The Copa Libertadores is the most important international football club competition in South America. It was first competed for in 1960 and occurs once every year. Throughout the history of the tournament, 25 teams from seven countries have won the competition. It is the equivalent of the UEAFA Champions League in South America.
Notable eras in the tournament's history include Juan Carlos Lorenzo's tenure with Boca Juniors, Flamengo's title victory with a squad led by Zico, and René Higuita's penalty saves for Atlético Nacional against Olimpia. Other prominent periods include São Paulo's time dos sonhos under coach Telê Santana, as well as Carlos Bianchi's managerial successes with both Vélez Sársfield and Boca Juniors.
The sport was introduced to South America in many different ways. For example, football was introduced to Argentina in the latter half of the 19th century by the British immigrants in Buenos Aires, while Colombia was exposed to football in the early 20th century. An expatriate named Charles William Miller introduced the sport to Brazil. Football was first brought to Chile by the British who exhibited the sport during visits to the commercial ports such as in Valparaíso. Dutchman William Paats, who moved from the Netherlands to Asunción (the capital of Paraguay) in 1888, introduced football to Paraguay, as well as laying the foundations for a classic South American club.
The dawn to the Copa Libertadores
The roots of the competition had existed for a long while the South American spirit of competition at club level was present since the beginning of the century. During the 1930s and 1940s, Argentinean and Uruguayan clubs vied for the Copa Ricardo Aldao between their respective champions rotating the location of the final every a year Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The delegates of Colo-Colo, after years of insistence, managed to push CONMEBOL into creating the first continental tournament.
The "Campeonato Sudamericano de Campeones" became the first "prototype" and it was successfully played in 1948; Vasco da Gama won the competition played entirely in Santiago, Chile. The 1948 South American tournament impulsed, in continent-wide reach, the "champions cup" model, resulting in the creation of the European Cup in 1955, as confirmed by Jacques Ferran (one of the "founding fathers" of the European Cup), in a 2015 interview to a Brazilian TV sports program.Globo Esporte, 10/May/2015: Especial: Liga dos Campeões completa 60 anos, e Neymar ajuda a contar essa história. Accessed in 06/December/2015. The connection between the 1948 competition and the Copa Libertadores was recognised by Conmebol with the participation of Vasco da Gama in the 1997 Supercopa Libertadores, a Conmebol competition that accepted the participation of Copa Libertadores winners only, and the 1948 championship is referred to at the Conmebol website as the competition that, 12 years later, would become the Copa Libertadores.
Another continental competition held prior to Copa Libertadores was the "Copa do Atlântico" organized by three bodies, Argentine, Brazilian and Uruguayan Associations, with five teams from each of them taking part of the tournament.Copa del Atlántico (Taça do Atlântico) de Clubes da América 1956 - RSSSF The cup had only one edition in 1956, with no champion crowned after Boca Juniors and Corinthians qualified to the finals. The match had been scheduled for July 19 but it was never played.Copa del Atlántico on Historia de Boca
For all this, the subject of the South American Congress held in 1958 in Rio de Janeiro was not unknown to board members: Raúl Colombo and Eduardo Palma of Argentina, Fermín Sorhueta, Washington Cataldi, Luis Tróccoli and Juan Carlos Bracco of Uruguay, Alfredo Gallindo of Bolivia, Lydio Quevedo of Paraguay, Teófilo Salinas of Perú, Alberto Goñi of Chile, and Joao Havelange and Abilio D'Almeida of Brazil. The secretary general of the Union des Associations Européennes de Football, or UEFA, Henry Delaunay, submitted a proposal to the then-head of CONMEBOL José Ramos de Freitas of Brazil to organize an annual double confrontation between the champions of Europe and South America in what was seen as a welcomed but unneeded incentive. The proposal for the creation of a South American club championship was supported by Argentina and Brazil but was opposed by Uruguay, a country which at that time still had a transcendent pre-eminence in the decision-making of the confederation, sharing political and continental power with Argentina. Brazil had just won their first World Cup and had not yet the privileges or political weight that presently holds.
Uruguay's opposition was based on that "the competition being promoted would go against the interest of the South American national-team championships". Moreover, Argentina, with the support of Brazil, had proposed that those tournaments should be played every four years instead of every two in early 1957 (in which Uruguay strongly opposed as they were the main architects of the Campeonato Sudamericano).
On October 8, 1958, João Havelange announced, at a UEFA meeting he attended as an invitee, the creation of Copa de Campeones de America (American Champions Cup, renamed in 1965 as Copa Libertadores), as a South American equivalent of the European Cup, so that the champion clubs of both continental confederations could decide "the best club team of the world" in the Intercontinental Cup.
On March 5, 1959, the Chilean delegates insisted and proposed the creation of the South American club tournament at the 24th South American Congress held in Buenos Aires which was approved by the International Affairs Committee. Only the Uruguayans voted against it. The tournament would be named in homage of the heroes of South American history such as Simón Bolívar, Pedro I of Brazil José de San Martín, Manuel Belgrano, Bernardo O'Higgins, José Miguel Carrera, José Gervasio Artigas, Antonio José de Sucre, Ramón Castilla, José Joaquín de Olmedo, among others: the Copa Libertadores de America. That was the last deed of José Ramos de Freitas as president of CONMEBOL who relinquished his position to the newly elected president, Uruguayan Fermín Sorhueta. In Montevideo, the idea was approved with the presence of all 10 CONMEBOL representatives to finally begin the development of the tournament with the first edition being played by seven participants. The club president of Peñarol, Washington Cataldi, explained years later:
First decade: 1960–69
Beginning: Peñarol The first entrants of the inaugural edition included seven national champions: Bahia of Brazil, Jorge Wilstermann of Bolivia, Millonarios of Colombia, Olimpia of Paraguay, Peñarol of Uruguay, San Lorenzo of Argentina and Universidad de Chile of Chile. Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela did not send any representatives. Carlos Borges of Peñarol scored the first goal of the tournament, with teammate and legendary figure Alberto Spencer scoring the first hat-trick. They will become fundamental figures for Peñarol as the manyas begun their journey with a crushing 7–1 victory over Jorge Wilstermann in the first leg. After a 1–1 draw in the second leg, they progressed to the semifinal stage where they faced the San Lorenzo of José Sanfilippo; after drawing both matches of the semifinal series, the boardmembers of the Ciclón allowed the tie-breaking match to be held at Peñarol's home stadium, the Estadio Centenario, in exchange for economic incentives. This move was quietly criticized by the San Lorenzo players and they went out of the tournament after a 2–1 defeat. In the finals, Peñarol would face Olimpia with the first match being played in Montevideo. The Paraguayans managed to keep the score goalless until 11 minutes from full-time when Spencer broke the deadlock to take a 1–0 victory to Asunción; and in a highly charged atmosphere in the Manuel Ferreira stadium, Luis Cubilla scored at the 83rd minute to tie a match Peñarol was losing since the first half, and give his club the honor of becoming the first ever champions of the competition.
The second edition of the tournament saw Ecuador and Peru send a representative to the tournament. Peñarol opened their title defense with a 5-0 thrashing over Universitario; the large scoreline allowed the champions to cruise to the semifinals with a 2–0 defeat to face Olimpia, in a rematch of the previous year's final. However, Peñarol swept aside Olimpia with a 3–1 victory at home and a 1–2 triumph away in order to contest their second, consecutive final, this time against Brazilian giants Palmeiras. Like last year's final, Peñarol managed a 1–0 victory in the first leg thanks to another late goal from Alberto Spencer at the 89th minute. In the second leg, Peñarol managed to come away with a 1–1 tie to retain the title. Due to the great contributions made by Peñarol's board directors in the creation of the Copa Libertadores, the success of the Manyas in this two editions are widely considered a "historical justice" well earned.
1962–63: The Santasticos
During the early years, Peñarol was the dominating team in the South American club football, and managed to reach the final for the third consecutive year when they faced the Brazilian champions Santos. At that time, Santos was led by Brazilian football superstar Pelé. The club went on to win the Taça Brasil that previous year, crushing Bahia in the finals; Pelé finished as top scorer of the tournament with 9 goals. The victory allowed Santos to participate in the Copa Libertadores. The Copa Libertadores did not receive international attention until its third edition, which was swept through the sublime football of the ballet blanco led by Pelé, Coutinho, Lima, Zito, Dorval and Pepe, considered by some the best club team of all times.
Santos' most successful club season started in 1962;Anibal Massaini Neto (Director/Producer), (2004). Pelé Eterno [Documentary film]. Brazil: Anima Produções Audiovisuais Ltda. International: Universal Studios Home Video. the team was seeded in Group 1 alongside Cerro Porteño and Bolivian Deportivo Municipal, winning every match of their group but one (a 1–1 away tie vs Cerro), while performing a 9–1 rout of Cerro. Santos defeated Universidad Católica in the semifinals and met defending champions Peñarol in the finals in which Pelé scored another brace in the playoff match to secure the first title for a Brazilian club. Coutinho and Pelé finished as the first and second best scorer of the competition with 6 and 4 goals, respectively.
As the defending champions, Santos qualified automatically to the semifinal stage of the 1963 Copa Libertadores. The ballet blanco managed to retain the title in spectacular fashion after impressive victories over Botafogo and Boca Juniors. Pelé helped Santos overcome a Botafogo team that contained legends such as Garrincha and Jairzinho with an agonizing last-minute goal in the first leg of the semifinals and bring the match to 1-1. In the second leg, Pelé produced one of his best performances as a footballer with a hat-trick in the Estádio do Maracanã as Santos crushed Botafogo 0–4 in the second leg. Appearing in their second consecutive final, Santos started the series by winning 3–2 in the first leg thanks to a brace by Coutinho and defeating the Boca Juniors of José Sanfilippo and Antonio Rattín 1–2 in La Bombonera, with another goal from Pelé and Coutinho each, becoming the first Brazilian team (until 2017 Grêmio's victory over Lanús) to lift the Copa Libertadores in Argentine soil. Pelé finished the tournament as the scorer runner-up with 5 goals, while Coutinho finished third with 3 goals.
1964–69: Argentine predominance
An Argentine team wrote down its name in the history of the tournament for the first time in 1964. Independiente knocked-out the defending champions Santos in semi-final, and later became the first Argentine team to win the competition.