of the Tenerife Sports Club, Paulino Rivero, an act in which the journalist was grateful and honored to be able to announce the start of the May Festivities of the capital of Tenerife. “I assume this task with the purpose of sharing with all of you some notes to explore corners of the local geography and passages of its history. Of their neighborhoods and their towns. From the most remote yesterday and from the most recent. From the read and from the revived ”, he indicated.
As Galarza explained, soccer was a tool for cohesion in many neighborhoods of the capital and an example was the Isleño Sporting Club, based in the populous neighborhood of El Cabo and which is now the Real Unión de Tenerife, “being today the oldest club in the city”. A team, that of El Cabo, from which three footballers came out who wore the shirt of the Spanish team. “Gabriel Jorge, Agustín Sánchez and Yeyo Santos”, recalled Galarza.
“Three neighborhood and street players -he continued-, because practically in every corner of Santa Cruz teams emerged at the beginning of the 20th century: Teide, Monteverde, Nakens, Fortuna, Serrano, Ferrer, Gimnástico, Toscal, Numancia, Laurel, Duggi, Verdún, Exploradores… The series could be endless”, he assessed.
The proclamation included a reference to Club Deportivo Tenerife and the resurgence of soccer in the capital of Santa Cruz. “As the blue and white eleven played their matches on the banks of the Santos ravine, the number of followers of the island team grew,” he said.
Successes also those of the rest of the teams, which, as Galarza stated, “towns and neighborhoods whose names achieved international projection thanks to soccer. Moments of glory, more or less ephemeral, which, however, remain in the memory of their older neighbors, those of us who were fortunate enough to enjoy it”, to give an example: “The glory of assisting a team’s promotion to the national category modest as Toscal CF, something that until then only CD Tenerife had achieved”, he added. Galarza looked back to remember his own childhood, in which for a long time he “played ball” in the middle of the street, “as long as a vehicle did not break in or, worse still, a municipal vehicle like those that García Sanabria sent in the 20s”.
He humorously recalled how “clumsy of me, in the game and in the escape in the presence of the “chilli pepper”, on one occasion I was taken home by a municipal officer, who gave my father a fine. His rebuke was unforgettable, but also added in a vindictive way: “Tell the mayor, please, that this would not happen if the children of Santa Cruz had a place to play sports.”
For his part, the mayor highlighted Galarza “being a loyal person, committed to those around him, a family person, who transmits a trust and closeness that have made him not only a well-known man in his city, but also a professional respected by all”.
