The Pride of Vallekas

A few months ago, Rayo fans woke up to this: CONVOCATORIA| 📋 Lista de 1️⃣9️⃣ jugadores para el debut mañana en la #CopaDelRey 🏆 #NumanciaMálaga ⚽️ #VamosMálaga 💙 👉 https://t.co/hlScwtJkhY pic.twitter.com/qFGrdvOnrQ — Málaga CF (@MalagaCF) October 23, 2017 That was a bittersweet moment - pride for a Rayista who was going to succeed at Málaga, but bitterness at the club for letting him go for free and not tying him down early enough. Midfielder Pablo Clavería slipped through the cracks. He wasn't renewed, and got tired of waiting - a depressingly normal situation for a smaller, cash-strapped club. This is the story of another player who slipped through. Like Pablo, he has a powerful shot on him. Unlike Pablo, it's key to his job. The striker made his name in his hometown of Madrid in the Tercera, after rising through the ranks of Galáctico Pegaso. He would play for the reserves in 2007, before playing for the senior team during the 2008-09 campaign. During the ...

It was the 2011-12 winter transfer window, and turmoil in Rayo's finances meant creativity. They had loaned Jordi Figueras for the whole season but Club Brugge wanted to buy him outright from Rubin - and so Rayo stalled his loan return till the end of the window so that he could play an extra four games. He eventually left after two, though. This story always makes me laugh - not just because Jordi Figueras is a fine central defender, but because Rayo were essentially acting like a hoarder. That is not to say that it wasn't without reason: in that same transfer window they brought in Joel, Diego Costa, Emiliano Armenteros and Jorge Pulido on loan - players whose wages were paid for by the clubs that owned them. And finances were so grim that at one point when Rayo traveled to play Real Sociedad they went by bus, and it took much longer than the usual five hours because the driver had been told to stay off toll roads. In fact, when right midfielder Néstor Susaeta and striker...

Once again, smetimes a blog entry becomes less about the subject matter and how it came about. This blog post was supposed to be titled D is for Deportivo Alavés. However, most people would only call it Alavés, and I felt like that was cheating. By sheer coincidence, the first player I wrote about was David Aganzo. Disaster averted? David Aganzo was one of many players who directly confronted Martín Presa in 2011. He had not been paid for fourteen months, Rayo had just returned to La Liga, and he was being offered 70% less than promised. He was blunt in his interviews, angry with his situation and left Vallekas, but his sporting achievements must not be overlooked. His physical problems and excessive temperament plagued him at Rayo but he still managed to score more goals per 90 minutes, and sometimes more goals overall, than any other player. In fact, out of 114 league games, he was eligible for just 64, with 50 games lost due to injuries and suspensions. A Real Madr...

This blog is all about the stories that we ignore or pay lip service to, but don't genuinely appreciate. And, in that spirit, this post, and then some, are about the stereotypical tough-tackling, all-action defensive midfielder. The player who, despite not being blessed with notable technical skills, possesses pace, strength, and work-rate to complement and support other midfielders with a more composed, creative playing style. The player who stands out most for energy, aggression, and a hard-tackling style of play, but is often not talked about for the qualities that reside beneath those ball-winning abilities. A competitive nature. Leadership qualities. Endurance. And so these next posts are about that defensive midfielder. Oh wait, I should correct the record - not about a defensive midfielder. No, it's about three of them. Three defensive midfielders whose careers are, weirdly, connected to each other. Their names? Sergio Matabuena. Javi Fuego. And Raúl Baena. ...

In 2012, a defender, a midfielder and a striker, all playing for Levante, made the bold leap to a country no Spaniard had ever been before. In late January, 2012, center-back Nano Rivas was sold to Guizhou Renhe. Two months later, in March, striker Rafael Jordà was on his way. And three months later still, in June, diminutive midfielder Rubén Suárez was on his way.... Nano Rivas was born in Ciudad Real, and started his youth career at local Manchengo. He was quickly snapped up by Atlético Madrid, and made his professional debut with their B team between 2000-02. In 2002-03 he was loaned to Getafe in the second level, before moving to the club on a permanent deal in the summer of 2003; an undisputed starter with the Madrid outskirts team, he scored four goals in 37 games in the 2004-05 campaign, their first ever in La Liga. Nano was signed by Real Betis in 2005. He was set to have a promising season before being injured in the Champions League group stage match against Chelsea...

Ahead of Barcelona B's visit to Rayo, it made sense to talk about the players who went from Rayo to Barcelona and from Barcelona to Rayo. This, part 1, talks about one of each. Hopefully there is a part 2... Jesús Landáburu was born in Guardo, Province of Palencia. He made his professional debuts at only 17 with Real Valladolid, quickly making an impression with the Segunda División side, his skills, field vision and set piece ability standing out alike. Landáburu made his La Liga debuts with Madrid-based Rayo Vallecano in the 1977–78 campaign: he majorly contributed to the modest team's maintenance of its top flight status during two seasons, after which he signed with league powerhouse FC Barcelona. Landáburu won his first piece of silverware with the Catalans in 1981, the Copa del Rey. However, after two good seasons, he struggled immensely in his last as Barça hired a new coach, German Udo Lattek. Landáburu moved subsequently to Atlético Madrid, being an automa...

This is a continuation of yesterday's blog post ... The joint record holder for most clubs played at in the Segunda currently plays at Hércules - and his record is 10 clubs. Striker Óscar Díaz González started out in the Segunda B with hometown club Alcorcón in the 2004-05 season. And the 33-year-old returned to the Segunda B this summer by signing for Hércules. But the 12 seasons in between have been full of ups and downs in the top two tiers. His strong performances with Alcorcón, scoring six goals that season, earned him a move to a small neighboring team by the name of Real Madrid Castilla, in the second division. After just 559 minutes of action all season, in July 2006, Díaz signed with fellow league club Elche. After being a regular in his first season, he lost his first-choice status in his second year, and he joined Mallorca in July 2008, being immediately loaned to Celta de Vigo also in the second level. Díaz eventually returned to the Balearic Islands in Ju...

He runs at you with the ball. He looks at you. Determination in his eyes, seriousness in his look. A tinge of fear slowly sends shivers down your spine, as you stand back and hold your ground. In that one second, it's on. There can only be one winner and one loser. No surrenders, no take backs, no half-hearts. No change of mind. All in. In that one second, it's war. A player named Guerra started in the lower categories of local club Vélez with his twin brother Emilio, progressing from teams ranging from the benjamín to the cadete till the age of 15 . He would play for Málaga in the cadete and juvenil teams till 1999, where Manel Casanova, the head of La Academia at the Rosaleda club, engineered his move to Espanyol to the juvenil team in the División de Honor for the 1999-00 season. Over there, position coach 'Tintín' Márquez changed his position to that of striker; before then, he had played as a midfielder, in the center or on the wings. He subsequently g...

Rayo Vallecano vs Real Valladolid. Starting lineups. Both managers went with similar lineups as the week before. Míchel made no changes from the side that lost 2-1 at Huesca. And Luis César Sampedro made a solitary change, bringing in Toni Villa for Pablo Hervías on the right wing. This was a comprehensive victory for Rayo, who ended the game with just 36% possession (40% in the first half and 32% in the second). More importantly, it was characterized by both managers making multiple changes, both tactical and personnel-wise, throughout the game. First half set up Real Valladolid went with a very Rayo-esque 4-2-3-1 formation - and they played very much like Rayo too. Borja Fernández sat in the "Trashorras" role, dropping deep into the defense and (trying to) dictating play. Luismi sat further forward trying to break up play. Óscar Plano sat on the left wing, occasionally trying to dictate Valladolid's attacking game but very much ended up hugging the touc...

Even though [Michu] had just one season of greatness in the EPL, for me his impact on the league has been larger than that. It was that, suddenly, the Premier League took notice of a market that produced brilliant players, who resided at clubs that would take any money thrown their way. Not a few months after his move to Swansea, this was the coverage La Liga teams were getting : So what happened to those five players? Right-back Antonio Rukavina moved to Spain in July 2012 and signed with Valladolid, on a three-year deal, thus joining his countryman and former manager Miroslav Đukić. In his two seasons at José Zorrilla, Rukavina collected 71 appearances and scored twice in the top flight of Spanish football. In 2014, after Real Valladolid's relegation, he joined Villarreal. Now 33, he is a back-up to Mario Gaspar. But his rise to the top tier of Spanish football starts in the third division of Serbian football. Rukavina started out at his local club Bežanija, making...

As the rest of the supporters do, I appreciate his effort and how he tries to fight every single ball, but he is really really bad. - Daniel Kobe, on Manucho The club has not announced it ( edit: the club announced it at 9:23 am today ), but Manucho certainly has - on his Instagram. The Angolan striker is almost certainly back at Rayo, for a fourth season. Manucho: The lion "comes back home" This is not necessarily a bad "signing" - Javi Guerra's start to the season hasn't been great, and Raúl de Tomás, for all his qualities, doesn't seem to last 90 minutes week in week out. It's easy to be harsh on him, but he actually played quite well last season. He scored goals to kill off games, he kept defenders busy, and he gave Rayo an option in the air. And all that as a "super-sub". For me, there was something quite symbolic about Manucho "leaving" Rayo this summer. He left everything behind for a trail in Manchester, ...