Levante UD

Levante

Full name	Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D.
Nickname(s)	Les Granotes (The Frogs)
Founded	9 September 1909 (1909-09-09)
Ground	Ciutat de València, Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Ground Capacity	26,354
President	Quico Catalán
Head coach	Juan Ramón López Muñiz
League	Segunda División
2015–16	La Liga, 20th (relegated)
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. (Spanish: [leˈβante uˈnjon deporˈtiβa], Valencian: Llevant Unió Esportiva [ʎeˈvant uniˈo espoɾˈtiva]) is a Spanish football club based in Valencia, in the namesake community.

Founded on 9 September 1909, it plays in Segunda División, holding home games at Ciutat de València.

History

Early years

Levante UD was originally founded in 1909 as Levante Fútbol Club, taking their name from the "Levante" beach in La Malvarrosa, and was one of the pioneering football clubs in Valencia. Local rivals Valencia CF were not formed until 1919; however, another club, Cabanyal FC, had been playing in the city since 1903.

The team's earliest games were played at La Platjeta, near the docks on a plot of land owned by a perfume entrepreneur. Its next ground was also near the port area, and the club gradually began to become associated with the working class. In 1919 the side played Valencia for the first time, losing 0–1 – the game marked the inauguration of the recently formed new ground at Algirós; in 1928 Levante FC won their first trophy, the Valencian Championship.

1909 also saw the birth of Gimnástico Fútbol Club, who originally played at Patronato de la Juventud Obrera, being then named Universitario Fútbol Club. By 1920, the team had become Real Gimnástico Club de Fútbol, after being granted royal patronage by Alfonso XIII. In 1920 Gimnástico also reached the final of the Campeonato de Valencia, but the game was never played; in 1930, with the emergence of the Second Spanish Republic, they dropped the Real from their name.

In 1934–35 both Levante and Gimnástico made their debut in the second division, when the league was expanded from ten teams to twenty-four. In 1935 the former won the Campeonato Levante-Sur, a competition that featured teams from Valencia, Murcia and Andalusia,^[1] and subsequently reached the semi-finals of the Spanish Cup, consecutively beating Valencia and FC Barcelona before losing to eventual runners-up CE Sabadell FC.

Copa de la España Libre

During the Spanish Civil War Levante and Gimnástico played in the Mediterranean League, finishing fifth and sixth respectively – teams from this league also competed in the Copa de la España Libre (Free Spain Cup). It was originally intended that the top four teams from the league would enter the cup, but Barcelona opted to tour Mexico and the United States and, as a result, Levante took its place.

The first round of the competition was a mini-league with the top two teams, Levante and Valencia, qualifying for the final. On 18 July 1937, Levante defeated their city rivals 1–0 at the Montjuïc.^[2]

The merger

During the civil war Levante's ground was destroyed, but the club's squad remained intact. In contrast Gimnástico had a ground, Estadio de Vallejo, but had lost most of their players.

As a result, the two clubs merged in 1939 to become Unión Deportiva Levante-Gimnástico, changing two years later to Levante Unión Deportiva, which club colours in the 2000s also dating from this era (the blaugrana home colours were originally those of Gimnástico, whilst the black and white away kit, was also used by Levante FC in the beginning).

La Liga

Before a game in March 2013

Levante had to wait until the 1960s to make their La Liga debut. In 1963 the club finished runner-up in Group 2 of the second division, beating Deportivo de La Coruña 4–2 on aggregate in the promotion play-offs. During the first top flight season it managed to win both games against Valencia, managing a 5–1 home win against Barcelona in the 1964–65 campaign but being relegated nonetheless after losing in the playoffs against CD Málaga, and spent most of the following two decades in the second and third divisions – Segunda División B would not be created until 1977; in the early 1980s, Dutch superstar Johan Cruyff played half a season for the club, retiring three years later.

After winning 2003–04's second division Levante returned to the top level, but survived only one season. Finishing third in 2005–06 it returned for two additional campaigns, the decisive match in the 2006–07 season being a 4–2 home win against Valencia courtesy of Riga Mustapha (two goals), Salva and Laurent Courtois.

Levante's financial status worsened, however, and there were reports that the players had only received approximately one fifth of their contractual payments – news reports stated that the club had incurred a debt of over €18 million in payments due their players. The team plummeted down the standings, and it was confirmed that they would be playing in the second division in 2008–09, with several matches to go; the players protested at their lack of payments at one point, refusing to move for several seconds after the opening whistle against Deportivo, and later announcing that they would issue a job action during the season-ending game at Real Madrid.

The action was resolved when league officials announced that a benefit game would be played between Levante team members, and a team made up of players from the first division, with all benefits going to pay the wages due to the players.

On 13 June 2010 Levante returned to the first division, after a 3–1 home win against already relegated CD Castellón. It lost in the final round 0–4 at Real Betis, but its opponents only managed to finish with the same points as fourth.^[3]

Deportivo de La Coruña vs. Levante UD.

Under the manager who led the team back to the top flight, Luis García Plaza, Levante finally retained its division status in the 2010–11 season. During one point of the league's second round of matches it was the third team with most points, only behind Barcelona and Real Madrid and losing just once in 12 games, precisely against the latter team.^[4]

On 26 October 2011, during round nine of the season, Levante defeated Real Sociedad 3–2 to move top of the table on 23 points.^[5] It was the first time in the club's history it reached the highest ranking in the top division – in the process, they recorded seven straight wins after drawing the first two games;^[6] the club eventually finished in sixth position after defeating Athletic Bilbao 3–0 at home in the last match, thus qualifying for the UEFA Europa League for the first time in its history.^[7]

Seasons

Recent history

European record

Season	Competition	Round	Opposition	Home	Away	Aggregate
2012–13	UEFA Europa League	Play-off round	Motherwell	1–0	2–0	3–0
		Group L	Twente	3–0	0–0	2nd
			Hannover 96	2–2	1–2
			Helsingborg	1–0	3–1
		Round of 32	Olympiacos	3–0	1–0	4–0
		Round of 16	Rubin Kazan	0–0	0–2 (aet)	0–2

Season to season

Levante FC

• 2 seasons in Segunda División
• 5 seasons in Tercera División
• 1 season in Categorías Regionales

Gimnástico FC

• 2 seasons in Segunda División
• 5 seasons in Tercera División
• 1 season in Categorías Regionales

Levante UD

• 11 seasons in La Liga
• 38 seasons in Segunda División
• 12 seasons in Segunda División B
• 16 seasons in Tercera División
• 1 season in Categorías Regionales

Current squad

As of 31 August 2016^[8]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Raúl Fernández 2 DF Iván López 3 DF Toño 4 DF Róber (on loan from Deportivo La Coruña) 6 MF Javier Espinosa 7 MF Verza (2nd captain) 8 MF Jefferson Lerma 9 FW Roger Martí 10 MF Rubén García (3rd captain) 11 MF José Luis Morales (4th captain) 12 DF Esteban Saveljich

No. Position Player 13 GK Álex Remiro (on loan from Athletic Bilbao) 15 DF Sergio Postigo 16 DF Chema Rodríguez 17 FW Rafael Martins 18 FW Víctor Casadesús 19 DF Pedro López (Captain) 20 MF Paco Montañés (on loan from Espanyol) 21 MF Natxo Insa 22 DF Abraham Minero (on loan from Zaragoza) 23 FW Jason 24 MF José Campaña

Reserve team

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 26 MF Pepelu García 27 GK Koke Ruiz 28 DF Fran López

No. Position Player 29 DF Mode 30 DF Kaiser 33 FW Allyson

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player — MF Víctor Camarasa (on loan at Alavés until 30 June 2017) — FW Deyverson (on loan at Alavés until 30 June 2017)

Honours

National Competitions

• Copa del Rey
  • Semifinals (1):1935
• Copa de la España Libre
  • Winners: 1937
• Segunda División
  • Winners: 2003–04
• Segunda División B
  • Winners:1988–89, 1995–96, 1998–99
• Tercera División
  • Winners:1943–44, 1972–73

Regional Competitions

• Campeonato Levante-Sur:
  • Winners:1934–35
• Campeonato de Valencia
  • Winners:1927–28

Friendly Tournaments

• Trofeo Ciudad de Valencia
  • Winners:1996

Notable former players

Note: this list includes players that have appeared in at least 100 league games and/or have reached international status.

Famous coaches

• Josep Escolà (1955–56)
• Enrique Orizaola (1964–65)
• Ferdinand Daučík (1974–75), (1975)
• Juande Ramos (July 1, 1994 – June 30, 1995)
• Mané (July 1, 1996–97), (2005–06)
• Manuel Preciado (July 1, 2003 – June 30, 2004)
• Bernd Schuster (July 1, 2004 – May 1, 2005)
• Juan Ramón López Caro (July 1, 2006–Jan 20, 2007)
• Abel Resino (Jan 22, 2007–Oct 8, 2007)
• Gianni De Biasi (Oct 27, 2007–April 16, 2008)
• Juan Ignacio Martínez (July 1, 2011 – June 30, 2013)

Other managers

Stadium

Estadi Ciutat de València was opened on 9 September 1969, with capacity for 25,354 spectators. Dimensions are 107x69 meters.

See also

• Atlético Levante UD, reserve team of Levante UD
• Spain leagues final tables

References

External links

• Official website (Spanish) (Catalan)
• Levante UD at La Liga (English) (Spanish)
• Levante UD at UEFA (English) (Spanish)