Granada CF

Granada CF

Full name	Granada Club de Fútbol, S.A.D.
Nickname(s)	Nazaríes (Nasrids), El Graná, El 5001, Filipinos
Founded	14 April 1931 (1931-04-14)
Ground	Los Cármenes
Ground Capacity	23,934
Owner	Jiang Lizhang[1] (98.13%)
Chairman	Jiang Lizhang
Manager	José Luis Oltra
League	Segunda División
2016–17	La Liga, 20th (relegated)
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Granada Club de Fútbol (Spanish pronunciation: [gɾaˈnaða ˈkluβ ðe ˈfuðβol], or simply Granada CF, is a Spanish football club based in Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 14 April 1931, it will play in the Segunda División in the 2017-18 season after relegation the previous season. The club plays its home matches at the Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes.

Granada was the third Andalusian football team after Betis and Sevilla to compete in La Liga, in 1941–42. The team is located at position 24 of the historical points classification of the First Division, where it has participated in 20 seasons and achieved 6th place twice. Granada was Copa del Rey runner-up in 1959.

History

Granada Club de Fútbol was founded on 14 April 1931,^[2] originally as Recreativo de Granada; the first president was Julio López Fernández.

The first football match was played against Deportivo Jaén, which resulted in a 2–1 victory. The first goal in the match, and in the club's history, was scored by Antonio Bombillar. In the 1931–32 season, the club won the Tercera Regional – Región Sur championship.

After several promotions, in 1941–42 the club made its La Liga debut. From here until the '80s, it alternated between that category and Segunda División, with its golden age coming during the '70s, with eight top flight seasons, which included a career-best two sixth league places (1971–72, 1973–74).

In 1959 Granada achieved its greatest sports landmark, being runner-up of the Copa del Generalísimo (later Copa del Royal). In the final, played at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, the team lost to Barcelona 4–1.

In the 1980s, Granada had some brief appearances in the second division, but it spent most seasons in Segunda División B, dropping another level in 2002–03, due to non-payment to its players.^[3] After four seasons in the fourth division, former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz, along with his son Paco, arrived at the club. With their help, the Andalusian side was again promoted to the third category but got itself into serious financial trouble.

In 2006–07, Granada played in Group IV of the third level after four seasons in Tercera. Three years later, in July 2009, the club was in such financial difficulty that it was on the brink of closing.^[4] The solution to the crisis came with the signing of a partnership agreement with Udinese Calcio, with the Spaniards incorporating large numbers of players contracted to the Italian club as well as receiving its youth players and reserves as part of the agreement.^[4] At the end of the season, Granada won its group then promoted in the play-offs, returning to the second division after 22 years.

In 2010–11, Granada finished in fifth position, with most of the players loaned by Udinese still on board.^[4] On 18 June 2011, the club became the first winner of the promotion play-offs – a different system was used from 1985 to 1999 – after successively defeating Celta de Vigo (1–1, penalty shootout) and Elche (1–1 on aggregate, away goals rule), thus returning to the top division after a 35-year absence.^[5][6]

Back in the top-flight after such a long absence, it was always going to be difficult. By the end of the 2011–12 season, Granada managed to survive though, finishing in 17th position.

Seasons

Nuevo Los Cármenes stadium

Fuente de las batallas in Granda , meeting point of the fans for the celebrations.

• 23 seasons in La Liga
• 32 seasons in Segunda División
• 22 seasons in Segunda División B
• 5 seasons in Tercera División
• 2 seasons in Regional

Players

Current squad

As of 7 August 2017 ^[7]

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 Rui Silva 3 DF Álex Martínez 4 DF Charlie I'Anson 5 DF Hernán Menosse 6 DF Germán Sánchez 7 FW Adrián Ramos (on loan from Chongqing Lifan) 8 MF Raúl Baena 10 MF Antonio Puertas 11 FW Darwin Machís 12 MF Pierre Kunde (on loan from Atlético Madrid) 13 GK Javi Varas 14 DF Urtzi Iriondo (on loan from Athletic Bilbao)

No. Position Player 15 MF Pedro 16 DF Víctor Díaz 17 DF Quini 18 FW Joselu 19 MF Ángel Montoro 20 DF Matthieu Saunier 21 MF Rene Krhin 22 DF Dimitri Foulquier (captain) 23 MF Alberto Martín 24 DF Martin Hongla 35 GK Aarón Escandell — MF Javier Espinosa (on loan from Levante)

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 — DF Luís Martins (at Marítimo until 30 June 2018) — DF Molla Wagué (at Udinese until 30 June 2019) — MF Mehdi Carcela-González (at Olympiacos until 30 June 2018)

No. Position Player — MF Fran Rico (at Eibar until 30 June 2018) — MF Rubén Pérez (at Leganés until 30 June 2018) — FW Kevin Mercado (at CSKA Sofia until 1 January 2018)

Honours

National

• Segunda División: 1940–41, 1956–57, 1967–68
• Segunda División B: 1982–83, 1999–00, 2009–10
• Tercera División: 1933–34, 2003–04, 2005–06
• Copa del Rey: Runner-up 1958–59

Regional tournaments

• Andalucia Cup : 1932–33
• Andalucia Championship reservations : 1971–72

Friendly

• Antonio Puerta Trophy: 2010

Individual

Pichichi Trophy

• La Liga: Enrique Porta (1971–72)
• Segunda División: Miguel (1964–65), Rafa (1955–56)

Derby of eastern Andalusia

Updated to derby #81 played on April 8, 2016.

Stadium

Granada playing at Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes against Gimnàstic in 2010

After its foundation, the team played its home matches at Campo de Las Tablas, inaugurated on 20 December 1931. Granada's stay at this ground was a short one; on 23 December 1934, a new stadium, Estadio Los Cármenes, was opened.

The club played in this stadium until 1995 when a new facility, named Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes, took its place. It was inaugurated on 16 May 1995, with an original capacity of 16,212 seats. This was expanded to 22,524 after the final promotion to La Liga in the summer of 2011.

• Dimensions: 105 × 68 meters
• Address: C/ Pintor Manuel Maldonado s/n
• Inauguration date: 16 May 1995, Real Madrid–Bayer Leverkusen (1–0)
• First Granada CF match: 22 August 1995, Granada-Real Betis (4–1) XXIII Granada Trophy

Kit and colours

unreferenced section

Upon its foundation, the club's kits were a shirt with blue and white vertical stripes and white shorts. After the Spanish Civil War the club owners went to Madrid to buy new ones, but they couldn't find other than red and white striped shirts. That became the official colour scheme from then on.

In the 1970s, the club changed the vertical stripes to horizontal. Since then, several changes (between horizontal and vertical) took place until 2004–05, when in a member assembly it was decided to use horizontal stripes definitively.

Shirt sponsors and manufacturers

Coaches

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Granada CF.

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