It is a club forever famous for its association with perhaps the greatest player of them all – Diego Armando Maradona.

Associación Atlética Argentinos Juniors were founded in the Villa Crespo neighbourhood of Buenos Aires on 14th August 1904 and the club owes its origins to a group of young people eager to pay observance to May Day; the International day of the worker.

A group of men imbued with socialist ideology named a team the Mártires de Chicago or the ‘Martyrs of Chicago’ in homage to the eight anarchists who were imprisoned and hanged after the famous 1886 Haymarket Workers Riot in Chicago – an event commonly regarded as being the origin of traditional May Day observance.

In 1917 the socialist roots of the club were further symbolised when red team shirts were adopted.

These days the socialist connotations may not be so obvious and the club is more known for an association with insects given the nickname of El Bicho or ‘The Bug’.  Many images of beetles, ants or ladybirds can be seen in club imagery and fan graffiti.

Given the hundreds of players who have come through the club ranks the club are also known as El Semillero – or the nursery seed garden.   The likes of Maradona, Redondo, Juan Roman Riquelme, Cambiasso, Batista, Carlos Mac Alister and Fillol have all come through the club’s youth divisions to name only a few.

If Maradona is the club’s best ever player so the year of 1985 witnessed the club’s greatest ever achievement.

This was the year the Copa Libertadores was won with America de Cali of Colombia beaten in the final. The following year saw the Argentine national team and the club’s most famous son Diego Maradona lift the World Cup in Mexico City.

Argentinos Juniors have played on the location of the current stadium since 1940.  During the 1980’s the football club moved to a ground share with Ferro Carril Oeste and money from transfer fees were invested in developing a multi-sport complex at the Las Malvinas complex.

But in 1995 moves were put in place to redevelop the old wooden stadium in La Paternal and in 2003 the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium was opened although it was originally known as Estadio de la Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors.  The club celebrated its centenary in a newly redeveloped home.

Like many famous Argentina sides, the exterior of the stadium is adorned with colourful club imagery, past heroes, symbols and iconic wording about the club.  Neat, compact with both open and roofed stands it remains one of the better inner city stadia in Buenos Aires even if the club have fallen from previous heights.