The Pride of Vallekas

"2006: The curse of Fuenlabrada" is perhaps a more apt title. That summer, when a player changed clubs from Fuenlabrada to Rayo Vallecano, injuries followed him there too... 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 lo...

This is a re-post of a piece I wrote elsewhere on May 10, 2016 titled "Rayo Vallecano's grim future", just before the last game of the 2015-16 season. Just before Rayo got relegated for sure. I’m sitting in my chair, trembling, wondering how to express what I want to express, wondering how to start this very piece. I’m lost, because it doesn’t matter and yet it does. I’m lost because Luck has been cruel, Fate has been cruel. Life has been cruel. Even when the aesthetic is wonderful, Hope has been replaced with Fear, and Fear with submission. Our no. 1 and captain was out for the season before the season began. Our best goalkeeper then followed. Then our star signing. Then our hero who came back in January. Then our only other midfielder. Then our best defender. By the end, six players were out for the season. And that’s not counting the fact that at one point we were relying on a 17 year old from the Juvenil A because our top three goalscorers were out. Each obs...

Richard Wyatt is a Blackburn Rovers and Rayo Vallecano fan - and a postdoctoral researcher based in Lancashire, UK. You can follow him on Twitter here . How long have you been a fan of Rayo and what made you support them in the first place? About 4 years. It was initially the Laurie Cunningham connection as well as the politics of their fans. which attracted me to the club. How would you describe the fans in the stadium, and how intimidating is the stadium for opposition fans and players? Loud, ultra-led and politically left wing! To an outsider - how would you describe Rayo's playing style? Under Paco Jémez, it was very attacking and buccaneering. Last season the play was quite dull though... How would you describe the last few seasons for Rayo fans? Last season was a low due to the poor football on show. Previously, the club had over achieved by being in the Primera for so long. What is your opinion on the utilization of the youth teams? How would you rate the o...

In the heart of Puente de Vallecas, sporting, institutional and political turmoil have wrecked the institutions of a club that didn't deserve it. Rayo Vallecano, freshly relegated from La Liga, has had three different managers and was just outside the relegation zone with a squad that looks largely unchanged from last season. A signing's (Roman Zozulya) right-wing political views caused the left-wing fan base to protest, and caused Javier Tebas to criminalize fans who were then defended by left-wing political parties such as Podemos and Izquierda Unida. It led to the player returning to Real Betis, and not being able to play anywhere else for the rest of the season, and FIFA making a historic exception by allowing the player to play for four clubs in a single season. And then a Podemos-led coalition called Ahora Madrid tried declaring Javier Tebas persona non grata in Puente de Vallecas for not respecting freedom of speech via a motion in the regional council, a motion that...

Yesterday, I wrote an article about Carlos Aranda, who holds the record for playing in La Liga for the most number of clubs - eight. If you consider just playing for a La Liga club, not actually playing in La Liga with them, that figure becomes nine. But I dug deeper, and found out that if you look at professional clubs (La Liga and Segunda), Carlos Aranda holds that record jointly with Moisés García - an astonishing 12 clubs.  Obviously, only if you use the second metric - by the first metric  Moisés García is top with 12 and Aranda comes joint second with 11 with a couple of other players. That record will be broken soon though - there are quite a few players who are at 11, and they still have a couple of seasons in the tank. So today, I look at a player whose records are unlikely to be broken anytime soon - Elche's Nino.  Even his name has the word modest in it. Juan Francisco Martínez Modesto, aka Nino, was born in Vera, Almería, and first appeared p...

Follow Paul Reidy on Twitter here and on Instagram here . How long have you been a fan of Rayo and what made you support them in the first place? I discovered Rayo on my first ever trip to Madrid in 1993 and was introduced to the club by a friend living in the capital at that time. He mentioned the idiosyncrasy of the club, the neighborhood and the political aspect that surrounds the club. I went to my first game the following season and remember being pleasantly surprised by the warmth of the fans who were somewhat bemused to see a foreign supporter make the journey to Vallekas, as at that point in time the club had close to zero in terms of international profile. On regular trips to Madrid I would also ensure that the weekend flight worked around Rayo home fixtures. I later moved to Madrid in 2003 and one of the first tasks upon arriving in Madrid was securing a Rayo season ticket. My arrival coincided with relegation from the top flight and another subsequent relation to 2B...

When did you make the decision to pursue football coaching and what motivated you to do so? Well, I’ve been interested in it since always. I was a football player when I was a kid, and my football coaches used to be my target. It’s why I’ve been working in football for so many years and  I hope to do so for many more years to come. What was your background before Liverpool came calling? I used to be in my local town, which is Reus - they’re now in the second division. I was also at Gimnàstic de Tarragona, before which I worked for UE Rapitenca. I used to be involved in organisation and football coaching while at the same time obtaining my coaching license (while at Rapitenca) and studying sports science at the Universitat de Lleida for four years. What were the first thoughts in your mind when Liverpool offered you a position and was Rafael Benítez connected to the deal? I was the first Spanish coach there but was never appointed by Rafael Benítez - I was appointed...

On the 14th of March, 2017, I wrote an article called the true Rayistas (read it here ), honoring those who stuck with the club from the 2002-03 La Liga to the 2004-05 Segunda B: We seem to think that footballers form emotional attachment and loyalty to their clubs, but being a professional footballer is a job - and that job is their means of survival. Which is why we celebrate, and revere, and treasure those who genuinely care about the club, put their money where their mouth is and stay on. They didn't need to. They weren't expected to.  And yet they did. There is no heroism in it. It damages career prospects, takes a toll on the bank account, and history won't remember much about the club, much less the name. But there are three more people to honor - those who stayed with the club from 2004 all the way till 2008, when Rayo jumped out of the well and into the Segunda. The first is Miguel Albiol (yes, Raúl Albiol's older brother), who arrived at Ra...