The Pride of Vallekas

Speculation is a fool's game. On the 24th of June, 2014, three players were presented at the Estadio de Vallekas. A signing from Real Madrid in the first division, a signing from Mallorca in the second, and a signing from Real Jaén in the third. Jozabed was the last of those three in order of reputation. Maybe in order of former club prestige too. But there was no doubt among fans of the La Liga club that Jozabed was the last in order of ability. Two seasons later, Jozabed became Rayo's cash cow, leaving for four million euros to Fulham despite being relegated . A 24-year-old Sevilla graduate from Mairena del Alcor, Jozabed finished his formation in Sevilla's youth ranks, and made his senior debuts in 2010-11 with the C-team. He was promoted to the reserves (Sevilla Atlético) in the summer of 2012, in the Segunda B. However, seeing no opportunities to break into first team football, Jozabed rescinded his contract and joined second-tier Ponferradina in February 201...

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...

A 24-year-old Sevilla graduate from Mairena del Alcor, Jozabed joined second-tier Ponferradina in February 2013, leading his club to just a place off the promotion playoffs. They were behind Las Palmas in the league table, but were level on points, head-to-head points, head-to-head goal difference, head-to-head goals scored and even goal difference; only number of goals scored could separate them. He then joined Real Jaén, where four goals and 12 assists in 36 league matches couldn't prevent relegation to the theoretically amateur third-tier of Spanish football in 2014. He took the punt and joined Rayo in La Liga. It was a gamble, a huge one, and no one thought about the signing working out. Two years later and with 10 goals and 3 assists not enough to save Rayo Vallecano, Jozabed was on his way to Fulham. He has since gone to Celta Vigo on loan, and now plays with them permanently. But why do I bring this up? In 2014, not many fans could really say that Jozabed was...

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...

You can follow El Periscopio (aka Fernando Díez) on Twitter here . A bit about yourself and your background I'm a Spanish lawyer, 36 years old, married and in love with sports in general! How long have you been a fan of Cultural Leonesa and what made you support them in the first place? Since the 1994-95 season, in the Third Spanish division. I went to the stadium with some classmates, and from the first moment I saw them I felt that this was my team. Describe your first experience of watching Cultural Leonesa play? My first experience was the feeling that this team represented me, me and my people, my city, my culture… everything. To an outsider - how would you describe Cultural Leonesa's playing style, what it means to be a fan of the club, and what it means to be a player of the club? Rubén de la Barrera is a very young coach, and his style is very attractive. The team moves the ball very fast, and the attack players move his position very often. This style...

And you thought you could escape these days... But hold on! This one in particular is special. It's a collaboration with Ponferradina fan Chris Pidgeon, who has made an appearance on this blog before ( here ). I enjoyed working on it and collaborating with Chris. And I hope you enjoy it too. It's the story of three Brazilian cousins who "made it" in Spain - Charles, Igor and Yuri. I talked about the unlikely rise of Charles despite the odds, and Chris talked about Yuri and what he means for Ponferradina fans. It was published on my other blog here , and on Chris' blog here . Follow @Vallecanos1924

A couple of days ago, I wrote about CD Móstoles URJC, and how Rayo B coach Juanvi Peinado will be coaching them next season (read it here ). I dug deeper, and found some stories that were worth sharing. This is part 2. CD Móstoles URJC came fourth in the Tercera this season, qualifying for the promotion playoffs. Their top scorer, and the third top scorer in the league, was Gerardo Berodia, with 17 goals. He is another player who made their debut in professional football late in his career - at the age of 31. Born in Madrid, Berodia joined Real Madrid in 1991 at age 10. He left seven years later and, until the age of 31, competed solely in lower league and amateur football, representing El Álamo, Santa Ana, Alcalá, Pinto, San Sebastián de los Reyes, Navalcarnero, Leganés, Zamora, Ponferradina, Conquense and Lugo. He helped Lugo in the 2011–12 season to promotion to the Segunda, scoring seven goals. However, 33 professional minutes of game time spanning four games led ...

A player who we all love at the club. Fran has more maturity than his age says -Paco Jémez, in 2015 I was wrong. Fran Beltrán has been linked with Barcelona many times. His talent is unquestionable and his desire to make it at Rayo undeniable. But his desire to stay at Rayo was always in doubt. Despite signing a new contract that kept him at the club till 2020, a eight million euro release clause seemed like the board were looking to make a quick buck. It's important to know his history - at the tender age of 16, Fran made his Rayo B debut against CD San Fernando in December 2015. A tireless midfielder with excellent technique and ball-winning capabilities, he has also been called up for the U-17 Spanish national football team, and regularly plays for the first team. But in an interview with Marca this week, Fran said this: "I  was clear that if another team came, Madrid or Barça, I wanted to stay here. I can not think of a better place than Rayo" Obvio...

Sarthak ( @Vallecanos1924 ) puts it succinctly. The Old Boys' network in the RFEF is still alive & kicking. The gravy train rolls on. pic.twitter.com/Fk89zocbf5 — Barça Women (@BarcaWomen) May 23, 2017 Exactly. Behind the incredible Hulk kits is a story that shows weakness - weakness of the argument for why the Segunda B should even exist. In March 2016, Atlético Astorga couldn't survive in the Segunda B. It ran a 30,000 euro deficit. It needed 70,000 euros more to survive. Just think about that - a club formed in 1969 had spent just two years in the Segunda B and was struggling to function. The team from Astorga did the unthinkable - they reached across to Ponferrada, 64 kilometers away, to their fiercest rivals, and became their B team. The situation was so dire that Sagrario González, president of the board, defended it as the "the only solution" to be able to compete in the Segunda B - and this was after Ponferradina had loaned them fiv...

Follow Jaime on Twitter here . How long have you been a fan of Huesca and what made you support them in the first place? I have been a follower of Huesca since I was very young. At the age of 5 or 6 we would go to the country with my friends. We used to get bored soon, and in the middle of the game we preferred to go out to the parking lot to play ourselves rather than watch the game. From then until now, with its highs and lows. It was not easy a few years ago to continue to Huesca. I remember watching TV to see how the team was or follow the re-transmissions of HIT Radio, the only medium that followed the team during the hardest years. Given the transfer windows and the squad that was assembled at the start of the season, is Huesca where you want it to be? The season of Huesca has been historical. No one at the beginning of the season could dream of something like that. Being fighting for the playoff at this stage of the season, against teams like Cádiz, Tenerife, Getafe or...

Follow Druso on Twitter here . A bit about yourself and your background My name is Druso Lopez, I am a 20 year old International Football Business at UCFB in Wembley, so is not hard to guess that I am a huge football fan and I would like to develop a career within the sport industry. I know live in London but I moved to the UK when I was 15, to a small town in Lancashire called Fleetwood and that's how I become a Fleetwood town fan. Also I like Manchester City, I am a huge football fan and watch a lot of football every week; English, Spain, Italy... I don't mind as long as the game is good, but I've to admit I'm a Premier League fan, I'm aiming to visit every football ground in London before 2018! How long have you been a fan of Tenerife and what made you support them in the first place? I was born and raised in Tenerife capital Santa Cruz and my house was just a 10 minutes walk from the Stadium; my dad and my grandad as most of my families were huge Teneri...

A huge thanks to Chris for doing this - check out the Facebook page of his book "The Ponferrada Pendulum" here , and follow him on Twitter here . He is blogging daily at the moment! Check out his blog, which regularly has  Ponferradina news, pictures and articles updated as well as news on his other books here . A bit about yourself and your background I am a football supporter from the north-east of England with a degree in History and English. I am married with two children, am a writer and have written about Ponferradina for five years along with various other projects. I have lived in Barcelona and Ponferrada between spells in Italy, Serbia and Bosnia. How long have you been a fan of Ponferradina and what made you support them in the first place? I became aware of the team after cycling the Camino Frances in 2011, so am in my fifth full season. I was in Lisbon when the team were promoted in the promotion playoffs of 2012 and returned to walk the Camino the foll...

Follow Juan on Twitter here . How long have you been a fan of Ponferradina and what made you support them in the first place? I've been following Ponferradina since I am 12-13 (now I am 26). What made me support Ponfe was proximity to my town. Even though Ponferrada (the city) is in another region, Castilla y León, as I live in the border between Galicia and Castilla, Ponferradina was my nearest football team apart from my local team that was in lower divisions at that time. Given the transfer windows and the squad that was assembled at the start of the season, is Ponferradina where you want it to be? Of course not. The goal this season was promotion, but knowing how is the promotion system from Segunda B to Segunda, that is quite difficult and everyone needs to be lucky in the playoffs. But being one of the biggest, if not the most, budget of all 80 teams in Segunda B, this team should be in the top 4 of Group 1 at least. Of the signings made this season, which one work...

The Hinchas y Jugadores project was founded with the aim of bringing fans and footballers together. It is convenient to think of fans as fanatics and footballers as pawns on a tactics board. It is convenient. It is also wrong. Behind the scenes, fans and footballers are people, and their stories deserve to be heard. And what makes it beautiful is that all those stories, no matter the source, are connected by the sport they love. This project will last 19 consecutive days. Why 19, you ask? Because 19 is the number of autonomous communities and cities in Spain, a regionalism that is often contentious in its existence yet celebrated for its diversity. Because it was in 1919 that King Alfonso XIII of Spain came to the throne - the last monarch until the proclamation of the Second Republic in 1931. Because Spain's U-19 team is one of the most successful in the world. Because La Liga players have accumulated a record 19 Ballon d'Or awards. Because I discovered a surpris...