The City of Buenos Aires All-Time Team

This blogger Artur Yanturin of Russia copied many of my blog teams.  This blog was one of them.  It was my Russia All-Time Team here.  His team was written in 2020, but mine was uploaded in 2014.   His Spartak Moscow All-Time team entry of was published in October 2020, but mine was uploaded in 2017.  His entry of the Dutch-German rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona was written in 2020, but mine was uploaded in 2014.  He also copied many many of my blog entries.

His Facebook and Instagram

Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso 

Please also see my All-Time World Cup Team Index.

Argentina All-Time Team
Argentina All-Time Team before 1978
Argentina All-Time Team After Maradona
If Argentina sent this team to 1958 World Cup
All Diegos Team
Provincia de Córdoba, Argentina All-Time Team
Provincia de Santa Fe, Argentina All-Time Team
Provincia de Buenos Aires
Argentina All-Time Team without players from Santa Fe, Cordoba and Buenos Aires 

This is my selection of all-time 23 member team for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires(Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires; "CABA") in Argentina.   This team is based on birth places.  The number 23 is chosen because this is the same number of players selected in a World Cup Finals.

The city of Buenos Aires is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the South American continent's southeastern coast. "Buenos Aires" can be translated as "fair winds" or "good airs", but the former was the meaning intended by the founders in the 16th century, by the use of the original name "Real de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre", named after the Madonna of Bonaria in Sardinia.  The city of Buenos Aires is neither part of Buenos Aires Province nor the Province's capital; rather, it is an autonomous district. In 1880, after decades of political infighting, Buenos Aires was federalized and removed from Buenos Aires Province.

Alfredo Di Stefano and José Manuel Moreno

The city is the home of Boca Juniors and River Plate.  Superclásico is the football match  between them.  It is known worldwide as one of the fiercest and most important derbies in the world.  San Lorenzo, Velez Sarsfield, Huracán, Ferro Carril Oeste, Argentinos Juniors and Racing Club  are the other important clubs in the city. Carlos Bilardo and Helenio Herrera were also born here.

Note: I do not think that this team should be taken seriously.  The city and the adjacent 24 partidos (districts) in the Province of Buenos Aires are considered to be one metropolitan area. It is hard to separate players within Greater Buenos Aires (Spanish: Gran Buenos Aires, GBA) from the city itself.  The city of La Plate is less than 60 miles from Buenos Aires. I created separated teams for the city of Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires Province, largely because 18 of my Argentina All-Time team came from either the city of Buenos Aires or Buenos Aires Province.  So it is not interesting to do a combined City/Province team.

Team
GK:  Rogelio Dominguez 
Rogelio Dominguez played around the same time as Carrizo.  He earned 59 caps.  He missed the 1958 World Cup Finals because he moved to Real Madrid in 1957 and Argentina did not select overseas players.  With Real Madrid, he won two European Cups playing alongside with Alfredo Di Stefano.  Before Real Madrid, he played for Racing Club in Argentina.

GK: Américo Tesoriere 
Tesoriere was an early idol of Argentina football. His debut game with the first team was in 1916 when he was only 17. He played for Boca Juniors until his retirement in 1927, except for the 1921 season when he played for Sportivo del Norte. He played a total of 184 games for Boca in all competitions. He won 14 titles with the club including 5 league titles. He was capped 38 times for La Selección and won two Copa America.

Américo Tesoriere (L) against Brazil

GK: Antonio Roma 
Nicknamed Tarzan for the way of throwing himself for the ball, he started his professional career with Ferrocarril Oeste in 1955. He was then transferred, together with teammate Silvio Marzolini, to Boca Juniors in 1959. Roma stayed with Boca until his retirement in 1972.  With the club Roma won the Argentine League of 1962, 1964, 1965, and the Campeonato Nacional 1969 and 1970. In 1969 he kept his goal clear for 783 minutes.  Capped 42 times for La Albicelestes.  He went to the WC Finals in 1962 and 1966.

RB: Javier Zanetti 
He was the starting rightback for Inter Milan for almost 20 years.  He served as their captain from 1999, earning him the nickname "Il Capitano" (The Captain).  He held all kind of appearance records in Italy.  He widely considered to be Argentina's best ever rightback.  He holds the record of the most capped player in the history of the Argentine national team and played in the 1996 Olympic tournament, five Copa América tournaments and two World Cups, in 1998 and 2002.

 Javier Zanetti 

RB: Carlos Sosa 
Carlos Sosa started his career with Atlanta in 1939.  He joined Boca Juniors in the 1941, where he established as one of the best defenders of his generation.  He won two Argentine Primera División. He went to play in France in 1952.  He played for Racing Paris and Red Stars in Paris.  With Argentina, he was capped 12 times. He won two Copa Americas(1945 and 1946).

CB: Ludovico Bidoglio 
Ludovico Bidoglio was an early player for Boca Juniors.  He was regarded as one of the best defenders of his era. He made his debut with the club before the club was officially named as Boca Juniors.  The club in his first match was listed as "Juventud de Boca".  He was capped 27 times, winning two Copa America in 1925 and 1927 for Argentina.

CB: Oswaldo Piazza 
Piazza started with Lanus.  He moved to St. Etienne in 1972.  He was very popular at this time, and Bernard Sauvat wrote a song dedicated to him. Piazza earned 15 caps for Argentina, but could not participate to 1978 FIFA World Cup in his country due to family problems even though César Luis Menotti wanted him in the squad. In 1979, he played for Club Atlético Vélez Sársfield, before coming back to France with AS Corbeil-Essonnes, as player-coach.

CB: Ricardo Vaghi 
Ricardo Vaghi is a legend with River Plate.  He was born in 1916. He started his career with Almagro, a team in his neighborhood.  He played for River Plate between 1935 and 1949.  He was a member of  River Plate's "La Máquina".   With over 300 appearances, he is one of River Plate's appearance leader.  He won a total of 5 league titles for the club. 

CB: Nicolás Otamendi 
Nicolas Otamendi played mainly for Vélez Sarsfield and Porto in his early career, winning eight major titles with the latter including three national championships and the 2011 Europa League. In 2015, he signed for Manchester City from Valencia.  Since 2009, he has over 70 caps. He was a member of Diego Maradona's World Cup squad in 2010, but missed out in 2014.  He went to the World Cup in 2018.

Nicolás Otamendi 

LB:  Silvio Marzolini 
In 1959, Silvio Marzolini started his career with Ferro Carril Oeste. A year later, he joined Boca Juniors where he played until 1972 and became an idol. He was considered one of the greatest leftbacks in Latin American football history.  For Argentina, he had 28 caps between 1960 and 1969.  He went to the 1962 and the 1966 World Cup Finals.

LB/LW: Juan Pablo Sorin 
Juan Pablo Sorin had a successful club career in his native Argentina with River Plate, in Brazil with Cruzeiro, and with various teams in Europe, including Barcelona, Lazio, Paris Saint-Germain and Villarreal. He won the Copa Libertadores in 1996 with River Plate.  He earned 76 caps and was the captain of Argentina national team at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

DM: Luis Monti 
The ruthless central midfielder led Argentina to the WC Final in 1930 where they lost to Uruguay.  Four years later, he became an Oriundo and won the World Cup with Italy.  He was also remembered for getting injured at the Battle of Highbury in 1934 when England played Italy.  Monti started his career in 1921 with Huracán. The following year he signed with Boca Juniors but left without playing a game. He joined San Lorenzo. In 1930, he joined Juventus in Italy, where he played until 1939.

Luis Monti

DM: Nestor Rossi 
Nestor Rossi is one of Argentina's greatest defensive midfielders.  Nicknamed "Pipo", he started his career at River Plate, playing from 1945 to 1949, and then again from 1955 to 1958, winning a total of 5 Argentine leagues. He played with La Maquina, but at the end of their peak.  He also won 6 more with Millonarios in Colombia. He played in the 1958 World Cup Finals and was a part of their 1957 Copa America winning team.

CM: Esteban Cambiasso
Esteban Cambiasso has won 23 official titles, being the Argentine footballer with most honours in history. The majority of his titles were won during his ten seasons at Internazionale, including five Scudetti and the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League. He also played for River Plate, Independiente, Real Madrid, Leicester City and Olympiacos. Cambiasso won 52 caps for Argentina, and represented the country at the 2006 World Cup.

CM/AM/FW: Alfredo Di Stefano 
The best player in the world before the emerge of Pele and Maradona. He was one of the younger member of the great River Plate in the 1940's.  In 1949, he moved to play in Colombia before moving to Europe in 1953.  He won 5 straight European Cups with Real Madrid. He was credited in turning Real Madrid into a legendary club. His international career was limited to the fact that Argentina did not select overseas players.  He played for Argentina, Colombia and Spain.

Alfredo Di Stefano

RW: Carlos Peucelle 
Peucelle played first team football for San Telmo and Sportivo Buenos Aires before joining Argentine giants River Plate for a fee of 10,000 pesos. He played for River from 1931 to 1941.  During this time "Los Millonarios" were champions of Argentina on 4 occasions; 1932, 1936, 1937 and 1941. He also went to the 1930 World Cup Finals, where he scored three goals, and played in the final match against Uruguay.

AM/SS/FW/CM: Ernesto Grillo  
Grillo started with Indpendiente before moving to play for AC Milan, winning 1958-1958 Serie A title. He returned to Argentina in 1960 to play for Boca Juniors, where won league titles in 1962, 1964 and 1965.  Capped 21 times. The highlight of Grillo's career came in a 1953 match versus England, when he scored a legendary goal for Argentina. He also helped Argentina winning the 1955 South American Championship.

AM/FW: José Manuel Moreno 
José Manuel Moreno was the star of  "La Máquina" of River Plate in the 1940's.  Some older fans in Argentina considered him better than Diego Maradona and Alfredo Di Stefano. He played 34 times for Argentina, but he never played in the World Cup Finals due to the World War II, but won the South American Championships of 1941, 1942 and 1947. He also played club football in Mexico and Colombia.

José Manuel Moreno 

ST/FW: Ángel Labruna 
Ángel Labruna is the second top scorer of the Argentine First Division with 293 goals. He was also part of River Plate's La Máquina (The Machine), and he was considered one of the best South-American footballers of his generation.  He played 37 matches for Argentina, scoring 17 goals. He also won two South American Championships (1946 and 1955) and as a nearly 40-year-old he played in the final phase of 1958 World Cup held in Sweden.

FW/AM: Sergio Aguero 
El Kun became the youngest player ever to play in the Argentine Primera Division in 2003 when he played for Independiente.  In 2006, Atletico Madrid broke their transfer record to sign him.  He rewarded the club with the Europa Cup in 2010.  In 2011, he joined Manchester City. Again, he rewarded the club with an added time goal that won the Preimership for Manchester City's first ever title. At the time of writing, he had 97 caps.

Sergio Aguero 

ST/AM: José SanFilippo 
During his club career he played for San Lorenzo, Boca Juniors and Banfield in Argentina, Nacional in Uruguay, and Bangu and SC Bahia in Brazil. He is the 5th highest scoring player in Argentine football.  At the international level, Sanfilippo played for the Argentina in the 1958 and 1962 World Cup Finals. He was also part of the Argentina squads that won the 1955 Pan American Games and the 1957 South American Championship.

ST: Guillermo Stabile 
Guillermo Stabile began his career with with Huracán.  He started out on the right wing but soon evolved into a centre forward. Stábile won many competitions with Huracán, most notably the championships of 1925 and 1928.  He was capped 31 times for Argentina and went to the first ever World Cup Finals.  He finished as the top scorer.  Then, he moved to Italy, playing for Genoa and Napoli before heading to France with Red Star Paris.

ST: Roberto Cherro 
Roberto Cherro played the majority of his career with Boca Juniors. he scored 221 goals in 305 games for the club in all competitions, making him Boca's highest scoring player until Martín Palermo broke it in 2010. At the international level, Cherro won the Copa América in 1929 with the Argentina national football team. On 5 February 1933, Cherro famously scored all four goals in a 4–1 win over Uruguay.

Roberto Cherro 

Honorable Mention
Pablo Zabaleta, Diego Simeone, Sergio Batista, Agustín Cejas, Luis Islas, Andrés D'Alessandro, Juan Evaristo, Mario Evaristo, Lucho González, Norberto Méndez, Diego Placente, Javier Saviola, Juan Carlos Muñoz, Miguel Brindisi.

Squad Explanation
-- As mentioned above, the city of Buenos Aires and parts of the Province of Buenos Aires are considered to be one metropolitan area.  I seriously doubt the accuracy of the birthplace of the players in question.   They might be born in the city, but spent their entire life in one of the  24 partidos.  So please do NOT take this blog team too serious.
-- For example, Alfredo Di Stefano was born in Barracas, Buenos Aires.  It is next to Avellaneda which is not a part of the city. Avellaneda used to be known as Barracas al Sur (Southern Barrascas). La Boca, home of Boca Juniors and birthplace of José Manuel Moreno, is also across the river from Avellaneda.
-- Javier Zanetti was listed as born in Buenos Aires, but he grew up in Dock Sud, outside the city.  Anyway, I could never dig into the early life of every Argentine players.  So I stayed with the birthplace.
-- Alfredo Di Stefano, Luis Monti, Nestor Rossi, Ángel Labruna, José Manuel Moreno, Javier Zanetti, Silvio Marzolini, Rogelio Dominguez and Carlos Sosa are on my Argentina All-Time Team.
-- Carlos Bilardo and Helenio Herrera were born here.  Both were among Argentina's greatest coaches. I did a Helenio Herrera's All-Time team.  Sergio Batista also managed Argentina.  He made honorable mention as a player.
-- Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Zanetti were snubbed by manager Diego Maradona for the 2010 World Cup Finals.  Both were recalled by coach Sergio Batista after the World Cup Finals, but their international careers ended soon after.
-- Juan and Mario Evaristo are the first brothers to appear in a World Cup Finals.  They went to the 1930 World Cup Finals. Both made honorable mention.
-- Rogelio Dominguez needed no introduction. Antonio Roma was a big idol with Boca Juniors. He was my number one keeper for my Boca Junior All-Time Team.  Américo Tesoriere was the first Argentina goalkeeping idols.  Agustín Cejas and Luis Islas simply are not as famous the trio that I have selected.
-- Both sides of the fullback position are very strong.  Javier Zanetti, Silvio Marzolini and Carlos Sosa are on my Argentina All-Time Team.  Juan Pablo Sorin is usually ranked very high for a fullback in the post-Maradona eras.  Even, Pablo Zabaleta could not get onto this team.
-- Centerback Ludovico Bidoglio was an early star of Argentine football playing alongside Américo Tesoriere.
-- Oswaldo Piazza would have been more famous if he went to the 1978 World Cup Finals.
-- I am featuring 4 players from River Plate's "La Maquina".  They are José Manuel Moreno, Ricardo Vaghi and Ángel Labruna. Nestor Rossi was only a few years younger than that generation. Alfredo Di Stefano was sometimes considered one of the them. Carlos Peucelle left the club in 1939 before the beginning of "La Maquina", but he played with some of the players. So we basically have 6 players from around that era.  Winger Juan Carlos Muñoz is on my honorable mention. 
-- River Plate earned the nickname Los Millonarios (The Millionaires) because the club had some expensive transfers of players from other clubs in the 1930's. Carlos Peucelle from Sportivo Buenos Aires in 1931 was one of the transfers.
-- I took Carlos Peucelle because I need a winger.  I opted him over  Juan Carlos Muñoz.   In real life,  Juan Carlos Muñoz replaced Carlos Peucelle on the lineup with River Plate.
-- I do not need Diego Simeone because I already have Nestor Rossi and Luis Monti.  I took Esteban Cambiasso because he could be a playmaker in the deep position.
-- Alfredo Di Stefano, José Manuel Moreno, Sergio Aguero and Ernesto Grillo all can play as an attack midfielder. So I have no space for Miguel Brindisi.
-- I took José Sanfilippo over Miguel Brindisi.  He was more of a striker or secondary striker than an attack midfielder. I also took Sergio Aguero because I wanted to spread the decades around.  Besides, Aguero is considered to be among the greatest in his generation.
-- I took Roberto Cherro over Carlos Bianchi.  He was Boca Junior's highest scoring player until Martín Palermo.  
-- Jorge Higuaín and his elder son Federico were born here, but Gonzalo Higuaín was born in France. He returned to Argentina, where his father played for River Plate.  So he must have grown up in the Greater Buenos Aires, but he is not qualified for this team because this is strictly based upon birthplace. 
-- Guillermo Stabile was the top scorer at the first ever World Cup Finals with 8 goals.  Carlos Peucelle scored 3 goals.

Formation
I am starting 3 players from La Maquina.  Nestor Rossi was only a few years younger than that generation. Alfredo Di Stefano was sometimes considered one of the them.  Di Stefano can play anywhere on the field.  I play him in a deeper role so that I could use José Manuel Moreno.