The Pride of Vallekas

On the 12th of April, 2010, following Sergije Krešić's dismissal, with the club languishing in 17th, Las Palmas turned to a former Las Palmas native to rescue them from relegation to the Segunda B. In the 32 games prior to Sergije being sacked, Las Palmas had won just eight times and picked up 37 points. Under Paco Jémez, in 10 games, they won four times, and picked up 14 points, to finish in 17th - narrowly outside the relegation zone. And while he was dismissed in February 2011, Las Palmas saw the need to sign the players that actually breathed the values of the club. And so they did. Jerónimo Figueroa, aka Momo , belonged to Las Palmas. He grew up at the club, and broke out during the 2003-04 season at the age of just 21. Despite Las Palmas' relegation, Momo desired to stay - but in 2004 Deportivo signed the player due to an existing agreement between both clubs to settle the debt of the 2000 signing of Argentine center-back Gabriel Schürrer. However, Momo rarely pla...

These examples are countless. These examples of perseverance and dedication are inspiring. This is the story of a player who made his professional debut at the age of 30 - and yet, on the way, dropped a division to help his local club to promotion. And he's still going strong - and is about to turn 33. This is the story of a tireless career, and the tireless midfielder behind it. Cáceres, in Extremadura, is no ordinary town. This town was the birthplace of Spain's tourism industry - in 1846 the bullring of Cáceres ( Plaza de Toros de Cáceres ) was inaugurated and brought in tourists from near and far. Franco established his headquarters here in August 1936, before starting his advance to Madrid. In July 1937, Republican forces bombed this town. Caught up in the Civil War, a town that became the symbol of a local, self-sufficient service sector and tourism economy also became the town symbolized with the construction industry. With hard work. He is cacereño thr...

The ruthless marker, they called him. He was a central defender not of size but of stature. He was a central defender who never stood tall but always stood out. And it started at the age of 16, when Hernández began to stand out in football in the youth teams of Real Madrid. His time there coincided with Real Madrid legends such as Ramón Grosso and Manuel Velázquez, the latter of whom spent a year on loan at Rayo. Máximo Hernández would leave Real Madrid's youth team for Rayo Vallecano in 1995, making his senior debut at the newly promoted Segunda side. He would play there for three seasons, and formed a solid partnership with Gregorio Benito in the last two - who was, coincidentally, on loan from (you guessed right) Real Madrid. For the 1968-69 campaign, Celta Vigo were looking to strengthen their side, and wanted to achieve promotion to La Liga after 10 long years in the Segunda. Their first signing of the season was that of Máximo Hernández, from Rayo Vallecano....

Rayo Vallecano vs Albacete. Starting lineups Míchel made one change, and it was in defense - Abdoulaye Ba came in for Baiano, with Emiliano Velázquez shifting over to the right side. Enrique Martín made several rotations in his 3-4-2-1 formation compared to the 0-0 draw against Huesca. At left wing-back, Mariano Bíttolo was replaced by David Morillas. In central midfield César de la Hoz was replaced by Rafa Gálvez. And in attack Fabián Espíndola and Roman Zozulya were replaced by Dani Rodríguez and Jérémie Bela respectively. Albacete ceded possession this game as they have all season, clocking just 29%. Rayo had more chances but Albacete certainly had the better chances. First half setups It was clear that Míchel's change to a back three was an attempt to neutralize Albacete's front three. In practice, however, Velázquez's role also included covering for Abdoulaye Ba who routinely stepped out of the back three to cut out passes or apply pressure on players. In t...

Ángel Galdón Rodrígu is part of Clockwork Cheese, an Albacete Balompié UK Supporters Club. You can follow them, and talk to fans, on Facebook - fb.com/clockworkcheeseuk - and on Twitter - @clockworkcheese . A bit about yourself and your background I have a complicated background really. I grew up in Seville. My dad’s from a village in the Albacete region, and my mum is from Seville. They met in Madrid, where I was born. Nowadays, after living in the UK in my twenties, I am a lecturer at University in Albacete. My wife is from near Manchester and she has a popular English academy in Albacete with some other partners. How long have you been a fan of Albacete and what made you support them in the first place? Since I’ve been living here and there for so long, I am only a member since 2003. The reason to support them was simple - it came at a time when Barcelona and Madrid were basically the only football on the media agenda. Remember the time of the Galácticos ? Why would ...

Politics in Spanish football is nothing new. But this was the first time that someone foreign, someone outside Spain, was being rejected in Spain for political views. And it was going to be messy. This year started with Roman signing for Rayo on loan from Real Betis, fans protesting the signing, Roman going back to Betis but being registered at Rayo, being in limbo and not being able to sign for a club, FIFA giving Zozulya an unprecedented chance to play for a fourth club in a season*, a club in Sweden that rejected him because of rumblings of left-wing fans (possibly Malmö), and his agent felt that many clubs no longer see Zozulya as a professional football player because of the accusations. Finally, this summer, the player signed for Albacete. And yet the saga only finished this week, when Javier Tebas’ complaint about two Rayo fans who protested the Zozulya signing was dismissed by the court (although that might not be the end of it). But that wasn’t all - political partie...

On the second match-day of the 2009-10 season, an 18-year-old warmed up to step onto the pitch of the Estadio Vicente Calderón for the last 27 minutes of the match. Racing Santander were playing for the win, despite a 1-1 scoreline being historic enough. The most exciting canterano from the Atléti youth system, the hard-working right midfielder, was on. He was calm. And he did wait for what the coach would decide. Unfortunately, he would never played for the first team again. He was farmed out - six-months to each of Valladolid, Cartagena and Girona - until in the summer of 2011 when his contract was up. He was never valued for his defensive industry - teams wanted him to create, to score. To lead. He decided to try the shores of Italy, signing for Catania. But the scenario was no different - in three seasons he played just 26 times and even a loan move to second division side Grosseto didn’t help. Yet again, his hard work was never fully appreciated. Last summer, Albacete sign...

Yesterday's piece was about José Antonio Camacho the manager . Today's is about the player that preceded that. Camacho was born in Cieza, Murcia. He moved along with his family to Albacete at the age of six - during this time, his family thought about returning to Murcia, but Real Murcia rejected the player. He would play youth football at Atlético Jareño (a team in Villanueva de la Jara, in the Cuenca province) and later for Albacete Balompié, where he permanently held down the left-back spot. José Antonio Camacho began to make waves at this time - Héctor Rial wanted him to play for the Spanish youth team, and his performances helped him break into the Albacete senior team, who at the time played in the Primera Regional. His quality did not go unnoticed - both Real Madrid and Barcelona fought for his signature, but the player chose the team in white and signed for their Castilla team in March 1973. He was almost immediately cast into the first team and its starting XI, ...

Salamanca traveled to Albacete to compete for promotion to La Liga with an impossible task on their hands. They had to overturn a 2-0 deficit away from home, against a side that entered La Liga's relegation playoff spots on the final day, and who had scored 44 goals in the league - just four less than Salamanca themselves. As the clock ticked towards the 90th minute, Salamanca were winning 1-0 yet in danger of losing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Born in Tudela, Navarre, Urzaiz began his professional career at Real Madrid's B-side, making his debut in Segunda División in 1989. Despite being a successful youth international, he did not make any La Liga appearances for the first team (however, he did play one game against Odense BK, in the 1990–91 European Cup). Urzaiz spent the 1991–92 season on loan at Albacete Balompié, making his top flight debut when he came on as a substitute against Athletic Bilbao in October 1991. In early 1993, he was loaned to Celta de Vigo...

During the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Ramón Calderé suffered from a case of traveler's diarrhea, and was prescribed antibiotics by the national team physician. After the win against Northern Ireland he was summoned for a doping test, which came out positive. Calderé, however, was not sanctioned, as the medical staff argued successfully the medication was administered to fight the condition, lest a severe risk of dehydration. He scored twice against Algeria in the following match. After anti-doping control was implemented in football in 1990, well... The first ever player to give a positive test in Spanish football was Dragan Panusic, from Castellón, gave the first positive in Spanish football, on January 26, 1992, for taking Bisolvon. In February 1992, Albacete's Soler tested positive for testosterone. However, there was only one urine sample taken and so the tests were defective - he was sanctioned anyways. Shortly after, in March, a player from Racing Santan...

I would like to start with an apology. On two different occasions on this blog ( here and here ), I mentioned something to this effect: "Jordi Gómez, Cristaldo, Gazzaniga, Tomás Mejías and Pablo Iñiguez will return to their parent clubs, and Miku, Baena, Ebert, Embarba, Lass Bangoura, Quini, Nacho, Raț, Manucho, Amaya, Aguirre, Dorado, Dovale and Toño are all out of contract. Basically, unless there are any contract extensions, we have no goalkeepers, a center-back (Zé Castro), a left-back (Johan Mojica), a right-back (Ernesto Galán), two central midfielders (Fran Beltrán and Roberto Trashorras), an attacking midfielder (Santi Comesaña), a left winger (Álex Moreno) and a striker (Javi Guerra)." I naively used transfermarkt.com in writing that - never doing that again. Marca recently came up with a list of contracts expiring at the end of the season, and it reads more like this: " Cristaldo, Gazzaniga, Tomás Mejías and Pablo Iñiguez will return to...