Founders - Defensemen
Brown - Jorge's grandfather, James, had been among the first British immigrants to arrive in Argentina after its independence. It was he and his wife, Mary, with two hundred and twenty others, mainly Border Scots, who had arrived in 1825... seven the sons of their youngest boy, also James, and his equally Diasporan wife, Eliza Gibson – Jorge, Ernesto, Eliseo, Alfredo, Carlos, Tomas and Diego with the first five of the brothers over almost a decade and half were representing Argentina.
Jorge had begun playing as a young teenager for English High. From 1902 he would also go on to play for Argentina twenty-three times.
In 1913 two more games against Uruguay were to be played. Both were 1:0 losses and featured Jorge Brown for the last time in an Argentina shirt. He would with Juan Domingo alongside him play and captain for the last time.
The British presence in Argentine national football trickled on and would do for another three years... twenty-year, unbroken line begun by Watson-Hutton, Lamont, Leslie and others except the Brown dynasty would have one ultimate last hurrah. Sixty years later Jose Luis Brown, a direct descendent of the Brown brothers’ played for his country 36 times, but only scored once. A headed goal opened the scoring against West Germany in the biggest game of all — the 1986 World Cup final, in front of 114,000 people at the Azteca in Mexico City. Although Maradona stole the show during the tournament with his godlike goals against England and Belgium, 29-year-old Brown’s role in the centre of defence gave unfancied Argentina the stability they needed to reach the final.
de Vecchi - "Legend has it that once, in a training match between starters and reserves, he 'allowed himself' to uproot the ball from the feet of the great Herbert Kilpin, the old captain-founder (who taught the rudiments of the game of football to the young de Vecchi, and made him a champion), receiving in return a kick in the butt".
A pure-blooded Milanese refused to abandon Milan and that transformed him into the flag of the team, in which he stood out to such an extent as to deserve the nickname "Son of God" coined for him by a Rossoneri fan enthusiastic about his performances.
De Vecchi made his debut in the national team at the age of 16 years, 3 months and 23 days (an absolute record).
In the summer of 1913, Genoa president Geo Davidson, had heard of the disagreement between Milan and its young full-back, thought it was a well to get in touch with the Milanese in an attempt to bring him to Genoa. The federal rules impose that the movement of a player from one city to another with a consequent change of club must only take place for work-related reasons under penalty of very heavy disqualification.
The talented full-back is employed by the bank of Milan and to explain his transfer he is hired with a substantial raise by the Banca Commerciale of Genoa.
Very young de Vecchi had reached incredible levels of popularity, he became the first football player to appear on the covers of magazines, newspapers and on advertising posters which. He became immoveable captain of the Italian national team with which he collected 43 captures, taking part in no less than 3 Olympic games, which were true adventures at the time.
De Vecchi passed away on May 14, 1967, but the myth of the "Son of God" lives on."
