Independiente Quiz

Independiente were founded on 1 January 1905 by a group of employees of A la Ciudad de Londres, a fashion and department store in central Buenos Aires. The younger staff had been shut out of the store's existing club, so they broke away and started their own on New Year's Day. They ended up in a crowded corner of Avellaneda: less than 300 metres separate their ground from Racing Club's Estadio Presidente Perón, the one everybody calls El Cilindro, which opened in 1950. The two first met in 1907. Independiente's own home until 2006 was La Doble Visera, inaugurated in 1928 and named for the two big concrete roofs that gave it the look of a double visor. Its last match was played in December 2006 and the Estadio Libertadores de América rose on the same site.

The nickname is El Rey de Copas, and a lot of this quiz is the explanation. In 1964 Independiente became the first Argentine club to win the Copa Libertadores, drawing 0-0 away to Nacional in Montevideo and winning the return 1-0 in Avellaneda, ending a run in which Peñarol and Santos had shared the first four editions. Then came four in a row from 1972 to 1975: Universitario de Deportes edged out 0-0 and 2-1 in the first of them, then Colo-Colo, São Paulo and Unión Española. The seventh arrived in 1984 against Grêmio. The world finals ran alongside. Ajax drew 1-1 in Avellaneda and won 3-0 in Amsterdam in 1972, then declined to take part a year later, so Juventus stood in — on the condition that it be a single game in Italy, which is how Ricardo Bochini came to score late at the Stadio Olimpico in 1973, with Ferreiro in charge. In Tokyo in December 1984, José Percudani scored inside the first ten minutes from a Claudio Marangoni pass to beat the reigning European champions Liverpool 1-0 and take the man-of-the-match award. José Omar Pastoriza was the coach, and a 22-year-old Jorge Burruchaga was in that eleven, two years before he scored the winning goal in the World Cup final against West Germany.

Bochini is the thread through all of it. He spent virtually his entire career at the club, from 1972 to 1991, and Diego Maradona named him as his childhood idol — the two finally played together when the veteran came off the bench in the 1986 World Cup semi-final. Daniel Bertoni, who started the 1973 final in Rome and won three Copa Libertadores in Avellaneda, scored Argentina's third in extra time as they beat the Netherlands 3-1 in the 1978 final. The trophies kept coming after that generation: the 1994 Supercopa Libertadores, drawn 1-1 at La Bombonera and won 1-0 at home through Sebastián Rambert against Boca Juniors, then retained in 1995 against Flamengo; and the 1995 Recopa Sudamericana, a 1-0 win over Carlos Bianchi's Vélez Sársfield at Tokyo's National Stadium through a Serrizuela goal, the tie having been moved from Kobe after the earthquake. The last domestic title came on 1 December 2002, sealed 3-0 at San Lorenzo by Américo 'El Tolo' Gallego's side of Silvera, Milito, Montenegro and Insúa, with Andrés 'Cuqui' Silvera taking the Apertura scoring title on 16 goals, including hat-tricks in consecutive rounds against Colón and Chacarita. As of 2025 the Apertura 2002 was still the most recent league championship, the longest drought in the club's history.

Then the harder questions. In June 2013 Independiente were relegated for the first time in their history, an 18-year-old Ángel Correa striking early in the second half for San Lorenzo a year before he joined Atlético Madrid; they came straight back at the first attempt, beating Huracán 2-0 at the Estadio Ciudad de La Plata on 11 June 2014 through Martín Zapata and Francisco Pizzini. Either side of that, Antonio 'El Turco' Mohamed's side came from 2-0 down in Goiânia to beat Goiás 3-1 at home and 5-3 on penalties for the 2010 Copa Sudamericana, Ariel Holan's won the 2017 edition 3-2 on aggregate against Flamengo, finishing it at the Maracanã on 13 December, and Silvio Romero's goal at the Nagai Stadium beat Cerezo Osaka for the 2018 Suruga Bank Championship. This is also a club that sells. Sergio Agüero debuted in July 2003 at 15, taking the record for the youngest player in Argentina's top flight off Maradona's 1976 debut for Argentinos Juniors, and left for Atlético Madrid in 2006 in a deal reported at around €23m. Diego Forlán went to Manchester United for about £7m in January 2002, after Middlesbrough agreed a fee first but wanted to pay in instalments. Gabriel Milito ended up at Real Zaragoza in 2003 when Real Madrid's doctors flagged his knee and pulled out. And weeks after the 2017 final, captain Nicolás Tagliafico joined Ajax and Ezequiel Barco went to Atlanta United for a then-record MLS fee. If you can name the coach in Tokyo as well as the one at the Maracanã, and know where Carlos Tevez was managing before he took this job in 2023, you will do well here.

The Independiente set runs the full range — easy starters, a medium core, and hard questions a devoted fan has to think about.