Historical background

St. George were founded in 1936 and named after the church in the Piazza district of Addis, where most of the players lived. The founders were two school pupils from Teferi Mekonnen School, Ayele Atnash and Georges Dukas with Tadele Ydnekatchew, who would go on to be President of the CAF and one of Africa’s most distinguished sport administrators, joining a few weeks later. Early team photos show a team of extremely young looking schoolboys, barefooted but already equipped with club shirts.

As the first club open to Ethiopian born players, St George have always been linked with nationalism and soon after their foundation they adopted the colours of the Ethiopian flag. The Italian invasion however forced them to change both their colours and their name.  

After Ethiopia was liberated in 1941 the club once again played as St George and they adopted their yellow and red outfit, Ydnekatchew having seen a picture of the Lille team wearing these colours in a French soccer magazine. The V in the design became symbolic of Ethiopia’s victory over the Italians.

There were now several teams in Addis, representing the various European communities of Italians, Armenians and Greeks as well as a strong British army team and these provided the opponents for a string of friendly matches. In 1942 St George scored a famous 4-2 victory over the formidable Italian side Fortitude.

1950-1970

St George could attract the best local players and the 1954 Ethiopian team that toured Europe included eight players from the club. An African Nations Cup tournament started in 1957 but was only open to the small number of independent nations, so Ethiopia had a considerable impact on the tournament. Stars of this period included goalkeeper Getachew ‘Dula’ Abebe, who would play in five Nations Cup competitions and Mengistou Worku, considered one of the greatest Ethiopian player of all time. His playing career stretched from 1957 to 1972 during which time he scored 10 goals in the Nations Cup finals. Other stars of this period included the Vassolo brothers, Luciano and Italo who came from the coastal area of Eritrea.

St George won their first league title in 1966 and this was the start of three consecutive wins that gave them their first taste of African football. The new competition got off to a volatile start and although St George reached the semi-finals of the1967 competition they did so without completing a tie, Bitumastic of Uganda withdrawing without a game being played and Olympic of Egypt dropping out after the first leg.

1970 - 1999

The seventies brought political turmoil to Ethiopia, with the removal of Emperor Haile Selassie and the establishment of a one party communist state. All football clubs were disbanded, with St George eventually being reformed as the team of the Addis Brewery. It became a time of wars, famines, political coups and internal purges but football occasionally gave people a chance to forget the worries. Fans remember staying up all night to celebrate big games in defiance of the government curfew. 

With the fall of the socialist system St George re-emerge under their old name in the nineties and the club once again took a leading role in domestic soccer. Ethiopian soccer however had declined compared with their African neighbours and the club’s ventures into Africa competitions met with little success.

2000-

The last decade has seen St George tighten their grip on the domestic league, winning 7 of 10 titles since 2000 with Addis neighbours Ethiopian Coffee their only real rivals. Serbian coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic, in the first of two spells with the club, is credited with improving  the training routines and his team won back to back championships in 2005 and 2006. This side also had a rare success in the African Champions League. Having eliminated ENPPI of Egypt, St. George scored an amazing 4-0 home win over Hearts of Oak. However the first half of the return game saw the Ethiopians concede two goals and have 6 men booked. When the home side were awarded a disputed penalty the St. George players walked off the pitch and forfeited the game.  ..

Striker Fikru Teferra, the outstanding player of the side, went on to play in South Africa but it is rare for Ethiopian players to move overseas and recent success has been built around a core of internationals who have spent most of their careers at the club. These include former youth star Dawit Mebratu, defender Degu Debebe and captain Mulualem Regassa

The club has shown considerable ambition in recent years, reforming a youth team and finding the money to recruit a handful of foreign players. They also aim to build a brand new 22,000 capacity stadium.

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