The Pride of Vallekas

Given that I said I would cover more Rayo news on this blog... Click here for transfer news as of 13th January, involving ex-Rayo player Armenteros, Mehdi Lacen, Youssef En-Nesyri, and more . But wait - there is more! Gorka Elustondo has signed for the club. A piece on him is already up . Edit: Abdulmajeed Al Sulayhim has also signed - a piece on the deal will also be up in the coming days. 24-year-old Bruno Pittón, of Unión Santa Fe, is an Argentine left-back who has recently been linked to Rayo by the Argentine media. Seems unlikely, given that Raț is still in limbo at the club. Not to mention that Sergio Akieme hasn't got a look-in due to Álex Moreno. And don't forget that Javi Noblejas is out on loan at Córdoba. Joni Montiel's playing time has been limited, and is looking for a way out. Loan deals involving Segunda B clubs are rumored, with Fuenlabrada and Ponferradina reportedly interested. Rayo loan report If Sergio Akieme can't get a look-in at...

Yo-yo clubs are defined by their uncertainty. They go up and they go down. They remain relevant one season and are just as quick deemed irrelevant in the next. In other words, yo-yo clubs are easily forgettable. His face conveys the stern gaze of a man who had seen a lot - maybe too much. White streaks in his hair and his grey beard make the 35 year old look 53. But his role as a footballer demands him to draw on every experience. Creaking legs are shielded from scrutiny once the ball lands on his feet. Always looking to control, pass, create. Always looking to win the ball intelligently. Always looking to score from dead ball situations. He is Abel Gómez. And this is his story. There is more to Andalusia than Seville. Abel was born in Seville but spent most of his life in Granada. As a child he started playing at Atlético Monachil, located in Monachil, Granada, and later at Granada 74. Seville's Sevilla did spot him, and he graduated from their academy, playing for their...

I always look to write about the players we have now - and yet I find it interesting that I've never dedicated a piece to our number one goalkeeper this season. Here it is... He's our goalkeeper. He looks stocky but possess great reflexes, and is quick across the ground. He looks short but is able to dominate in aerial battles. But he hasn't always got the opportunities to shine. Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, he bounced around in Catalonia during his youth, appearing for Barcelona, Europa and Cornellà. He would then move to Madrid in 2004, making his senior debut with Rayo Majadahonda in the Tercera. However, in early 2005, he moved back to Catalonia, playing for Sant Andreu in the same division. His shot in the Segunda B came exactly a year later - he would sign for Villarreal's B team in the Tercera in the summer of 2005, but was loaned out to Águilas for the latter half of the 2005-06 season. In the Segunda B, he played nine league games, as well as both legs...

Sometimes a blog entry becomes less about the subject matter and how it came about. I was going to publish this piece a week ago, and it started it like this: "This weekend, Rayo Vallecano will face Córdoba, coached by Juan Merino. The former center-back, and Real Betis and Recreativo legend, was born in La Línea de la Concepción, in Andalusia, and is one of its most famous sons. But there is another, lesser known, face of the city. He is no Betis legend, or even a Recreativo one. Heck, he hasn't even played professional football so far." But on the 4th of December, Juan Merino was sacked. Nevertheless, he has been replaced by Jorge Romero, and this piece remains hanging in the air. Oh well... "The very name La Línea de la Concepción is a reminder of Gibraltar's proximity. The town derives its name firstly from the línea or boundary line separating Spain from Gibraltar, and secondly from the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The town...

Every time he was destined to fail, he did not. Every time he had to take a step back, he was back where he began... Guardiola was a product of Lorca Deportiva CF's youth system, and made his debuts as a senior in the 2009-10 season, in the Tercera. In the summer of 2010, he signed with Segunda B club Jumilla. It was his first Segunda B season - and it ended with relegation, with Guardiola playing less than 1200 minutes. It looked as if Sergi Guardiola would be consigned to the Tercera - and his February 2012 move to CF La Nucía in the same tier was a clear indication of that. But miraculously, in August of the same year he was given his second shot in the Segunda B with Ontinyent. But once again, he barely got game time - playing just 1059 minutes - and moved to fellow league team Getafe B in January 2013. Once again, he was back in the Tercera. And once again, he bounced back - scoring nine goals with Novelda in the 2013-14 season and earning a move to Segunda B side Eldens...

Sometimes, I have thoughts and snippets that don't always deserve a full article, but also don't deserve to go into the heap. In other words, welcome to my drafts folder. Watch out for this type of article occasionally - on Sundays (Sunday Snippets) and Thursdays (Thursday Thoughts). The secret to long throws, their power (up to 60 kilometers per hour), and the distance traveled (up to 38 meters), is the technique. The explosive force that makes the long throw successful comes from the the shoulders and lower back. The release angle never exceeds 20 degrees, so that the ball increases its velocity and does not dip quickly - otherwise it can be easily cleared. They called him the catapult. No, not Morten Gamst Pedersen of Blackburn, or Rory Delap of Stoke City - even if they had the same technique. No, they say that about Marius Stankevičius - a former Sevilla, Valencia and Córdoba defender, currently seeing out his career in amateur football in Italy with AC Crema 19...

Welcome back to the mini-series focusing on the technical players at Córdoba! This is part 2...you can read yesterday's piece - part 1 - here . Wow, two days in a row - that's a first! 24th August, 2014. It was Eibar's first ever goal in La Liga, in their first ever game in La Liga, their first La Liga Basque derby....their first of many. And it was a hell of a goal. In their own stadium, a player who was making his La Liga debut scored a free-kick from the tightest possible angle, just a few meters from the corner flag, just before half-time. The perfect kick of the ball to kick-start Eibar's dream season. The celebration by the 28-year-old said it all - not just the goal he had scored, but the struggle of being in that moment, in that stadium, in the top tier, in football at all, scoring a goal against a Europa league team. Exactly, four years before that goal, Javi Lara was without a team, having been released from yet another Segunda B side. By the...

Welcome to a new mini-series - yes, the mini-series I love to start but always struggle to finish. This time, I'll try not to. This one focuses on the technical players at Córdoba, hence the name The brains of the Blanquiverdes . (I think that is why I do these mini-series - I like coming up with names like that.) Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it! In a market where clubs can rarely offer more than a season-long contract, where teams desperately fill their squads with loaned players and youth hopefuls, where players can risk being unemployed for long periods of time if they don't sign whatever is on the table, a player's loyalty depends more on the club than the player themselves. Loyalty is rare. But Carlos Caballero Pérez is a rare kind of player. Not technically - just like many midfielders in Spain, he is a brilliant passer of the ball, creates chances out of nothing and is adept at free-kicks. And many teams noticed him from an early age. One of them, unfo...

In just a few months, Fuenlabrada have competed for promotion to the Segunda, signed a center-back from a La Liga side, and will now be playing Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey. This is part 2 of a series about Fuenlabrada, the mighty challengers to Real Madrid, who they play in the cup on the 26th of October. You can read part 1 here . He was short. Very short. At 5'3", the left winger sometimes played in an over-sized shirt. The ball never left his feet. His feet were tiny but they had magic. A dizzying array of body feints, close control, direction changes and sheer speed, often resembling a roller-coaster, left opposition defenders outwitted. And yes - s ometimes, he frustrated. Sometimes, he was irregular. But when he turned up, the world was at his feet. If Juan Quero plays against Real Madrid he'll be playing against the club that let him go. The club that didn't think he had it in him to become a La Liga player. The club that was wrong. Very, ...

It was the end of the 2009-10 season. They had topped their group - by 11 points, no less - but that was not enough. They had to play L'Hospitalet over two legs, they were at the Municipal Feixa Llarga and 1-0 down, with only seconds to go. A free kick from the halfway line results in a corner on the left hand side. Confusion in the box. Calls for a penalty while the Rayo player run to take another corner from the other side of the pitch. Step forward, Borja García. The goalkeeper misses the cross, and it's an easy tap in - Sandoval's team are up into the Segunda B. In the 97th minute, Rayo B had made it. Born in Torremocha de Jarama, in Madrid, García joined local Rayo Vallecano at the age of 16 from SR Villaverde, finishing his formation there. On 20 June 2009, whilst still a junior, he made his debut as a professional, playing 11 minutes in a 2–2 home draw against Real Zaragoza for the Segunda División championship. In the 2009-10 season, he was a key figure f...

Barcelona may have had a transfer ban in 2015, but that didn't stop them from making new signings. But it wasn't just the first team, it was every youth team too - and Barcelona B was no exception. Barcelona B’s new recruits included attacking midfielder Xemi, who had stepped onto the pitch of his club’s stadium, the Camp Nou, and has defeated Barcelona and Valencia. They also brought in Dani Romera, a striker who has played Córdoba in the league twice in the space of five weeks and won 2-1 both times. Finally, they have signed Jokin Ezkieta, a goalkeeper who has played for the Spain U-19 team but hadn't played a single professional match in Spanish football. Ever. Xemi was currently playing for UE Cornellà, a team that plays in the 1,500-seater Nou Camp Municipal. Their first game of the 2015-16 season was at home against Barcelona B, which they won 2-1. And nearly a month later, again at home, Cornellà defeated Valencia Mestalla 3-2. 20-year-old Xemi is highly energ...

In June 2010, Rayo Vallecano were asked by a judge to pay Álvaro Zazo for breach of contract. After being removed from the team the previous summer, Zazo denounced the club. He was training with Córdoba at the time. The player, who sued for 600,000 euros, received two-thirds of the amount. But now, Zazo is just as well known for being unemployed for long periods of time - on 15th March 2015, after nearly eight months without a club, he signed for Real Avilés in the Segunda B. And on 11th January 2017, following almost two years of inactivity, Zazo joined UD San Sebastián de los Reyes in the Segunda B as well. "Trotamundos del fútbol de Segunda División B", they called him. Born in Madrid, Zazo played in Real Madrid's cadete and juvenil teams, and finished his formation with local Las Rozas. He made his senior debuts in the 2002-03 season with Toledo, in the third division. A year later he joined Mallorca B for a two-year spell which ended with relegation from the...

Donning the number 9 shirt, José Carlos had the ball at his feet on the right wing. He dribbled the ball infield towards the edge of the box, faked a shot and fooled the entire defense - all with his left foot. He then shifted the ball to his right and took a shot from outside the box that goalkeeper Manu Herrera saved at the near post. His left foot was deadly. A Recreativo academy player and Sevilla graduate, he was ousted - despite his value to the Sevilla team, and despite his speed and trickery making him the perfect impact sub - by new coach Gregorio Manzano. Cartagena in the second division took him for six months, before AEK Athens signed him permanently - along with Juan Cala - in the summer of 2011; another new coach, Marcelino, refused to put his faith in him. Reuniting with Sevilla coach Manuel Jiménez, José Carlos gained his form, and some versatility too - whether in central midfield, the wings or just behind the striker, José Carlos was playing with a renewed vigor. ...

Welcome back! This is part 4 - the last installment - of a series on Cádiz by the founder of injuriesandmore.com , a website that focused on sports medicine and Spanish football. On Twitter, he is @Vam_os - go ahead and follow him! This part is about the state of Cádiz and their priorities for the upcoming season. And it hereby concludes The Cádiz Chronicles... Are Cádiz where you want them to be? Although everyone at the Ramón Carranza was up for promotion to the top league, I think personally that Cádiz’ main priority lies in establishing themselves as a strong second division club first and foremost before aiming any higher. That’s going to be the key. It’s not to say promotion to La Primera would be a bad thing; but the whole infrastructure at the club needs to be able to maintain that if and when that time comes. That’s the view also taken by the club president, Manuel Viscaino and it’s reassuring to know that he feels that way. In a recent interview he said that clubs wh...

You can follow James on Twitter here . If only because, as he says, "I'm now living in Sydney and I can guarantee that I am probably the only Almería fan that is living here!" How long have you been a fan of Almería and what made you support them in the first place? I started supporting Almería roughly five years ago as I have visited the area every year for over ten years as my family have a holiday home in the area and I decided to get behind the local club. I've always had an interest in Spanish football but I never really felt any real attachment to a club until I started learning about the club. My main team is Arsenal but wanted to follow a team in Spain that I had an association with and could take a keen interest in and that team was Almería. Describe your first experience of watching Almería play? Whilst Almería were enjoying their first season in La Liga I was able to watch them from the UK as they were often on TV when they played the big teams. It...

You can follow Adrián Fernández on Twitter here . How long have you been a fan of Córdoba and what made you support them in the first place? I've been a fan of Cordoba since I started to get interested in football, when I was a kid. The reason I follow the team is because it is from my city, and since I started to follow them, I felt very represented. Describe your first experience of watching Córdoba play? I do not remember the first time very well, because I was small, but I remember the relegation to the Segunda B (third division) in 2005. It hurt a lot, and it was at that moment when I felt that I loved Córdoba CF. To an outsider - how would you describe Córdoba's playing style, what it means to be a fan of the club, and what it means to be a player of the club? Córdoba has a very changing style of play. It depends on each rival. To be a player of Córdoba means not to surrender and fight until the end (we ascended to La Liga in the 93rd minute), and to be fan, ...

Yesterday, I talked about Granada taking Rayo players away, but I actually didn't mention one of Granada's biggest signings from the club - Paco Jémez. So here it is. Paco refused to hear the scores when Rayo were 1-0 down. Nor when Rayo were 2-0 down. Nor when Rayo were 2-1 down. He turned to his bench, to the coaches who had supported him all season when criticism was at its zenith, to the coaches who had seen their players pull out for the season one by one, to the coaches who couldn’t hide their emotions as they responded. Granada? Safe. Getafe-Sporting? Draw. His head hung low, his eyes lost - searching for reason in a season that has been unreasonable to Rayo - his mind made up: "We are dead". We were dead. There was no hope - Sporting were playing Villarreal, who were coached by a Sporting fan, and Getafe were playing Betis, a team whose fan base has been friendly to Sporting for years. Out of Getafe, Rayo and Sporting, only Sporting were goi...

Pop quiz: in the 2013-14 season, who completed more passes than Xavi, with 2,936 passes (2,537 good) to 2,587 (2,406)? In the 2014-15 season, who completed more passes than Toni Kroos, with 2,566 passes (2,213 good) to 2,353 (2,170)?  In the 2015-16 season, who  completed more passes than Toni Kroos, with  2,693 passes (2,351 good) to 2,425 (2,277)? Trashorras. Duh. The Rayo midfield linchpin has done it again - for the fourth consecutive season, he is on course to become the player with the most passes in the league he plays in. Player Team Total Passes Short Passes Long Passes Through Balls Trashorras Rayo 2,179 1,872 303 4 Fernando Seoane Lugo 2,175 1.940 234 1 Folch Reus 2,055 1,776 278 1 Zapater Zaragoza 1,998 1,728 265 5 Carlos Pita Lugo 1,844 1,539 302 3 Stats as per the 39th jornada i.e. before the Zaragoza game - Trashorras was suspended anyways! Also, considering the Seoane has played 545 minutes m...

@CordobaCFinEng is the place to get all your Córdoba news in English on Twitter - go ahead and check it out! How long have you been a fan of Córdoba and what made you support them in the first place? I have supported Córdoba CF since arriving to live in the city in 2008. In that time the club has been involved in play-offs, a promotion to and relegation from Primera División, mid-table finishes and relegation fights. You never know what to expect with this club. Given the transfer windows and the squad that was assembled at the start of the season, is Córdoba where you want it to be? The club’s current situation and league position stems greatly from the decision to sell Florin Andone, Fidel and Xisco in the summer of 2016 and not adequately replace them. The three of them scored 43 of Córdoba’s 62 goals last season, and a lack of suitable replacements has cost the club dear.  Given the fact that the club managed to hold on to some experienced players from the previous y...

Follow Pedro Aljama on Twitter here . How long have you been a fan of Córdoba and what made you support them in the first place? I have been supporting Córdoba for more than 25 years - as I have lived in Córdoba since I was 3. I am a shareholder (albeit a very small stake) and even though I live today in Madrid for work reasons, I go to see as many live matches as I can. Given the transfer windows and the squad that was assembled at the start of the season, is Córdoba where you want it to be? This season there have been discrepancies between the management and supporters due to the zero investment policy. Last summer we sold Florin Andone (Deportivo de la Coruña) and Fidel (Almería) for around 5M€, however the club has spent 0€ in signing new replacements. However, new arrivals like Juli, Rodri, and Lara, while they are good players, the team has not performed like in the previous year. The consequence is supporters blaming managers for not spending accordingly. A...