RCD Espanyol

At first, it was called the Sociedad Espanola of Football when it was founded in 1901, its name changed Club Espanol de Futbol in the year 1901. The club was dissolved in 1906. was disbanded because of financial issues and the majority of players moved to in the X Sporting Club, which was able to win the Campionat de Catalunya three times in succession, before disappearing in 1908, combining into the Spanish Jiu-Jitsu Club to be successfully relaunched as Club Deportivo Espanol, and in 1910 they adopted their current colors. Espanyol is one of the Spanish football clubs who are patronized from the Spanish crown, and therefore legally entitled to utilize Real in their names as well as the crown of the royal family on their badges. This privilege was given the club Espanyol at the time of 1912 Alfonso XIII and the club then became known as"the Real Club Deportivo Espanol.

After the deposal by the King in 1931, and an announcement of Second Spanish Republic, due to the ban on royal symbols The club adopted the more friendly and Catalan name of Club Esportiu Espanyol. Following the Spanish Civil War, the name was changed.

The club adopted the Catalan spelling of its name in February of 1995. The term "Deportiu" is in Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona is a Catalanized version of the term "Deportivo" (Castilian), even though the correct term is "Esportiu" within the Catalan language. The decision was made to keep"RCD" as the first initial in "RCD" within the name of the club.

RCD Espanyol.

Espanyol was established on the 28th of October, 1900 in the name of Angel Rodriguez Ruiz (1879-1959) engineer in the University of Barcelona. The first home of the club was located in the well-off area in Sarria; Espanyol was the first club in Spain to be founded solely by Spanish fans of football and the other clubs having connections with Britain and central Europe.

The team initially used bright yellow shirts and the color of the shorts going to the player. The friend of the club's founder ran a textile company and was fortunate enough to have an abundance of yellow materials leftover from a job. In 1910 the club was renamed it's current name, the Club Deportivo Espanol and chose white and blue stripes for colors for the shirt and for the primary colors of the badge. Blue and white were selected to pay homage to the colors that were used in the emblem of legendary Aragonese-Sicilian Admiral Roger de Lluria, who was a navigator in across the Mediterranean safeguarding those interests of the Crown of Aragon during the Middle Ages. The club had success from the beginning and won the first Campionat de Catalunya in 1903 and then participating in the beginning Copa del Rey in 1903.

In 1906, Club Espanol de Football had to stop its operations because of the lack of players as the majority of them were students who were enrolled at universities in other regions of Catalonia. X Sporting Club took advantage of this because a majority members of remaining Espanol players were recruited by them, which resulted in an enormous leap in the standard for their team. consequently it was the X were crowned their Catalan champion three times in 1905-1908. They beat rivals from FC Internacional and FC Barcelona in the race to win the title. The team was legendary and featured players like Pedro Gibert, Jose Irizar and Santiago Massana. It wasn't until the year 1909, that X as well as Espanol were again restructured in 1909, when a group of former students from the university were brought back in Barcelona with the intention of re-establishing Club Espanol de Football, which was achieved on the 27th of December 1908 the day X joined into the Spanish Jiu-Jitsu Club.

In the decade of 1910 They won the Campionat of Catalunya three times in 1911-12 as well as 1914-15 and 1917-18. being able to win the final three times due to their backline, led by Ricardo Zamora. They also made it to in the last four of Copa del Rey twice in 1911 and 1915, however, they fell to Athletic Bilbao on both occasions.

in 1994 Espanyol formed its reserve squad, Espanyol B, currently playing in the Segunda Division B.

Javier Clemente was hired in 1986. In his debut season, Clemente guided this team to joint best third place, and qualified to play in the UEFA Cup. They beat Borussia Monchengladbach, A.C. Milan, Inter Milan, TJ Vitkovice and Club Brugge KV to reach the final. They lost by penalty in the final to Bayer 04 Leverkusen after a 3-3 draw. Two relegations followed. However, the club continued to play within La Liga from winning the 1993-94 Segunda Division until relegated at the end of 2019-20 COVID year. COVID is a pandemic that has affected the season.

As president from 1989 until the year 1993. Juli Pardo was responsible for the transition of the club to a Sociedad Aonima Deportiva. Due to the massive debt the club was forced to sell Sarria Stadium, which was eventually destroyed in 1997.

Paco Flores' Espanyol won the 2000 Copa del Rey Final 2-1 against Atletico Madrid at Mestalla which was the first win in a cup final since 1940. Six years later under Miguel Angel Lotina, the team won another time in the final, this time with 4-1 victory over Real Zaragoza in Madrid, with goals from Raul Tamudo and Luis Garcia (two) and Coro.

After winning the cup, Espanyol made it to in the UEFA Cup. They took all of their group games before eliminating Livorno, Maccabi Haifa, Benfica along with Werder Bremen to reach the final. In the final, played on the 16th of May on the 16th of May at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Espanyol was defeated by the fellow La Liga team Sevilla and lost to 3-1 after a shootout after the draw of 2-2. They became the sole soccer team from UEFA Cup history to remain unbeaten during the tournament, but still they did not claim the trophy. Walter Pandiani, who would quit the club at the conclusion of the season was the most prolific UEFA Cup goalscorer during the season. On June 9, 2007 Tamudo was the highest scorer for Espanyol after he scored more goals than the 111 that were scored in the previous season by Rafael Maranon, and ended the evening with 113 goals.

On May 31, 2009 Espanyol had its final game in the Estadio Olimpico de Montjuic. which was a 3-0 loss to Malaga. Espanyol was playing in the Estadi Olimpic since moving from their old home in Sarria. After the move, the club's legend Raul Tamudo was the only player to have the characteristic of playing at three different stadiums in his time with the Club: Sarria, Montjuic and starting in the 2009-2010 season the Cornella-El Prat.

In January 2009 the the former Espanyol defensive player Mauricio Pochettino took over as manager of the club that was which was operating in the bottom of the table. This was his first job as a manager in the senior league. He beat the rivals Barcelona on the Camp Nou in February to aid in keeping the club going; Barcelona, under Pep Guardiola was able to win the treble the following season.

After 12 seasons on the Estadi Olimpic de Montjuic, Espanyol was moved into their new stadium, the Estadi of Cornella and El Prat. The new stadium officially opened on the 2nd of August 2009, following the first game with Espanyol against Liverpool; Espanyol won 3-0 in the first half, with Luis Garcia scoring the first goal on the field and then an Ben Sahar double. The following day, Espanyol captain Daniel Jarque passed away due to a cardiac arrest at the age of 26 in the Florence neighborhood of Coverciano in the area where the team was located at the time, after playing a number of matches in Italy. Since since then, at the 21st minute, which was his previous shirt number - at every Espanyol game, an applause is given to honor him for a full one minute.

After Pochettino was fired in 2012, the club remained in the top tier under a succession of manager. In January of 2016, Chinese businessman Chen Yansheng assumed the management of the club by buying 54% of the club. In the 2018-19 season Espanyol placed 7th and thus getting back into the Europa League for the first time since their last run in 2006-07. However, the club was subject to the first time they were relegated since 1994 in the next season following a 1-0 defeat at Barcelona. The 3rd August of 2020 was when the club issued an official statement, urging La Liga to suspend relegation but relegation wasn't eliminated. Espanyol was promoted into La Liga at the first attempt on May 8th, 2021 after a draw against Zaragoza after four games left during the 42-game campaign.

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In the beginning into the second half of 20th century under the Miguel Primo de Rivera dictatorship (1923-1930), FC Barcelona was considered to be an emblem that reflected Catalan identity. This was in contrast to RCD Espanyol which cultivated a sort of adherence to the central authorities.

In 1918 cities in Catalonia launched an effort to petition the Spanish Government to approve the creation of a Statute of Autonomy. FC Barcelona joined that request and the Catalan press acknowledged FC Barcelona as a major cultural component that was part of the Catalan independence movement. The city's other team RCD Espanyol, dissociated itself from the claim due to FC Barcelona's performance in the European stage.

Today, FC Barcelona is the club which is more in line with the political powers of Catalonia. Its previous presidents have referred to the club as part of those who support the Catalan independence movement as well as the referendum being held which has led to discontent with certain Catalan fans as well as those from the other regions of Spain who feel ignored and believe they are being influenced by the club towards the Catalans. While some of RCD Espanyol's executives have expressed opinions in favor of independence, the team is not involved in politics. The belief is that the majority of the club's supporters are opposed to the independence of Catalonia.

Numerous times RCD Espanyol has complained of an unfavorable and at times specifically offensive treatment of the club , in favor of FC Barcelona by some Catalonian public media, such as TV3.

Despite these differing ideologies however, derbi (derby) has always been more important for Espanyol supporters than supporters of Barcelona (who regard El Clasico in higher regard in contrast) due to the different in goals.

Although it's the most popular locally-based derby ever played in La Liga however, it is also the one with the lowest balance in the league, with Barcelona dominating the field. The league standings are a mess. Espanyol was able to be above Barca three times in nearly 70 years. And the only all-Catalan Copa Del Rey final was taken by Barca in the year 1957. Espanyol can take comfort in winning the most by a large margin by a 6-0 win in 1951.

Espanyol scored a 2-1 victory over FC Barcelona during the 2008-09 season. It was the very first club to beat Barcelona in Camp Nou in their treble-winning season.

Espanyol lost 1-0 to FC Barcelona on 8 July 2020, before being removed from the Segunda Division.

From 1923 to 1997, Espanyol was home to their games in the Estadi of Sarria in the Sarria San Gervasi district in Barcelona. From 1997 onwards, the club relocated to the Estadi Lluis Companys of Olimpic located on Montjuic. At the beginning of the 2009-10 season Espanyol relocated to the new RCDE Stadium (also called Estadi Cornella-El Prat) between Cornella de Llobregat and El Prat de Llobregat.

• 80 seasons in Primera División
• 4 seasons in Segunda División
• 8 participations in UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League
• 2 participations in Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
• 2 participations in UEFA Intertoto Cup

In 1928 Espanyol joined La Liga, and in 1929, the team took home its initial Copa del Rey. Espanyol has had the most quantity of season within La Liga without winning the title.

The team has been a part of the UEFA Cup/Europa league 8 times (including the qualifying events after their 2000 and 2006 Spanish Cup wins, which in previous times would be eligible for the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup) and made it to the semi-finals in 1988 but fell against Bayer Leverkusen of then-West Germany with penalties (3-2) following the two-legged final finished at a level (3-0 in Barcelona and 0-3 for Leverkusen) then in 2007. they lost to their compatriots Sevilla and Sevilla, this time in penalties (3-1) following an unforgettable game played at Hampden Park, Glasgow ended 1-1 at normal time and the game was tied after extra time.

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At the time of 2 September 2022.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  ESP Joan García 2 DF  ESP Óscar Gil 3 DF  ESP Adrià Pedrosa 4 DF  URU Leandro Cabrera (captain) 5 DF  ESP Fernando Calero 6 MF  ESP Pol Lozano 7 FW  ESP Javi Puado 8 MF  ALB Keidi Bare 9 FW  ESP Joselu 10 MF  ESP Sergi Darder 11 FW  ESP Raúl de Tomás 12 MF  BRA Vinícius Souza (on loan from Lommel) 13 GK  FRA Benjamin Lecomte (on loan from Monaco) 14 DF  ESP Brian Oliván 16 MF  ESP José Carlos Lazo 17 FW  DEN Martin Braithwaite 19 FW  ESP Dani Gómez (on loan from Levante) 20 MF  ESP Edu Expósito 21 MF  ESP Nico Melamed 22 DF  ESP Aleix Vidal 24 DF  ESP Sergi Gómez 25 GK  ESP Álvaro Fernández (on loan from Huesca)

From 12 September 2020.

Only professional, competitive matches.

#	Name	Years	La Liga	Segunda División	Copa del Rey	Copa de la Liga	UEFA Cup	Other	Total
1	Raúl Tamudo	1996–2010	340	—	26	—	14	9	389
2	Antonio Argilés	1950–1964	301	14	38	—	—	4	357
3	José María	1965–1976	269	31	33	—	2	11	346
4	Thomas N'Kono	1982–1990	241	33	30	19	10	—	333
5	Mauricio Pochettino	1994–2006	275	—	30	—	13	2	320
6	Fernando Molinos	1974–1984	264	—	43	6	6	—	319
7	Manuel Zúñiga	1979–1988	259	—	29	18	9	—	315
8	Marañón	1974–1983	261	—	43	4	6	—	314
9	Arteaga	1993–2003	238	28	32	—	10	2	310
10	Diego Orejuela	1982–1991	216	33	27	15	12	—	303

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Up until the 1990s, Espanyol had several sporting sections. In March of 2017 the Association of Supporters and Shareholders of RCD Espanyol boosted a project to revive the sports section of the team however, this time without an financial link to the team football. The multi-sports team was founded under the name Seccions Deportives Espanyol (Sporting sections Espanyol).

Then, two years later, in the organization was able to confirm that Espanyol will be competing in the 2017-18 season with the roller hockey team and ladies volleyball team. The following period, the basketball division was revived and a new handball section would be established.

Copa del Rey

• Winners : 1941

Catalan championship

• Winners : 1931, 1932
• Runners-up : 1941, 1943, 1954

Copa de la Reina

• Winners : 1943
• Runners-up : 1944

Copa del Rey

• Winners (: 1944, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1961, 1962
• Runners-up : 1946, 1952, 1953, 1958

Superliga

• Winners : 1985, 1988, 1991

Copa de la Reina

• Winners : 1984, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1992

División de Honor

• Winners : 1946, 1953