Players and CLub Info

[Lance Knight]

Goalkeepers:

25- Mariano Damián Barbosa
31- Juan Carlos Sánchez Martínez
1- Javier López Vallejo
13- Sebastián Viera

Defenders:

33- Carlos Alcántara Cuevas
3- Rodolfo Martín Arruabarrena
26- César Arzo Amposta
2- Gonzalo Javier Rodríguez
17- Javier Rodríguez Venta
15- Jan Kromkamp
22- Juan Manuel Peña Montano
16- Enrique Álvarez Sanjuan

Midfielders

11- Javier Calleja Revilla
46- David Fuster Torrijos
14- Héctor Font Romero
6- José Joaquín Moreno Verdú (Josico)
44- Marcos Garcia Barreno
19- Marcos Antonio Senna Da Silva
10- Roger García Junyent
8- Juan Román Riquelme
21- Santiago Cazorla González
12- Juan Pablo Sorín
18- Alessio Tacchinardi
20- Luis Antonio Valencia

Forwards

5- Diego Forlán Corazo
7- Antonio Guayre Betancort Perdomo
29- Jonathan Pereira Rodríguez
23- José María Romero Poyón
9- Luciano Gabriel Figueroa (Lucho)

[Lance Knight]

Club history

The Villarreal C.F. was founded on 10th of march 1923, “in order to promote all sports, and specifically soccer”, as it is specified in the founding letter. The first board of directors was formed by the chemist José Calduch Almela, as president; the bank employee José Martínez Aguilar, as Secretary, the post administrator Carlos Calatayud Jordá, as treasurer, and the members Juan Nebot, Alfonso Saera, Manuel Calduch, Pascual Arrufat Catalá, Vicente Cabedo Meseguer y Manuel Amorós Fortuño.

First decisions: field, tickets and equipment

One of the first decisions of the first board of directors of the club (24.04.23) was to rent the stadium for the price of 60 pesetas /month (approximately 0.36 euro), and to set the ticket prices. Therefore, it was determined that the adult entrance would be 0,5 pesetas (0,005 euro), and half the price for the child ticket. Women would get in for free. In the same meeting, it was decided to buy the first kit, which would be white in the upper part (shirt) and black in the lower (shorts). Those were the first colours of the Villarreal C.F. and they remained until 1946, when they switched to the current yellow and blue equipment.

The very beginning

Villarreal pitch was inaugurated the 17th of June 1923, with a match between C.D. Castellón and Cervantes, two of the most important teams of the capital of the province, Castellón. Four months later, the 21th of October 1923, Villarreal C.F. team played for the first time in their new stadium a friendly match versus the RED y STAR, from Castellón.

The team begins to walk

The first important date for our club leads us to the 34/35 season, in which the team plays the eliminating match to ascend to the 2nd Division category against the Cartagena. (in that time, 2nd Division B and 3rd Division did not exist). Unfortunately, our team, that played against a professional rival, was not able to achieve the promotion. A year later, Villarreal C.F. came first in the 1st Regional category Championship, but the Spanish Civil War ended with all sportive competitions.


War ends- Soccer comes back

With the end of the Spanish Civil War, soccer came back to El Madrigal stadium (it received its name in 1925). From 1939 to 1950, the Villarreal played in the 2nd Regional category, in which it belonged to three different groups (I, IV, VI) during that period.It was in the 50/51 season when they achieved promotion to 1st Regional, after its classification from the 2nd Regional Group I by coming first.

The 50s decade

Villarreal played in 1st Regional from 1952 to 1956. In those seasons, the team ended the championship in 7th position, twice 4th, and once 1st, all consecutively. The success of the last campaign allowed the team, a year later, to play in the 3rd Division, category in which the team remained until the 60/61 season, in which they ended the league in 14th position, and were forced to descend.



The 60s decade

The Villarreal began the 60’s in the First Regional category. The first two years, the team was far from the promotion positions, but after two years ending in third place, they came first and got promoted in 66/67 season. From that time, they played in the Third Division until 1970, in which they ended in first position of group V, and therefore, they got promoted to the Second Division.

The grey 70’s

The 70’s was not a good decade for Villarreal. In they first season in 2nd Division (70/71), the yellow team avoided the drop by the skin of their teeth, something they could not manage the following year, in which they ended in 17th position, abd they were subsequently relegated back to the 3rd Division.
From that year, Villarreal occupied the medium-low part of the table until the 75/76 season, in which they went down to the Regional Preferente category. They rapidly got promoted again in the following year, and stayed in the 3rd Division until the end of the decade.

The 80’s

Spain was getting ready to host the soccer world cup in 1982, and during that time, Villarreal was trying to stabilise. From the beginning of the 80’s they remained in the 3rd Division, and in the 86/87 season, they reached promotion to the 2nd Division B. The following two years, they occupied positions in the upper part of the table, but in the 89/90, they ended in 18th position, and went down to the 3rd division again.

The 90’s, the supporting years

The 90’s began with the promotion to 2nd Division B. A year later, they ended on the second position of this category, which allowed them to go up two categories in two consecutive years.
The yellow team began the season 92/93 in the silver division of the Spanish soccer championship, from which they would not descend again. Since then, and until they reached their first promotion to the upper category, Villarreal occupied the medium-lower part of the table. However, in the 97-98 season, they ended the championship in fourth position, and that permitted the team to play the promotion matches to ascend to the First Division. The rival was Sociedad Deportiva Compostela. In the first match they played in El Madrigal, and ended 0-0, but the return leg was held at the Multiusos de San Lázaro on the 24th of may 1998, and ended 1-1. Alberto got the all important goal that sealed promotion, for the first time in the club's history, to the Liga de las Estrellas.

One team more in the ‘Liga de las estrellas’

Villarreal played their first 1st Division match on 31/08/98, against Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. A week later, El Madrigal opened its doors to the Liga de las estrellas with a Villarreal-Celta de Vigo. In that campaign, even though the team had a fantastic 1st round, the yellow players were relegated to 2nd division again – however, the stay in second would be short lived. In the 99/00 season, they finished in 3rd position and went up to 1st Division again, where they have not left since. Only one year later, Villarreal finished in 7th place in the league, their best position ever. Villarreal ended in 15th position in 01/02 & 02/03 seasons. In the summer of 2003, they won their first European trophy, beating Heerenven in the final of the Intertoto Cup. That achievement allowed them to play the UEFA Cup the following year, in which they reached the semi-finals. This has been, up to now, one of the greatest success of the yellow team. In 03/04 campaign, Villarreal ended in 8th position in the Spanish league, and almost achieved their first direct classification to an European competition.

[juanca]

Luis valencia is representing OUR country Ecuador!

vamos Ecuador!