How a Rotterdam boy became the founder of Paraguayan football

William Paats Hantelmann, better known as William Paats, was born on January 12, 1876 in Rotterdam. The young Paats is a sports fanatic, but suffers from a respiratory disease and as a result he emigrates to South America at the age of eighteen on doctor's advice. This is where his life changed. Football zone delves into the special story of how a Rotterdammer became the football father of Paraguay.

The impetus

After living in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires for several months, the Paats family leaves again, but this time to the Paraguayan capital Asunción. Paats proves to be an intelligent boy at a young age and starts working as a trade expert, accountant and translator, but above all he is a true sports fan. He notices that the Paraguayans have a significant lack of physical exercise and takes a football with him from his older hometown of Buenos Aires.

He starts working as a gym teacher and starts teaching football to the students at a local school. The Paraguayans quickly became quite good at playing football and their popularity immediately increased. The success gave Paats the impetus to found the very first football club in the country, Olimpia, fully known as Club Olimpia Asunción. However, he does not stop there because in the following years he founded the Paraguayan Football Association and introduced many other sports to the country such as tennis, rowing and cricket.

Olimpia

The name Olimpia was not chosen by chance. Paat's first wife is the Paraguayan Olimpia Martina RodrÃguez. Olimpia herself was not able to experience the successes of the football club, because she died in 1903, but her first name is forever linked to the successes that the club would eventually experience. Olimpia is emerging as the football club of Paraguay.

The nickname Olimpia has is Rey de Copas, or King of Cups. It is a reference to the 46 titles that Olimpia has in its trophy cabinet. Although Paraguay's first national championship was played in 1906, the Liga Paraguaya only became a professional competition from 1941. Olimpia also has the longest championship series to its name, because the club was continuously national champion between 1977/78 and 1982/83.

From 2008, the Paraguayan league has been split into two halves of the season. The so-called Apertura and the Clausura. Since this introduction, Olimpia has developed the Apertura won twice and the Clausura six times, the last in 2022. The winners of each half of the season play against each other to decide who will ultimately win the national title. When a club wins both halves of the season, it automatically becomes national champion. The club achieved this in 2018 and 2019. In addition to the many championships, Olimpia has also won one Copa Paraguay. This may not seem like much, but this competition has only existed since 2018.

Olimpia managed to advance straight to the final in the first season, but lost on penalties to GuaranÃ. In 2021, Olimpia won on penalties against Sol de América. That year it also won the Supercopa Paraguay 3-1 against rival Cerro Porteño. This is the Paraguayan Classic and Olimpia has the most wins to its name. The club won against Cerro Porteño 127 times, while Cerro Porteño triumphed 123 times. The home games are usually played at the Estadio Manuel Ferreira, but for bigger matches, such as the derby against Cerro Porteño, the club moves to the stadium where Paraguay plays the national team matches. Nowadays the club also has a women's branch that plays professional football, a rugby team and a basketball branch.

Olimpia players celebrate winning the Copa Libertadores in 2002.

International success

Olimpia has not only been successful in its home country, but the club has also achieved great results on the international stage. Olimpia is the only club to have reached the final of the Copa Libertadores, the South American version of the Champions League, in every decade since its founding in 1960. Olimpia won against the Argentinian superpower Boca Juniors in 1979 and against the Ecuadorian side in 1990. Barcelona and the last in 2002 against Brazilian São Caetano.

In 2003, Olimpia also won the Recopa Sudamericana in Los Angeles by beating San Lorenzo from Argentina 2-0. The winners of the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana compete against each other. In 1979, Olimpia defeated Malmö 3-1 in the Club World Cup. The most famous player to defend the colors of Olimpia is probably the Paraguayan striker Roque Santa Cruz, who moved from Olimpia to Bayern Munich. In 2016 he returned as a prodigal son in the black and white of Olimpia. Nowadays he plays for Libertad, a fellow city against whom Olimpia plays the black-white derby, a reference to the kits of both clubs. The Togolese Emmanuel Adebayor has also been under contract with Olimpia for a short time, although he has not played more than two official matches.

Legacy

Paats died on August 28, 1946 and is still seen in Paraguay as the father of Paraguayan football. His influence within the club is still noticeable. In 2021, Club Olimpia designed a special third kit. It was an the Dutch-black outfit with a silhouette of a tulip on the front. This shows that Olimpia is still proud of its founder and does not lose sight of him.

More news





More sports news