The Pride of Vallekas

Imanol Etxeberria, in 2002, moved to Rayo Vallecano, replacing the departed Kasey Keller. In his first season he became the regular goalkeeper over veteran Julen Lopetegui (also from Gipuzkoa) who retired at the end of that campaign. In 2002-03 he was the starter for most games but was challenged by Sergio Segura, and the club was relegated after four years in La Liga. Rayo suffered a second successive relegation in 2004 - in a chaotic campaign, Etxeberria played in eight matches at the beginning of the season under Lopetegui (in his first appointment as head coach) but was largely overlooked in favour of Segura by his successor Jorge D'Alessandro, who then brought in another goalkeeper, his compatriot Sebastián Saja, on loan. D'Alessandro was then replaced by Txetxu Rojo, who again had no place in his plans for Etxeberria - he was sent away from Rayo altogether and trained with Bilbao Athletic until the season's end. There would be four managerial spells. Julen Lo...

Today's article is all about players who moved in 2015. Asunción-based club Cerro Porteño shockingly released legendary Spanish goalscorer Daniel Güiza, who was the Pichichi winner in 2008 playing for seventh place Mallorca – ahead of the likes of Luís Fabiano, Sergio Agüero, Raúl, David Villa, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Diego Forlán, Frédéric Kanouté and Samuel Eto’o. He was instrumental in Spain’s Euro 2008 win too. In 2015, the then 35-year-old, signed for third-tier Andalusia-based Cádiz. Whose fans were irritated by his origin from fierce rivals Xerez, and by his commitment made ten years ago to never play for – you guessed it – Cádiz. And yet, less than a year later, it was Güiza who scored the only goal at Hércules in the second leg of the play-off finals (2–0 on aggregate), helping the club return to the second division after six years. Look at Asturian player Miguel Marcos Madera aka “Míchel”. In January 2010 he was a Sporting Gijón legend, joined Birmingham and was ...

In the 2013-14 La Liga, Osasuna were relegated along with Valladolid and Real Betis. This was the season Real Betis were playing amazingly well in the Europa League but bottling it in the league. And even though they had nothing to play for, some of their players may have had a reason to not play for anything. Irregularities in Osasuna's accounts and the fixtures at the end of the 2013/14 season has led the Prosecutor Office to ask for more than 14 years in prison for Osasuna's former administrator, Ángel Vizcay, and more than 12 for former president Miguel Archanco and former director Txuma Peralta. But there's more, they also have requested 11 years and 11 months of imprisonment for ex-directors Juan Pascual, José Manuel Purroy and Sancho Bandrés, and for ex-Betis players Antonio Amaya, Jordi Figueras and Xavi Torres it's 2 years in prison and a 1.9 million euro fine. Let's look at this one by one: The prosecutor wants Vizcay to release more informati...