José Nasazzi
Debuted at Lito. Captain of Uruguay.
Chapter I
The Club
We were born on 24 July 1917 in a café in Arroyo Seco. We disappeared, we came back, and we are writing what comes next.
More than a century, at a glance
Some stories never go out.
- 1917
Lito is born
24 July. A café in Arroyo Seco becomes a club.
- 1920
Intermedia champions
A second promotion in a row opens the door to the top flight.
- 1921
Among the big clubs
Lito reaches the Uruguayan top-flight championship.
- 1922–23
Historic campaigns
Fifth place in both seasons.
- 1947
The silence
Official competition stops. The bond with the neighbourhood remains.
- 2022
The return to the AUF
The blue and red compete again, in Divisional D.
- 2023
Champions again
Divisional D title and promotion.
1917
We Were Born
In a café in Arroyo Seco, named after the man behind the counter.
The name came from behind the counter. Manuel Semino was «Lito» to the whole neighbourhood, and his café, at Agraciada and Santa Fe, was where Arroyo Seco met. When the regulars decided to found a club on 24 July 1917, they gave it the café's name.
Read on: the first colours
The first shirt was electric blue with red trim and white shorts, with the crest over the left breast. That is where the nickname comes from: the blue and red of Arroyo Seco. Today's shirt follows the same line: French blue, red collar and red trim on the sleeves.
A club is born of a neighbourhood before it is born of a document. Lito never moved: the same grid of streets that led to the café leads to the pitch today.
The café at Agraciada and Santa Fe. The name came from that counter.
Minute No. 1
The night it all began
At ten at night on 24 July 1917, chaired ad hoc by Juan Pérez (son), the assembly unanimously approved the founding of «a centre for sporting and recreational purposes». The club's minute book opens with that page.
Founding minute. Original held in the club archive.
The neighbourhood
From Arroyo Seco
since 1917.
Between the port and the Rambla, short streets and low warehouses. The club was founded metres from here and never left.
The café at Agraciada and Santa Fe was the meeting place. The ground is still a way of meeting.
1921
We Made History
Eight seasons in the top flight of Uruguayan football and three world champions who came through here.
Affiliated to the AUF, Lito won the Divisional Extra in 1919 and the Intermedia in 1920. Two promotions in a row put the club in the 1921 Uruguayan Championship, where it stayed until 1928. Its best seasons were 1922 and 1923: fifth place, among the big clubs.
From amateur football to the years of silence
When football turned professional in 1932, the club stayed amateur and played in the lower divisions until it vanished from official competition around 1947. From 1952 it played again in the Uruguayan Amateur Football Federation, driven by Vicente Cappuccio's sons: two titles and two runners-up finishes. It stopped competing in 1960. Then, silence.
Historic archive · The champions
Before they were world champions,
they were Lito.
Nasazzi. Castro. Cea. Three names from our history that are also the history of world football.
Héctor «Manco» Castro
Debuted at Lito.
Pedro Cea
Played for Lito.
The split
Two Litos at once
During the schism in Uruguayan football, Lito was one of three clubs that entered two teams in the parallel competitions. The only way to tell them apart was the crest on the shirt. Of the two, the one that survives today is the round one.
Round Lito
The AUF side. This is the crest the club still uses today.
vs.
Square Lito
The Federation side. A crest with right angles.
Archive
The timeline
- 1917Founded. On 24 July, at the Café Lito on Agraciada and Santa Fe.
- 1919Divisional Extra. First title and first promotion.
- 1920Divisional Intermedia. Second title in a row and the jump to the top flight.
- 1921Primera División. Debut in the Uruguayan Championship; stays up until 1928.
- 1932Professionalism arrives. Lito stays amateur and plays in the lower divisions.
- 1947The lights go out. Disappears from official competition.
- 1952The Federation. Back to amateur football until 1960.
- 2022The return. Back in the AUF, in Divisional D.
- 2023Champions. Final won 2–0 and promotion.
Honours
What we have won
- 2023Divisional D. Champions.
- 2022Divisional D. Champions of the regular season.
- 1920Divisional Intermedia. Champions.
- 1919Divisional Extra. Champions.
Plus two titles and two runners-up finishes in the Federation, between 1952 and 1960.
2022
We Came Back
Seventy-five years after the last official match.
75 years later
Lito is back.
- 2022Return to AUF competition.
- 2023Champions of Divisional D.
- 2026A new era.
Today
The Lito of now
Primera Divisional C, a first team and youth sides working all year round. The pitch, the stand and Sunday belong to the neighbourhood again.
In numbers
Through the divisions
- Primera División
- 6 seasons · 1921 to 1928
- Segunda División
- 12 seasons · 1920 and 1929 to 1941
- Tercera División
- 8 seasons · 1918–1919, 1942–1945 and from 2024
- Cuarta División
- 3 seasons · 1946 and 2022–2023
- Best finish in the top flight
- Fifth, in 1922 and 1923
- Top-flight record
- 168 matches: 53 won, 50 drawn, 65 lost
2026
The Next Chapter
A ground of its own in Arroyo Seco and a club that wants to grow without ceasing to belong to the neighbourhood.
What is coming
The land already exists
On the ground the club uses today there is a plan for a pitch, stands and sports facilities for the neighbourhood. It is drawn, not built: Chapter VI shows it in full.
Home and ground
Where the club beats
- Neighbourhood
- Arroyo Seco, Montevideo
- Nickname
- The blue and red of Arroyo Seco
- Founded
- 24 July 1917
- Division
- Primera Divisional C
- Affiliation
- Uruguayan Football Association (AUF)
- Address
- To be confirmed
- Ground
- To be confirmed
- President
- Rodolfo Neme
Kit
The shirt is the crest in motion
The official home kit: French blue shirt with a red collar and red trim on the sleeves, and white shorts with red trim on the hem.
Shirt
French blue · red trim on collar and sleeves
Shorts
White · red trim on the hem
Home kit
Blue and red · Our shirt
Institutional
Board of directors
Club life is built between members too.
- President
- Rodolfo Neme
- Vice-president
- To be confirmed
- Secretary
- To be confirmed
- Treasurer
- To be confirmed
- Board members
- To be confirmed
Identity
The crest is the club's signature
A shield quartered in red and blue, with the club's initials, the ball at the centre and the founding year at the foot. The blue and the red come from the first shirt, the one from 1917.
Lito Blue
#1C2C6B
#1C2C6B
Lito Red
#D12C3E
#D12C3E
Bone
#F4EFE6
#F4EFE6
Lito Gold
#D4A85A
#D4A85A
Brand use and vector files: marca@centroatleticolito.com
Official anthem
Lito's anthem
Lito querido,
cuadro invencible,
fuerte, aguerrido e irresistible.
Siempre Centro Lito adelante,
triunfante, triunfante,
porque tiene garra y corazón,
campeón, campeón.
Que proclaman tus parciales,
que son inmortales,
tu gloria y honor.
Centro Atlético Lito · Montevideo · 1917
Listen to the anthem
The history is already written.
The next chapter is not.
Centro Atlético Lito1917 — Montevideo
I · The Club · Centro Atlético Lito