Levante UD

Levante

Full name	Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D.
Nickname(s)	Granotes (The frogs)
Founded	1909
Ground	Ciutat de València, Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Capacity	25,534
Chairman	Quico Catalán
Manager	Joaquin Caparros
League	La Liga
2012–13	La Liga, 11th
Website	http://es.levanteud.com/
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. (Spanish: [leˈβante uˈnjon deporˈtiβa], Template:Lang-va [ʎeˈvant uniˈo espoɾˈtiva]) is a Spanish football club based in Valencia, in the namesake community.

Founded on 9 September 1909 it plays in La Liga, holding home games at Estadi 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, 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.

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.

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.

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. 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; 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.

Seasons

Recent history

Season		Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Cup	Notes
2004–05	1D	18	38	9	10	19	39	58	37		Relegated
2005–06	2D	3	42	20	14	8	53	39	74	1st round	Promoted
2006–07	1D	15	38	10	12	16	37	53	42	Last 16
2007–08	1D	20	37	7	5	25	31	70	26	Last 16	Relegated
2008–09	2D	8	42	18	10	14	59	59	64
2009–10	2D	3	42	19	14	9	63	45	71		Promoted
2010–11	1D	14	38	12	9	17	41	52	45	Last 16
2011–12	1D	6	38	16	7	15	54	50	55	Quarter Finals	Qualified to UEFA Europa League
2012–13	1D	11	38	12	10	16	40	57	46	Last 16

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	0–2

Season to season

As Gimnástico FC Season Division Place Copa del Rey 1929/30 3ª 3rd 1930/31 3ª 5th 1931/32 3ª 3rd 1932/33 3ª 3rd 1933/34 3ª 3rd 1934/35 2ª 6th 1935/36 2ª 4th

As Levante FC Season Division Place Copa del Rey 1929/30 3ª 2nd 1930/31 3ª 6th 1931/32 3ª 1st 1932/33 3ª 4th 1933/34 3ª 5th 1934/35 2ª 3rd Semifinals 1935/36 2ª 3rd

• As Levante UD

Season Division Place Copa del Rey 1939/40 2ª 1st 1940/41 2ª 3rd 1941/42 2ª 8th 1942/43 Regional – 1943/44 3ª 1st 1944/45 3ª 2nd 1945/46 3ª 1st 1946/47 2ª 6th 1947/48 2ª 5th 1948/49 2ª 9th 1949/50 2ª 13th 1950/51 2ª 13th 1951/52 2ª 14th 1952/53 3ª 2nd 1953/54 3ª 1st 1954/55 2ª 15th 1955/56 3ª 1st 1956/57 2ª 11th 1957/58 2ª 4th

Season Division Place Copa del Rey 1958/59 2ª 2nd 1959/60 2ª 6th 1960/61 2ª 6th 1961/62 2ª 6th 1962/63 2ª 2nd 1963/64 1ª 10th 1964/65 1ª 14th 1965/66 2ª 5th 1966/67 2ª 4th 1967/68 2ª 14th 1968/69 3ª 3rd 1969/70 3ª 4th 1970/71 3ª 12th 1971/72 3ª 6th 1972/73 3ª 1st 1973/74 2ª 19th 1974/75 3ª 2nd 1975/76 3ª 1st 1976/77 2ª 18th

Season Division Place Copa del Rey 1977/78 2ªB 4th 1978/79 2ªB 1st 1979/80 2ª 10th 1980/81 2ª 9th 1981/82 2ª 19th 1982/83 3ª 2nd 1983/84 3ª 2nd 1984/85 2ªB 11th 1985/86 2ªB 10th 1986/87 3ª 2nd 1987/88 2ªB 6th 1988/89 2ªB 1st 1989/90 2ª 15th 1990/91 2ª 19th 1991/92 2ªB 11th 1992/93 2ªB 9th 1993/94 2ªB 3rd 1994/95 2ªB 1st 1995/96 2ªB 1st

Season Division Place Copa del Rey 1996/97 2ª 9th 1997/98 2ª 22nd 1998/99 2ªB 1st 1999/00 2ª 7th 2000/01 2ª 8th Round of 32 2001/02 2ª 19th 2nd round 2002/03 2ª 4th 1st round 2003/04 2ª 1st Round of 16 2004/05 1ª 18th 3rd round 2005/06 2ª 3rd 1st round 2006/07 1ª 15th Round of 32 2007/08 1ª 20th Round of 16 2008/09 2ª 8th 2nd round 2009/10 2ª 3rd 2nd round 2010/11 1ª 14th Round of 16 2011/12 1ª 6th Quarter-finals 2012/13 1ª 11th Round of 16

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Levante FC

• 2 seasons in Segunda División
• 5 seasons in Tercera División

Gimnástico FC

• 2 seasons in Segunda División
• 5 seasons in Tercera División

Levante FC + Gimnástico FC: Levante UD

• 8 seasons in La Liga
• 35 seasons in Segunda División
• 12 seasons in Segunda División B
• 16 seasons in Tercera División
• 1 season in Categorías Regionales

Current squad

As of 22 September 2012 Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	URU	Gustavo Munúa
4	DF	ESP	David Navarro
5	DF	ESP	Héctor Rodas
6	DF	GRE	Loukas Vyntra
7	MF	ESP	José Javier Barkero
8	MF	MAR	Nabil El Zhar
9	FW	ITA	Robert Acquafresca (on loan from Bologna)
10	MF	ESP	Vicente Iborra
11	MF	ESP	Rubén García
12	DF	ESP	Juanfran
13	GK	CRC	Keylor Navas
14	MF	POL	Dariusz Dudka

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
15	DF	GRE	Nikolaos Karabelas
16	MF	ESP	Pedro Ríos
17	MF	CPV	Valdo (on loan from Atlante)
18	DF	ESP	Sergio Ballesteros (captain)
19	DF	ESP	Pedro López
20	MF	ESP	Juanlu
21	MF	ESP	Míchel
22	DF	GER	Christian Lell
23	MF	SEN	Pape Diop
24	MF	MOZ	Simão
–	MF	ESP	Jordi Xumetra
–	MF	AUT	Andreas Ivanschitz

Out on loan

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

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	ESP	Miguel Pallardó (at Almería)
—	FW	ESP	Ángel (at Elche)

Honours

• Copa de la España Libre: 1937
• Segunda División: 2003–04
• Segunda División B: 1988–89, 1995–96, 1998–99
• Tercera División: 1943–44, 1972–73
• Campeonato Levante-Sur: 1934–35
• Campeonato de Valencia: 1927–28
• Trofeo Ciudad de Valencia: 1996

Stadium

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

Notable former players

Gabriel Amato Pablo Cavallero Gustavo Reggi Vladimir Manchev Daniel Kome Lauren Albert Meyong José Veiga Carlos Caszely Edwin Congo Félix Ettien Idrissa Keita Arouna Kone Mate Šestan Felipe Caicedo

Sergio Barila Juvenal Yago Shota Arveladze Ian Harte Marco Storari Damiano Tommasi Moha Johan Cruyff Riga Mustapha Faas Wilkes Duda Predrag Mijatović David Aganzo Claudio Barragán

Antonio Calpe Ángel Cuéllar Iñaki Descarga Ernesto Domínguez Sergio García Fernando Giner José Molina Andoni Murúa Nando Alberto Rivera Salva Ballesta Vicente Rodríguez Johan Mjällby Fabio Celestini

see also Category:Levante UD footballers

Famous coaches

• Bernd Schuster
• Gianni De Biasi
• Josep Escolà
• Juan Ramón López Caro
• Mané
• Juan Ignacio Martínez
• Enrique Orizaola
• Manuel Preciado
• Juande Ramos
• Abel Resino

see also Category:Levante UD managers

See also

• Levante UD B

External links

• Official website Template:Es icon Template:Ca icon
• Futbolme team profile Template:Es icon
• BDFutbol team profile