Club Atlético Rosario Central is a sports club based in Rosario, Argentina, that plays in the Argentine Primera División. The club was officially founded on December 24, 1889, by a group of railway workers, taking its name from the British-owned Central Argentine Railway company. One of the oldest Argentine and Latin American teams, it is considered a pioneer in its hometown and the only one of current Santa Fe province teams to have won an international title organised by CONMEBOL, the Copa Conmebol, won by the club in 1995.

The Central Argentine Railway, referred to as CA below, was one of the Big Four broad gauge, 5 ft 6 in British companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The company had been established in the 19th century, to serve the provinces of Santa Fe and Córdoba, in the east-central region of the country. It would later extend its operations to Buenos Aires, Tucumán, and Santiago del Estero. The railroad had a complicated relationship with its employees in the 1910s, and then it had a complicated relationship with the government of Argentina in the 1920s.