The Pride of Vallekas

Five years apart, two defenders made the journey from Mérida to Madrid, from the capital of Extremadura to the capital of España. Here are their stories. It's a national record - a record of how unlucky a player can be. Ramón de Quintana , a center-back, holds the record for the most number of relegations as a player. Eight, to be exact - and one of them wasn't even a sporting relegation. It's a painful reminder of the player and his legacy - a calm, composed, tall, strong center-back who stood calm, composed, tall and strong through numerous team disappointments. The Girona native graduated from Damm and made his first team debut with Figueres in the Segunda in 1991. In 1992, the team came 3rd - a record high for the club, qualifying for the promotion playoffs but losing to Cádiz. But it is there where the heroics end. In 1993, Figueres went down on goal difference, tied with Eibar on head-to-head. Subsequently, Quintana went to La Liga club Osasuna, but was re...

Ball-winning, combative midfielders have become something of a thing on this blog. And Iriney is no different - robust in his challenges, yet technically sound. Signings from foreign clubs seem to always be suspicious - but we often forget the back-story and the desire of players to succeed in a foreign country and dismiss it as opportunism. Clearly, that can't be said of Iriney. 21-year-old midfielder Iriney moved to Rayo Vallecano from São Caetano - where he made his senior debut - and joined the club while in La Liga in January 2003. The club was relegated at the end of the season, but Iriney stayed on - he would go on, like many others, to stay at the club and remained an undisputed starter. However, the club went through a second successive relegation - and was plunged into the hell-hole that is the Segunda B. Almost the entire squad left the club. In fact, only four players stuck with the team from the first division to the third. Right-back Mario Gómez, center-back Die...

Welcome back! This is part 2 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 club management and the fans... Club management Since being relegated to Segunda B in 2010, Cádiz have made no fewer than eight coaching changes! Álvaro Cervera came into the club in April 2016 with only four games left of the regular season in Segunda B, replacing Claudio Barragán as the push for promotion at that time had faltered. By that time Cádiz were starting to lose touch with the promotion leaders and the support weren’t happy with either the results or the performances on the field. Having lost to Bilbao Athletic in the promotion play-off final in season 2014 -15, Cádiz fans expected so much more. When this didn’t happen, and with a place in the play-offs looking less and less likely, understandably people became restless. It was widely a...

It's a great quiz question - which player has played the most consecutive games as a substitute in the Segunda? With 40 games, that record goes to striker Ramón Pereira. 40 games, that even more weirdly, spanned six years and three clubs. This is that story Born in Mérida, Extremadura, Pereira went from hometown club CP Mérida to Atlético Madrid as a youth, and made his professional debut with the latter's reserves on 21 September 1997, in a 1-1 Segunda División away draw against Real Jaén where he came on as an 86th-minute substitute for Luis Tevenet. Used rarely - there in the 1997-98 season and at previous team Mérida the following season - he dropped down to Segunda División B where he played for Écija Balompié and Ponferradina during the 1999-00 season. Rarely used at Écija, he became a part of a historic squad in Ponferrada: on the last day of the season, Ponferradina occupied a position they hadn't occupied the entire season - higher than 16th. Yes, Ponfer...

In February 2009, de la Vega was arrested in connection with an anti-drug operation in the Spanish capital. After eight days, he paid €30.000 in order to be released from custody. Former footballers Predrag Stanković and Txutxi were also involved in the plot, among others. In 2014 (confirmation in 2015) de la Vega was one of two persons acquitted, as five other people received sentences that ranged from four to 12 years. Predrag and Txutxi were condemned to nine years in 2014 (confirmation in 2015) for smuggling 950 kg of cocaine into the country. After emerging through Rayo Vallecano's youth system, right-back Carlos de la Vega went on to play with amateur sides Alcalá and Alcorcón, also from his hometown of Madrid, until well into his 20's. He did not have his first taste of full professional football until the 2008–09 season (he had only played one match with Rayo's first team in 2002–03's La Liga, two minutes) when, after returning to Rayo in the previous ye...