UD Las Palmas

Unión Deportiva Las Palmas, S.A.D. based in Las Palmas, in the autonomous community of Canary Islands. Founded on 22 August 1949, it plays in Segunda División, holding home games at the Estadio Gran Canaria, with a capacity of 32,400 seats.

Las Palmas

Full name	Unión Deportiva Las Palmas, S.A.D.
Nickname(s)	La Union Deportiva
Founded	22 August 1949 (1949-08-22)
Ground	Estadio Gran Canaria
Capacity	32,400 [1]
President	Miguel Ángel Ramírez
Coach	Pepe Mel
League	Segunda División
2019–20	Segunda División, 9th of 22
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

The club remains the only one in Spanish football to achieve back-to-back promotions to La Liga in its first two seasons. It had a 19-year run in the competition, ending in 1982–83. They have been promoted to La Liga on three additional occasions since that time (a total of eight additional seasons), most recently from 2015 to 2018.

Its main rivals are Tenerife from said neighbouring island. Las Palmas and Tenerife contest the Canary Islands derby. The two clubs are among the most isolated professional football clubs in Europe, since they play their away games on the distant Spanish mainland.

History

Foundation and early years

Real Club Victoria in 1910.

Marino Fútbol Club shield.

Even though the club registered with the Royal Spanish Football Federation on 6 June 1949, UD Las Palmas was officially founded on 22 August of that year, as the result of a merger between all five clubs on the island: Club Deportivo Gran Canaria, Atlético Club de Fútbol, Real Club Victoria, Arenas Club and Marino Fútbol Club. The union was to create a club strong enough to keep Canarian players on the island and not to seek a better career on the mainland.

Debate was held on the name of the club, which it was agreed would not include the names of any of its predecessors. An early option, Deportivo Canarias, was scrapped due to referring to the Canary Islands on a whole rather than the island of Gran Canaria. The name Las Palmas by itself was also put forward, and then rejected due to the name having already been taken by a defunct club in the city; Unión Deportiva Las Palmas was finally chosen due to its connection to the union which created the team, and its home city of Las Palmas. The first training session at the new club was held on 16 September 1949.[2]

Las Palmas finished second in their first season in the Tercera División (1949–50), ranking third in the following year's Segunda División to reach La Liga for the first time ever, and became the first Spanish club to achieve consecutive promotions in its first two years of existence. The first season in the top flight ended, however, in relegation, but the team returned to the category in 1954, going on to enjoy a six-year spell.

Top-flight success

After Las Palmas returned to La Liga at the end of the 1963–64 season, again as champions, the club went on to have their most successful spell in the competition. Managed by Vicente Dauder, they finished third in 1967–68 behind Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, and four club players made the Spain squad which hosted and won the UEFA Euro 1964 tournament; the following season the team fared even better and only lost the league to Real Madrid, and thus qualified for European competition for the first time in its history, appearing in the 1969–70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and being knocked out in the first round by Germany's Hertha BSC (0–0 home draw, 0–1 away loss).

Las Palmas player Juan Guedes died suddenly on 9 March 1971 at the age of 28. The next season, French coach Pierre Sinibaldi led the club to the fifth place, with subsequent qualification for the UEFA Cup: after disposing of Torino F.C. and ŠK Slovan Bratislava, the Spaniards bowed out to Dutch club FC Twente; at the end of 1974–75 another team player, Tonono – a defender who played with Guedes – died of a liver infection.

Las Palmas' third appearance in European competition came with the 1977–78 UEFA Cup, where they defeated FK Sloboda Tuzla of Yugoslavia in the first round before falling to the English side Ipswich Town.[3] Under the management of Miguel Muñoz, and with players such as Argentines Miguel Ángel Brindisi, Daniel Carnevali (the first to arrive in 1973), Carlos Morete and Quique Wolff, the club also reached their first final of the Copa del Rey in that year, losing on 19 April to Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (1–3).[4]

From the 1990s onwards, Las Palmas played mainly in the Segunda División, but also spent six years in Segunda División B – the new third level created in 1977 – and, from 2000–02, competed in the top flight. On 3 October 2001 the side managed a 4–2 home win against Real Madrid, with youth product Rubén Castro scoring two goals for the hosts, but the season ended nonetheless in relegation.[5] On 22 December 2001, Las Palmas played its 1,000th game in La Liga. In the 2009–10 season in Segunda División the club finished 17th, just one point away from being relegated to Segunda División B. On 21 June 2015, Las Palmas was promoted back to La Liga after defeating Real Zaragoza on the away goals rule.

Seasons

Season to season

Carlos Morete, the second top scorer in the history of the club after Germán Dévora.

View of Gran Canaria stadium.

Season Tier Division Place Copa del Rey 1949–50 3 3ª 2nd DNP 1950–51 2 2ª 3rd DNP 1951–52 1 1ª 15th DNP 1952–53 2 2ª 4th 3rd round 1953–54 2 2ª 1st Round of 16 1954–55 1 1ª 12th Round of 16 1955–56 1 1ª 11th Round of 16 1956–57 1 1ª 10th Round of 16 1957–58 1 1ª 11th Quarterfinals 1958–59 1 1ª 14th Round of 32 1959–60 1 1ª 16th Round of 32 1960–61 2 2ª 5th Round of 16 1961–62 2 2ª 4th 1st round 1962–63 2 2ª 3rd Round of 16 1963–64 2 2ª 1st 1st round 1964–65 1 1ª 9th Round of 16 1965–66 1 1ª 10th Round of 16 1966–67 1 1ª 11th Round of 16 1967–68 1 1ª 3rd Round of 16 1968–69 1 1ª 2nd Round of 16

Season Tier Division Place Copa del Rey 1969–70 1 1ª 9th Round of 16 1970–71 1 1ª 14th Round of 16 1971–72 1 1ª 5th Round of 16 1972–73 1 1ª 11th 5th round 1973–74 1 1ª 11th Semifinals 1974–75 1 1ª 13th Quarterfinals 1975–76 1 1ª 13th Quarterfinals 1976–77 1 1ª 4th Round of 16 1977–78 1 1ª 7th Runner-up 1978–79 1 1ª 6th 4th round 1979–80 1 1ª 12th 3rd round 1980–81 1 1ª 15th 1st round 1981–82 1 1ª 15th Round of 16 1982–83 1 1ª 16th 3rd round 1983–84 2 2ª 11th Semifinals 1984–85 2 2ª 1st 4th round 1985–86 1 1ª 13th 4th round 1986–87 1 1ª 14th 4th round 1987–88 1 1ª 20th Round of 16 1988–89 2 2ª 11th Round of 32

Season Tier Division Place Copa del Rey 1989–90 2 2ª 6th 1st round 1990–91 2 2ª 15th Round of 16 1991–92 2 2ª 20th 4th round 1992–93 3 2ªB 1st 4th round 1993–94 3 2ªB 2nd 3rd round 1994–95 3 2ªB 3rd 4th round 1995–96 3 2ªB 1st 2nd round 1996–97 2 2ª 7th Semifinals 1997–98 2 2ª 3rd 3rd round 1998–99 2 2ª 6th 4th round 1999–00 2 2ª 1st 2nd round 2000–01 1 1ª 11th Round of 32 2001–02 1 1ª 18th Round of 32 2002–03 2 2ª 5th Round of 64 2003–04 2 2ª 20th Round of 64 2004–05 3 2ªB 7th Round of 64 2005–06 3 2ªB 3rd 3rd round 2006–07 2 2ª 18th 3rd round 2007–08 2 2ª 8th Round of 32 2008–09 2 2ª 18th 2nd round

Season Tier Division Place Copa del Rey 2009–10 2 2ª 17th 3rd round 2010–11 2 2ª 15th 2nd round 2011–12 2 2ª 9th 2nd round 2012–13 2 2ª 6th Round of 16 2013–14 2 2ª 6th Round of 32 2014–15 2 2ª 4th Round of 32 2015–16 1 1ª 11th Quarterfinals 2016–17 1 1ª 14th Round of 16 2017–18 1 1ª 19th Round of 16 2018–19 2 2ª 12th 2nd round 2019–20 2 2ª 9th 2nd round

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• 34 seasons in La Liga
• 29 seasons in Segunda División
• 6 seasons in Segunda División B
• 1 season in Tercera División

Recent seasons

Season		Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Cup	Notesint
1999–00	2D	1	42	20	12	10	60	41	72		Promoted
2000–01	1D	11	38	13	7	18	42	62	46
2001–02	1D	18	38	9	13	16	40	50	40		Relegated
2002–03	2D	5	42	16	16	10	53	43	64
2003–04	2D	20	42	10	14	18	46	68	44		Relegated
2004–05	2DB	7	38	17	9	12	50	33	60
2005–06	2DB	3	38	18	13	7	45	24	67		Promoted
2006–07	2D	18	42	13	12	17	51	59	51
2007–08	2D	8	42	15	12	15	51	55	57
2008–09	2D	18	42	10	17	15	46	51	47
2009–10	2D	17	42	12	15	15	49	49	51
2010–11	2D	15	42	13	15	14	56	71	54
2011–12	2D	9	42	16	10	16	58	59	58
2012–13	2D	6	42	18	12	12	62	55	66
2013–14	2D	6	42	18	9	15	51	50	63
2014–15	2D	4	42	22	12	8	73	47	78		Promoted
2015–16	1D	11	38	12	8	18	45	53	44
2016–17	1D	14	38	10	9	19	53	74	39
2017–18	1D	19	38	5	7	26	24	74	22		Relegated
2018–19	2D	12	31	9	15	7	35	33	42

European cup history

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1969–70	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	Last 64		Hertha BSC	0–0	0–1	0–1
1972–73	UEFA Cup	Last 64		Torino	4–0	0–2	4–2
		Last 32		Slovan Bratislava	2–2	1–0	3–2
		Last 16		Twente	2–1	0–3	2–4
1977–78	UEFA Cup	Last 64		Sloboda Tuzla	5–0	3–4	8–4
		Last 32		Ipswich Town	3–3	0–1	3–4

Current squad

As of 16 August 2020.[6]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  ESP Raúl Fernández 2 DF  URU Mauricio Lemos 3 DF  ESP Alberto de la Bella 4 DF  ESP Álex Suárez 5 DF  ARG Martín Mantovani 6 DF  ESP Eric Curbelo 8 FW  ESP Aridai 11 FW  ESP Benito Ramírez 14 DF  ESP Álvaro Lemos 15 MF  ESP Fabio González 18 MF  ESP Javi Castellano 20 MF  ESP Kirian Rodríguez

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 MF  ESP Tana 22 MF  ESP Cristian Cedrés 23 DF  ESP Dani Castellano 24 MF  SRB Slavoljub Srnić 25 DF  ESP Aythami Artiles 32 GK  ESP Álvaro Valles — DF  ESP Álex Díez — DF  ESP Deivid — MF  ESP Maikel Mesa — FW  ESP Edu Espiau — FW  ARG Sergio Araujo

Reserve team

Main article: UD Las Palmas Atlético

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 26 FW  GNB Claudio Mendes 27 MF  ESP Pol Salvador 29 MF  ESP Josemi Castañeda 30 GK  ESP Álex Domínguez 31 DF  ESP Jesús Fortes

No. Pos. Nation Player 34 FW  ESP Juan Fernández 36 DF  ESP David Herrera 37 DF  ESP Dani Martín 38 FW  ESP Pablo Haro

Out on loan

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  ESP Christian Rivera (at Girona until 23 August 2020)

Honours

• La Liga

Runners-up (1): 1968–69

• Segunda División

Winners (4): 1953–54, 1963–64, 1984–85, 1999–00

• Segunda División B

Winners (2): 1992–93, 1995–96

• Copa del Rey

Runners-up (1): 1978

Former players

List of coaches

Satur Grech (1953–57) Luis Molowny (1957–58) Baltasar Albéniz (1958–59) Luis Molowny (1959) Marcel Domingo (1959–60) Paco Campos (1961–62) Rosendo Hernández (1962–63) Vicente Dauder (1963–66) Luis Molowny (1968–70) Rosendo Hernández (1970) Héctor Rial (1970–71) Pierre Sinibaldi (1971–75) Heriberto Herrera (1975–76) Roque Olsen (1976–77) Miguel Muñoz (1977–79) Antonio Ruiz (1979–80) Heriberto Herrera (1982) Walter Skocik (1982–83) Héctor Núñez (1983–84)

Roque Olsen (1984–85) Ferenc Kovács (1986–87) Roque Olsen (1988) Paquito (1989–90) Manolo Cardo (1990–91) Roque Olsen (1991), (1991–92) Miguel Ángel Brindisi (1991–92) Iñaki Sáez (1993–94) Paco Castellano (1994–95) Iñaki Sáez (1995) Ángel Cappa (1996–97) Paco Castellano (1997) Mariano García Remón (1997–98) Paco Castellano (1998–99) Sergije Krešić (1999–01) Fernando Vázquez (2001–02) Josu Uribe (2002–03) Juan Manuel Rodríguez (2003) David Vidal (2003–04)

David Amaral (2004) Carlos Sánchez Aguiar (2004–05) Josip Višnjić (2005–06) Carlos Sánchez Aguiar (2006) Juanito (2006–07) Juan Manuel Rodríguez (2007–08) Javier Vidales (2008–09) Paco Castellano (2009) Sergije Krešić (2009–10) Paco Jémez (2010–11) Juan Manuel Rodríguez (2011–12) Sergio Lobera (2012–14) Josico (2014) Paco Herrera (2014–15) Quique Setién (2015–17) Manolo Márquez (2017) Pako Ayestarán (2017) Paco Jémez (2017–2018) Manolo Jiménez (2018) Paco Herrera (2018–2019) Pepe Mel (2019–)

Affiliated teams

Las Palmas has used farm teams since 1954, but its official B-team, Las Palmas Atlético, was founded in 1976.[7] A third side was founded in 2006 and reached the highest division of regional football, the Preferente, before folding in 2010 and being re-created the following season.[8]

The club also had a women's team in the top division between 2009 and 2011. In 2010 Las Palmas founded an indoor football team for the Liga de Fútbol Indoor, staging matches at the Centro Insular de Deportes.[9] There are also some affiliated eams with Las Palmas in the minor leagues in the island some teams are: UD Almenara, UD San Fernando and more.

Crest

Las Palmas' badge is a blue shield with yellow scrolls on top with the club's name, city and archipelago. The municipal arms, granted by the city's mayor, feature in the centre of the design. Underneath lie the five crests of the clubs which united in 1949 to create the club: from left to right – Victoria, Arenas, Deportivo, Marino and Atlético; a smaller white scroll above them displays the city motto Segura tiene la palma.

In Spanish football, many clubs possess royal patronage and thus are permitted to use the prefix Real in their name and use an image of the Spanish crown. Las Palmas does not have such patronage, but tops its crest with the Spanish crown due to the patronage held by Real Club Victoria.

The crest is the central emblem of the club flag, a horizontal bicolour with yellow on top and blue underneath. The flag of the island of Gran Canaria uses these colours diagonally.

References

1. "Gran Canaria Stadium". UD Las Palmas. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
2. Historia – Nombre del club (History – Club name) Archived 18 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine; Las Palmas' official website (in Spanish)
3. Historia – De las tragedias del destino a los argentinos (71–83) (Historia – From twists of fate to Argentines (71–83)) Archived 29 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine; Las Palmas' official website (in Spanish)
4. Spain – Cup 1978; at RSSSF
5. Liga – El 'niño' que eclipsó a Zidane reta al Madrid (Liga – The 'boy' who eclipsed Zidane challenges Madrid); Yahoo! Deportes, 12 October 2011 (in Spanish)
6. "Top Team". UD Las Palmas. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
7. El filial: vivero del fútbol canario (The farm team: feeding ground of Canarian football); Historia del Fútbol Canario (in Spanish)
8. La UD Las Palmas volverá a tener equipo "C" (UD Las Palmas to have a "C" team again) Archived 5 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine; Las Palmas' official website, 20 June 2011 (in Spanish)
9. La UD Las Palmas crea un equipo de Fútbol Indoor (UD Las Palmas creates Indoor Football team) Archived 6 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine; Las Palmas' official website, 23 September 2010 (in Spanish)

External links

• Official website
• Futbolme team profile (in Spanish)
• BDFutbol team profile