All You Need To Know About... Boca Juniors

Day one – July 29th 2009, Manchester United vs Boca Juniors, 5.30 GMT, Allianz Stadium.

1. Nicknames: The Manure Handlers (Los Bosteros) and The King of Trophies (El Rey de Copas)
2. Stadium: Estadio Alberto J. Armando (La Bombonera), with a 49,000 capacity.
4. Boca had a poor second half of the season in the Torneo Clausura which concluded a few weeks ago, finishing 14th out of 20. But they won the Torneo Apertura which was decided in December.
5. Boca hold a record (as well as AC Milan) of 18 official international titles.
6. There is a line of Boca coffins available for dead fans, as well as the official Boca’s cemetery.
7. Boca Juniors fans in action.
8. Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta, Carlos Tevez, Juan Román Riquelme and Nobby Solano are amongst the players who’ve turned out for Boca.
9. Boca Juniors main rivals are River Plate and their matches, known as Superclásico, is one of the biggest games in world football.
10. Boca fans are known as Bosteros and there is a society which dedicates its entire life to the team which is known as la número 12 or La Doce (player number Doce or 12, meaning “the 12th player”). 40% of Argentina consider themselves Boca fans.
11. Boca’s first kit was pink but they adopted the colours of a boat that sailed the port at La Boca in 1907, from Copenhagen. The boat came from Sweden and Boca’s kits since have always been yellow and blue.
12. Martín Palermo, who has played for Villarreal and Real Betis, was within the top ten scorers in Argentina last season. Aged 35-years-old, he is 10th place in the Argentine League Primera División Top Scorers of All Time in a Career with 197 goals.
13. Maradona, Riquelme and Tevez in action for Boca.
14. Lucas Viatri, a Boca forward, was sent to prison after commiting an armed robbery to a beauty shop in March 2008.
15. Boca’s shirts over the years.