The Pride of Vallekas

Follow Mark Rickling on Twitter: @mrickling A bit about yourself and your background I'm an American living in the nation's capital, Washington DC. In addition to supporting Rayo, I'm a season ticket holder for the local MLS team, D.C. United. ¡Vamos United! How long have you been a fan of Rayo and what made you support them in the first place? Good question. I first started supporting Rayo in the 2011-12 season. As fan of soccer in a country where this sport is an also-ran in relation to other, more popular, team sports like American football and baseball, you're constantly told by the soccer media that you need to pick a foreign side to support. There are innumerable articles and even books devoted to this very subject -- what non-U.S. team is for you the American fan. Invariably the suggestion turns out to be some Premier League side, and as a result the streets of DC are littered every Saturday and Sunday morning with people walking to their local soccer b...

Over four incredible seasons at Rayo, Paco Jémez took a Rayo side that was seconds away from relegation to an eight place finish, two mid-table finishes and an unfortunate relegation that even now seems unreal. During that time, many players came to Rayo whose careers were in disarray - here's a list of those players who have now gone on to bigger and better things. Bebé After a botched transfer to Manchester United, three loan spells with various degrees of success, a sale to Benfica, and a wretched six months and a relegation with Córdoba, Rayo took him in 2015 where he became a deadly left winger, with three goals and nine assists. After Rayo were relegated, he was sold to Eibar, where he has been a regular. Iago Falqué He played for Real Madrid's and Barcelona's youth teams. He was 18 when sold to Juventus and 22 when sold to Spurs, before which he had had loan spells with Bari and Villarreal B. After further loans to Southampton and Almería, Iago joined Rayo...