April 27 is a day that is given special respect in our country, Ethiopia, and is a day to remember our heroic fathers

and

mothers. During the years when Fascist Italy was in our country from 1928 to 1933, when the patriots fought for their

motherland in the forest and the jungle, history testifies that the most important and foremost of those who made a great

contribution to the urban struggle was the patriot St. George Club. The Aradaw Giorgis Football Team, which was

founded months before the entry

of Fascism to play its second match against Olympiacos when Italy invaded our country in April; Two years after the

occupation of Addis Ababa, in 1930, it was decided to hold a football tournament for Ethiopian clubs. However, St.

George requested to be registered in his name, but was not granted permission to register. He took on the responsibility

of organizing the tournament together with the community teams. In this tournament, Armenian and Greek community

teams, including George, were registered. In the first match, Ararat played Olympiacos, and the Indian community team

played George. Ararat defeated Olympiacos 1-0. Before George's Indian community team could leave, the match was

interrupted due to heavy rain, and a rematch was scheduled for the next day. However, it was the Italian police who

protected them in Janmeda. The organizers of the Armenian and Greek teams that had played the day before were found

to have been imprisoned. The consequences of this competition were even greater, and it was the reason for the law not

to allow blacks and whites to play together;

the first Ethiopian club, St. George, withstood the Italian challenge and survived until 1933.

April 26/1933 is a historic day for St. George and our country, Ethiopia. But its history begins from the evening; on

April 25, 1933, the St. George players sang the last song they had prepared as the sun began to set. Other stirring

national songs were also prepared; the young people were arranged to meet in front of St. George Church in the
morning. The three St. George jerseys, which had been hidden in a special place, were displayed in front of the team

players. Some of them cried when they saw the jerseys. They cried because the jersey reminded them of that time. The

jersey is completely white with green, yellow and red around the belly. This jersey was made before the Italians entered;

but the Italians did not like the colors of the Ethiopian flag, so they removed them from the players. The jerseys that

escaped from the hands of Italy came to the square today.

The next day, April 26, 1933, they were lined up in front of St. George's Church. The young men were the players of the

St. George team, which Italy named Lutorio Ube Sefer Arada. They were lined up in two places to plant the flag. For

three years, when Italy played them, they were forced to raise the flag before the game and sing a song praising

Mussolini. After the game, they were forced to take down the Italian flag and put it in honor (it was the squad leader

who did it). They

will never forget what Doctor Caruso did once. A fan of the St. George team was wearing an Ethiopian flag in his

jacket. This young man was one of the men killed in Graziani on October 19, 1932. He was killed because he was

hiding a weapon for the Patriots. When the ball was seized, he found the Ethiopian flag under his jacket. After the flag

was removed from the jacket, the opposing teams' flags were hung on the left and right sides of the field, as is

customary before the match. The main flag was hung on a large iron pole behind the guests of honor. When the captain

of the team that had drawn the lot hung the flag that day, Doctor Carus stood next to the player who was hanging the

flag. Carus stood on the Ethiopian flag (the flag that the man had taken) that was lying on the ground. The action

angered all the players.

A few years later, when Italy left, on April 26, the young people who had gathered there, carrying the Ethiopian flag,

marched down the hill from the church of St. George, where they had been playing. The players, carrying the flag they

had recently made on a stick, were accompanied by many young people as they walked. This was the first time since

Italy left that they had been accompanied by many young people singing like this. It had been a long time since such a

thing had been seen.

As the young people passed by singing, their mothers and fathers cheered them on, saying, “Be brave.” These young

people from St. George’s were going to what is now St. Joseph’s School. Some of them, who saw them, went so far as

to burn the Italian flag in anger and frustration. The founder of the team, Ato Ayele Atanash, recalls the incident as

follows: “…

Everyone remembered many things. Especially the players from St. George’s team were subjected to many injustices.

My friend George was imprisoned. Our other players were imprisoned; they were killed. We are remembering those

things when we go to hang the flag.” He says. When the players

arrived at the field, they hung one flag on the gate. Then they placed another one where the players would hang it. After

that, they went to the market. They entered the field prepared for the blacks. When Giorgis' players arrived here with the

flag, they were accompanied by many young people. The Italians used to sing and chant about the Italian flag hanging

on this field. But now it happened like this. Remember what Doctor Caruso did then. He had torn the Ethiopian flag to

the ground and stood on it, making the Italian flag fly. Now it was someone else's turn. When the Italian

flag was hung on the iron pole behind the guest seats, the area was filled with noise. There was a commotion and
whistling. The one who was raising the flag was Ayele. He was raising it slowly. When the flag went up, the young

people gathered could not stop whistling and shouting. Docho and Tesfaye, who were nearby, were rubbing the Italian

flag that they had spread on the ground with their feet, rubbing it with the mud. This reminded Dr. Caruso. Many of the

Giorgis players, when the Italians joked about the flag, said that one day this would change. On

April 26, the flag that was flying on the ground was found on the ground. Many young people praised the support that

St. George gave to the patriots and the role it played in the unity of Ethiopia and promised to stand by the club from

now on. This happened on April 26. The next day, April 27, His Majesty the King ordered the Ethiopian flag to be flown

in full honor throughout the country. This day was chosen because it was on this day that Italy entered Addis Ababa and

waved the flag.

After that, history tells us that the first Ethiopian football club St. George was going through the challenges it faced.

St. George was founded by children from the Piazza Giorgis Church neighborhood who wore the first club jersey
by donating three rupees to buy a jersey . The main instigators of this idea were George Dukasena and Ayele
Atanash.
#Ayele_Atanash had an idea in his head, that was to establish a club. He told his neighbor
#George_Ducas about it and he agreed.
The two of them consulted other friends and came up with the idea of establishing the first club in Ethiopia. The
idea came true on #January 1927, the day of baptism. They involved other friends in the idea. In June 1927, the
participants of the idea reached 9. They discussed the name of the club to be established and agreed on the idea of
St. George.
The first club was established near St. George Church, and the founders held their meetings in the church. They
needed money to establish the club. They did not have money. They gathered and discussed. They decided to buy
a jersey with the money they earned from dancing.
At that time, when dancing, money was not given, but bread was given. The 9 players found a lot of bread from
the area where they used to dance. They sold the bread to the workers in the village. They took some of the bread
with them and took some of the durians with them. They bought jerseys with the money they got. The
establishment of Giorgis was realized on Buhe Day. After the jersey was purchased, two players were added and it
became 11. They wanted to play a match. The Habesha club was not established. They agreed to play against a
club called Ararat Armen. The club accepted their idea and informed us in a legal letter. In the letter, they were
told that they had to sign a contract. They did not have a contract.
The letter was to be sent tomorrow. The letter was written but there was no stamp. George went to his house and
smoked the stamp and it was a great success. They took the letter and gave it to him. On December 28, 1928, they
made an appointment to play. The Armenians informed them that they would come with a full team. They
gathered on Saturday morning and hired 10. The boy named Telelu did not come, so the players went to the place,
looking for someone on their way. They found their friend Teklebirhan. Teferi Mekonnen knew the school. They
asked him to fill the missing place. He agreed to the idea, but he said, "Wait for me until I go to the mill and grind
my grain." They waited. But he did not return soon. While they were waiting for him, they found a boy named
Shiferaw and asked him, and he told them that he was not comfortable.
#When_Idnekachew_Tesema came, they saw him and told him their thoughts. He agreed to play, but he asked
them what they would do for us. They said they would buy him a 10-cent corn. They had the money they had left.
Since he was the 11th player, they took him without waiting for the miller's son. Ararat Armen scored the first
goal, Giorgis scored the first goal. Giorgis won the game 2-0. Idnekachew scored both goals. Giorgis was founded
on the day of Buhe, August 13, and Idnekachew Tessema died on August 12-13.
After establishing Giorgis playing a few neighborhood matches, they went to the Teferi Mekonnen School field to
play against the Armenian team. They met a boy on the Mekonnen Bridge and asked him to join them in the
school team; he paid three rupees for the jersey and was able to play for the first time in the St. George jersey at
number 11; His Excellency agreed.
When the first Ethiopian Championship was held in 1936, in the final day of the competition (in the presence of
Emperor Haile Selassie), the St. George team defeated the Armenian team 3-1 and came second and was awarded
a wall clock.
The president of the St. George club that year was Osman Kekeya and the vice president was Nasrallah Khalifa.

The first jersey of St. George football

club is white and brown horizontal line.
The players earned money to buy this
jersey by dancing.

On the 5th of May 1935, St.

George played against the
Italian Fortizio in a historic
match ::
The old law that Fascist Italy
had used in our country to
separate white and black
football clubs based on color
was abolished and "color
differences should no longer
exist so that black and white
can play together" was signed
and the two clubs played a
match. In this historic match,
our black club St. George of
Arad defeated the white club,
the Italian Fortizio, 4-1. It became a sensation in the football world Black defeated white .... for a reason. St. George is
the symbol of victory