The Men Who Made Uruguayan Football

It is a list, in date-of-birth order only for convenience, that, if, like me, you know the history of Uruguay's early football, did not take long to compile. There are just three names in all, all Scots, be it native-born or Diasporan and they are the ones, as first enthusiasts, then players and administrators, who planted the game, then gave the country its unique style, passing their legacy to a small land that has been able ever since to punch well above its sporting weight. It began with William Leslie Poole. He and William MacLean provided the foundation for the limbs, feet, sinew, skill and the style of Harley to capture the imagination of other, equally first-generation immigrants, who, never looking back, took to it with a passion that is, well, almost Scots.