Club Atlético River Plate
Club Atlético River Plate is an Argentine professional sports club based in the Belgrano neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Founded in 1901, the club is named after the English-language name for the city's estuary, Río de la Plata. River's home stadium, the Monumental, is the largest in South America. River had the highest average home attendance of any association football club in the world in 2023 with 84,567. With more than 350,000 members at the end of 2023, River is one of the largest sports clubs by membership. It repeated this achievement in 2024 and 2025. River Plate is widely regarded as the leading and most successful professional club among Argentina’s traditional Big Five of Argentine football, a group that also includes Independiente, San Lorenzo, Boca Juniors, and Racing Club.
Although a multi-sport club, River Plate is best known for its professional association football department, which has won Argentina's Primera División championship a record 38 times, most recently in 2023. River Plate have also won 16 national cups, making River Argentina's most successful team in domestic competitions with 54 titles in total. At international level, River have won 18 titles, including four Copa Libertadores, one Intercontinental Cup, one Supercopa Sudamericana, one Copa Sudamericana, three Recopa Sudamericanas, one Copa Interamericana, one Suruga Bank Championship, a record five Copa Aldaos, and one Tie Cup. In addition, River Plate's reserve team won the U-20 Copa Libertadores in 2012. After winning the 2014 Copa Sudamericana, 2015 Recopa Sudamericana and the 2015 Copa Libertadores, River Plate became the first team to simultaneously hold CONMEBOL's three current major international competitions.
River Plate are ranked first in the all-time Argentine Primera División table, having gained the most points, having played the most matches, and having the highest win percentage. River are also ranked first in the historical table of the Copa Libertadores, being the South American team with most games won and the most points gained. The club were placed ninth in the FIFA Club of the Century poll in 2000. In a survey published by the Argentine Football Association in 2016, 6 out of 11 players of the all-time greatest Argentina national team had played for River Plate.
River have a fierce rivalry with Boca Juniors. Matches between them are known as the Superclásico, and the rivalry is among the most heated in the sport, due to the fixture's global popularity and both clubs having the most fans in Argentina. Notable players who have played for River include José Manuel Moreno, Ángel Labruna, Adolfo Pedernera, Amadeo Carrizo, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Omar Sívori, Norberto Alonso, Daniel Passarella, Enzo Francescoli, Roberto Ayala, Ariel Ortega, Marcelo Salas, Hernán Crespo, Marcelo Gallardo, Pablo Aimar, Javier Saviola, Javier Mascherano, Radamel Falcao, Gonzalo Higuaín and Enzo Fernández.
History
According with the club's official history, River Plate was founded on 25 May 1901, close to the La Boca neighborhood. They were formed from the merger of two clubs, "Santa Rosa" and "La Rosales", with Leopoldo Bard elected as the first president. The name River Plate was chosen because of an incident during the construction of Buenos Aires Port: one of the members had seen how the workers of Dique nº 3 left their duties for a while to play a football match. The boxes they were working with just said "The River Plate" and that inscription was taken to name the new club.River Plate affiliated to the Argentine Football Association in 1905, debuting in the third division against Facultad de Medicina. On 13 December 1908, the team was promoted to first division after beating Racing Club 2–1. However, the match was declared null due to River supporters jumping onto the field to celebrate with the players, so a new match had to be played. River again won, this time 7–0, to achieve promotion.
In 1914 River won its first domestic championship, the Copa de Competencia Jockey Club and its first international title, the Copa de Competencia Chevallier Boutell. The nickname Los Millonarios came after the acquisition of winger Carlos Peucelle in 1931 for $10,000 and Bernabé Ferreyra for $35,000 in 1932.
In the following years, River Plate consolidated its place as one of the most popular teams of Argentina, and the 20th century brought much success. The club's record of 28 official tournaments saw them dubbed El Campeón del Siglo.
Kit
Kit evolution
;NotesKit suppliers and shirt sponsors
has been River Plate's uniform supplier since 1982, becoming one of the company's largest sponsorship deals in the world, only behind German club Bayern Munich. The US$60 million partnership with the German sports company signed in 2015 marked the most expensive kit agreement in the history of Argentine football.File:Camiseta River de Américo Gallego 1985.jpg|thumb|170px|A 1985 Adidas jersey worn by Américo Gallego at the River Plate Museum
| Period | Kit manufacturer | Shirt sponsor |
| 1910–19 | Gath & Chaves | none |
| 1920–32 | St Margaret's | none |
| 1979–80 | Sportlandia | none |
| 1980–81 | Topper | none |
| 1981–82 | Olimpia | none |
| 1982–85 | Adidas | none |
| 1985–89 | Adidas | Fate O |
| 1989–91 | Adidas | Peugeot and Sevel |
| 1991–92 | Adidas | Carta Credencial |
| 1992–95 | Adidas | Sanyo |
| 1996–02 | Adidas | Quilmes |
| 2002–06 | Adidas | Budweiser |
| 2006–08 | Adidas | Petrobras |
| 2009–10 | Adidas | Petrobras and Pokerstars.net |
| 2010–12 | Adidas | Petrobras and Tramontina |
| 2012–13 | Adidas | BBVA and Tramontina |
| 2013–16 | Adidas | BBVA and Netshoes |
| 2016 | Adidas | BBVA, Netshoes, and Staples |
| 2016–18 | Adidas | BBVA and Huawei |
| 2018 | Adidas | Huawei, Axe, and PES 2019 |
| 2019–2020 | Adidas | Turkish Airlines, AXION energy, Axe, and PES2020 |
| 2020–2021 | Adidas | Turkish Airlines, AXION energy, Axe, and eFootball PES 2021 |
| 2021–2022 | Adidas | Turkish Airlines, Codere, eFootball 2022 and Assist Card |
| 2022 | Adidas | Turkish Airlines, Codere, eFootball 2022, Amazon Prime Video and Socios.com |
| 2022–2023 | Adidas | Codere, Assist Card , eFootball 2023, Amazon Prime Video and Socios.com |
| 2023–2025 | Adidas | Codere, Assist Card and DirecTV |
| 2025– | Adidas | Betano, Assist Card and DirecTV |
Badge
As in many football shirts and sports in general, the team's jersey has a badge on its front, as a symbol of the institution. When the River Plate jersey was created it did not have a badge, and its presence varied throughout the history, according to the designs of each era. Currently it is embroidered on the jersey, with three colors. Its format resembles that of the jersey, as it has a red stripe that crosses it, along with the acronym of the club in black, and the background is white, in a stylized design.When Hugo Santilli became chairman in 1984, he soon called to a competition where a new emblem would be chosen. The main objective of this new image was to eradicate the nickname Gallinas that River's rivals used to mock them. Artists from Argentina took part in that competition. The club finally chose a logo designed by Claudio Loiseau. This emblem showed the figure of a lion rising from the Monumental stadium.
Once it was approved, the lion logo was added to the uniforms, debuting in 1985. With that emblem on their chests, River Plate won the Copa Libertadores de América and European/South American Cup. In 1989, when Santilli left the club so the lion went with him and has not been reestablished since.
In February 2022, River Plate launched its new corporate image, which included an update to the logo and a typography designed exclusively for the club. The corporate image was created and developed by "Grupo Berro", a branding and design studio that had been working on the corporate image for over two years.
Rivalry
River Plate and Boca Juniors are the two largest football clubs in Argentina, with more than half the country's football fans supporting the clubs. Due to the rivalry between them, the Boca Juniors vs River Plate Superclásico local derby match was listed by the BBC as one of the most famous derbies in the world. Attending the match was also acclaimed in 2004 as the number one of the Fifty sporting things you must do before you die by The Observer.Club nicknames
The "River Plate" name was chosen in 1901, when the team was still located at the La Boca neighbourhood, next to the Río de la Plata. Proposed names as "Club Atlético Forward", "Juventud Boquense" or "La Rosales" had been rejected. Pedro Martínez saw the name "The River Plate" written at ship containers, and proposed it as a name, which was finally accepted as the official name.River fans and the press are fond of the nickname Los Millonarios. This name derives from the 1930s after some expensive transfers of players from other clubs, including Carlos Peucelle from Sportivo Buenos Aires in 1931 and Bernabé Ferreyra from Tigre in 1932.
Due to the red band in their shirt, it is also common to refer to River as El Equipo de la Banda or simply La Banda. River Plate's forwards between 1941 and 1946 were given the nickname La Máquina, due to their synchronization and movements on the field.
There was also a River Plate team that was known as La Maquinita in the 1950s. Managed by José María Minella, the team earned the nickname after winning five championships in six years. Some notable players were Alfredo Di Stéfano, Santiago Vernazza, Walter Gómez, Enrique Omar Sívori, among others. Some members of the original Máquina of the 1940s such as Labruna and Loustau, were also part of the team.