Gabriel Arbelo Perdigón: The Photographer Preserving Tenerife’s Grassroots Football Legacy
Photographer Gabriel Arbelo Perdigón has spent over a decade documenting the grassroots football scene in southern Tenerife, creating an essential visual archive that preserves the history and local identity of the region's sporting community.
You cannot tell the story of grassroots football in southern Tenerife without mentioning the work of Gabriel Arbelo Perdigón, known in the sporting community as "Amigos sureños." Since 2009, this photographer from Guargacho has built a visual archive that serves as more than just a collection of photos; it is a sociological record of several generations of local players.
The importance of his work lies in how it captures the evolution of regional sport from the ground up. What started as a personal project to photograph his son at the Clementina Bello field in Buzanada grew into a dedicated mission. For over a decade, he has spent his weekends covering as many as eleven matches, documenting the early careers of players who have since moved on to higher levels, such as UD Las Palmas defender Juanma Herzog and CD Las Zocas goalkeeper Lorenzo Perdomo.
Beyond the sports statistics, Arbelo Perdigón’s work highlights the value of collective memory. In an era where digital images are shared and kept by families for everything from private celebrations to keepsakes, his archive has become an essential record. During the 2020 pandemic, when matches were halted, families turned to his past photographs to stay connected to the sport they love.
While he now focuses his coverage on regional and youth categories, he remains a familiar face at clubs like CD Marino, UD Las Zocas, Ibarra, CD Águilas, and Atlético Chenet. His career shows not only his growth as a photographer but also the vital role he plays as a chronicler of local identity, turning match days into a lasting legacy that continues long after the final whistle.