England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, 7 November 1866 –
Montevideo
Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
, 22 August 1931) was a Kent-born English immigrant to
Uruguay
Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
who was important to the development of
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
in Uruguay and became known as the "Father of Uruguayan Football."
Early life
Poole was married to Ethel Maude Poole, who was born in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
and died on 21 December 1916 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Poole was a Cavendish College, Cambridge graduate who immigrated to Uruguay in 1885 to work as an English teacher at the English High School of Montevideo, where he was active until 1920.
Uruguayan football
By the time of his arrival, there were already some clubs practicing football informally in Uruguay such as the
Montevideo Cricket Club
The Montevideo Cricket Club (abbreviated "MVCC") is a Uruguayan sports club based in Montevideo, established in 1861 by English immigrants.Montevideo Rowing Club, founded in 1874.
In his spare time, Poole devoted his energy to disseminating and organising the sport in Uruguay.
Henry Candid Lichtenberger, an 18-year-old man who was Poole's disciple, founded the first Uruguayan football team on 2 June 1886, the Club Albion. In its original statute, the Albion did not accept foreign players. The Football Association was characterised by having, as the major part of its associates, Uruguayan-born children of The English.
Poole's legacy was to organise and professionalise the sport in Uruguay. Unlike Lichtenberger, Poole required the participation of both nationals and foreigners with no distinction of race, language, religion, political opinion or economic position. This mindset was incorporated into Uruguay's mentality.
Poole also acted not only as a player – being a frontline for the Uruguay National Team – but also as a referee and as the President of the Uruguayan Association Football League, founded on 30 March 1900, a precursor of today’s Uruguayan Football Association (
Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol
The Uruguayan Football Association ( — ) is the governing body of football in Uruguay. It was founded in 1900, as The Uruguayan Association Football League, and affiliated to FIFA in 1923. It is a founding member of CONMEBOL and is in charge of ...
– AUF).
Poole also practiced
rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...
,
cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
and
rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
, but his real passion was association football. In his free time, he used to take his students to practice in the Montevideo neighborhood of
Punta Carretas
Punta Carretas is a ''barrio'' (neighbourhood or district) of Montevideo, Uruguay.
Politically located in the Municipality CH, it is an affluent neighborhood, with a high population density and a large number of high-rise apartment buildings. It i ...
, close to the current location of a shopping center.
The Montevideo city hall paid honour to Poole by dedicating a place called "Espacio Libre William Leslie Poole" between Constituyente and Vásquez avenues in the Uruguayan capital.