How was Alianza Lima born? This is how one of its founders told the story of the blue and white club

Alianza Lima is the people dictates a popular saying in Peruvian football and that is because that is how it was born. In the humble Cotabambas street in downtown Lima, the club that today celebrates 121 years of life was founded. A group of teenagers took their passion for soccer one step further and decided to give birth to Sport Alianza in 1901.

The Chacaltana family lived on Cotabambas street. A quincha and adobe house was the club’s first ‘office’. This is how Mariano Chacaltana lived with his six children. His neighbors were the Carvallos and the Pedreschi. The children of these families, adolescents who saw how soccer was growing in the city, gathered to practice it in the Stud Alianza paddock.

As the song dictates, a rag ball was the witness of the first goal. This is how their love for football grew until on February 15, 1901 they founded Sport Alianza, which years later would be consolidated as Alianza Lima.

Julio Chacaltana Chacón was one of its founders. Manuel Carvallo another. “”, Manuel told in an interview with the magazine El Íntimo in 1976, according to the Alianza Lima Golden Book.

Manuel was 12 years old, Julio was about to turn 8. The oldest of the group was Eduardo Pedreschi, 14. Children who, out of love, created the greatest feeling that can exist in soccer: the Alliance.

“The first meeting was held on this street in Cotabambas, at number 334. José Carreño lived there and he was precisely the first president of the club,” Julio Chacaltana told Última Hora in 1951.

The interview went like this:

And could you tell us why you chose the name Sport Alianza?

I don’t remember the reason. But surely it was because the Stud Alianza was located a few meters away and many who attended it were part of the club.

And was it true that the first uniform was different from the current blue and white shirts?

Indeed. The funds were insignificant and the Italian merchant, Mr. Pedreschi, decided to give away the shirts. To remember, surely, the colors of his flag, he decided that green would predominate in the sweaters. The pants were white. Later he changed to full blue sweaters and then he opted for the current uniform.