Association Football in Honduras - History

History

There are many accounts of how association football started in Honduras. Luis Fernando, a son of French immigrants, recorded that some merchants in Puerto Cortes had given him a football in 1896, and that soccer was played in Honduras since then. In 1906, the republic's government hired a Guatemalan professor named Miguel Arcangel to teach soccer at the Escuela Normal de Varones in Tegucigalpa. Three years later, the Spanish monk Niglia introduced the game at the Instituto Salesiano San Miguel in Comayagua.

Football became popular, especially in higher classes, although it couldn't compete against baseball, which remained the most popular sport until 1917. In 1912, the team known as Juventud Olimpica founded the Club Deportivo Olimpia. Other clubs were founded in Tegucigalpa, such as Lituania, Signos, Trebol, Honduras, Atletico Deportes, La Nueva Era, Colon and Spring. None of them exist now.

In the second most important city, San Pedro Sula, football began to gain strength only with the foundation of Club Deportivo Marathón. Some contemporary historians say that a club named Club Patria existed before Marathón, but only for a very small time. The president of the Republic, Dr. Miguel Paz Barahona, named the sporting fields Patria Marathón.

In 1928 Club Deportivo Motagua was founded and named after the river Motagua, which was then in dispute between Guatemala and Honduras. A year later in San Pedro Sula, Real España (known since 1977 as Real Club Deportivo España) was founded.