The Pride of Vallekas

The Rayo aficionado project continues! This is the story of a Rayo fan, one that involves a transformation from being a Real Madrid fan to being a Rayo Vallecano one... A bit about yourself and your background I grew up in the north of Madrid as the smallest of three brothers and as far as I remember I got my brothers taste for Real Madrid. My mother took the opposite position of supporting Atlético Madrid and my father has been a proud supporter of Sporting de Gijón since he was a child. Anyway, I was the one who loved football the most - my brothers chose basketball as their favorite sport. I lived really close to the old training field of Real Madrid, and to the stadium, so for me everything revolved around this club, including my first match at the Santiago Bernabéu. It was February of 1998 and my father took me to watch the game against Sporting, who were already set for relegation to the 2nd division (they won just two games all season) and I can remember two things: th...

Follow Pablo on Twitter here . How long have you been a fan of Depor and what made you support them in the first place? I am fifty two now and I have always been a Depor supporter, the fact that I was born in Riazor only a couple of blocks from our stadium made things easier for me as I used to go to the practice ground almost every day to see my heroes training. Given the transfer windows and the squad that was assembled at the start of the season, is Depor where you want it to be? At the very beginning the transfers signed in summer seemed to improve last year´s team but eventually the team fell even deeper in old errors as complacency or pusillanimity Of the signings made this season, which one worked out the best/had the most impact and why? Babel was absolutely incredible, after a couple of months he became the best player in the last ten years, he was not only good but combative , it was clear he was trying to reach the contract of his career end. He made other playe...

It seems like every club has that one signing from a Brazilian team that looks fishy. Sueliton Pereira was to Rayo what Douglas is to Barcelona. On 2 June 2011 it was announced that 25-year-old Sueliton was joining newly promoted La Liga side Rayo Vallecano as the club's first signing for the upcoming La Liga season. He wasn't a nobody - he was signed from Campeonato Gaúcho side São José EC where in his one season with the club, he appeared in 13 matches and scored 2 goals, being selected as the best right back of the competition. However, he failed to appear in any league matches for Rayo, and rescinded his link on 20 December 2012. He is the exception to the rule though - at Rayo Brazilian footballers have thrived. I've obviously written about Diego Costa before ( here ): It's funny to think that Diego Costa was once a backup at Atlético Madrid. In June 2011, he was packing his bags. Beşiktaş had agreed a deal, and he was going to leave. All the papers...