Paraguay's Cabbage Growers Arrive at the Continental Table
Club Libertad carry a century of soil, struggle, and titles into Rosario
Somewhere in the Las Mercedes neighbourhood of Asunción, someone's grandmother once sewed a football kit by hand. That detail, documented and passed down, tells you most of what you need to know about Club Libertad. Founded in 1905 by young students who had just watched the Liberal Party overthrow a government, they borrowed their name from the revolutionary slogan in the air — Libertad, freedom — and built a football club on land that smelled of turned earth and vegetable plots. The locals started calling them the Repolleros, the Cabbage Growers, and the name stuck with the affectionate permanence of a nickname that nobody ever bothered to be ashamed of.
