VALENCIA
History
Spain’s third city after Madrid and Barcelona, also has two clubs in the top division, although Valencia CF are very much the flagship. They reached the Champions League Final two years running (2000 and 2001) and since then have twice seen off Real Madrid and Barcelona in the Spanish championship race (2001-02 and 2003-04) and won the UEFA Cup in 2004.
Valencia, nicknamed Los Ches (the lads), were transformed from also-rans in the 1990s. The city had a new urban dynamism, and the club, under president Francisco Roig, had much more financial clout.
Trailing in their wake are modest city rivals Levante, who have spent most of their existence yo-yoing between divisions. After a grim struggle, Los Granotes (the frogs) avoided relegation last June to book themselves another season with the big boys.
Valencia play at a football temple, the Mestalla, close to the centre of town. However, they are building a New Mestalla in the north-east of the city, the design based on Bayern Munich’s highly-praised Allianz Arena. The first brick was laid this August, and the club are expected to move in at the start of the 2009-10 season. The capacity will be much greater than the current ground – 78,000 against 53,000. Levante, meanwhile, run out at a shabby, municipal ground with a 25,000 capacity.
Despite the gap in pedigree, derbies have always been fierce. In the early years, the Levantinos and the Valencianistas met in the regional championship. But all the same, the clubs would lend each other key players if either had to face the common enemy: Barcelona. The derby of January 2005 was the clubs’ first league clash for 40 years, although they had met in the Cup in between. This season’s first league derby is in January, the second in May.
By a quirk of the fixture list, both big Madrid sides visit the city within a few days of each other this autumn: Atletico at Levante on the weekend of October 28/29 and then the big one, Real at the Mestalla in a midweek match.
Valencia, one of Europe’s most exciting sides over the past decade, have relied for many years on pacy South American players to please the boisterous Mestalla faithful. In the early 1960s it was Brazilians Chicao and Waldo, who helped the Ches win the Fairs Cup two seasons running. In 1980, Argentinian World Cup forward Mario Kempes scored the goals that took Valencia to another European final, the Cup-winners Cup, when they beat Arsenal on penalties.
With Roig as president in the moneyed 1990s, Valencia hired the best coaches – Jorge Valdano, Luis Aragones, Carlos Alberto Parreira – and yet more big South American names such as Romario, Claudio Lopez and Ariel Ortega. Two key Spaniards, goalkeeper Santiago Canizares and midfielder Gaizka Mendieta, also starred, and when new Argentinian coach Hector Cuper brought in compatriot winger Kily Gonzalez, Valencia started winning domestic cups, challenging for the League and made those two Champions League final appearances.
The domestic league triumphs earlier this decade came under Rafa Benitez. His less spectacular but more solid squad took advantage of managerial in-fighting and dips in form at Real and Barca to nip in and win La Liga.
Valencia, backed by the genial, manic drummer Manolo, are one of those rare clubs who are local enough to be in touch with their fans while firmly ensconced in the European elite. All that may change with the new, less intimate stadium.
Newsletter
