The Wanderers F.C. won the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1-0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
Wanderers Football Club is an English association football club. It was founded as "Forest Football Club" in 1859 in Leytonstone. In 1864, it changed its name to "Wanderers". Comprising mainly former pupils of the leading English public schools, Wanderers was among the dominant teams of the early years of organised football and won the Football Association Challenge Cup (known in the modern era as the FA Cup) on five occasions, including defeating Royal Engineers in the first FA Cup final in 1872.
The club played only friendly matches until the advent of the FA Cup in 1871, with the rules often differing from match to match as various sets of rules were in use at the time. Even after the formation of The Football Association (the FA) in 1863, of which the club was among the founder members, Wanderers continued to play matches under other rules, but became one of the strongest teams playing by FA rules. They won the FA Cup three times in succession during the late 1870s, a feat which has only been repeated once. Among the players who represented the club were C. W. Alcock, the so-called "father of modern sport", and Arthur Kinnaird, regarded as the greatest player of his day. The club took its name from never having a home stadium of its own but playing at various locations in London and the surrounding area. By the 1880s the club's fortunes had declined and it was reduced to playing only an annual match against Harrow School, the alma mater of many of its founders.
In 2009 the club was refounded and in 2021 competes in the Surrey South Eastern Combination Intermediate Division Two.