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Valencia

Full name	Valencia Club de Fútbol, S.A.D.
Nickname(s)	Los Ches
Short name	Valencia, VCF
Founded	18 March 1919; 105 years ago (1919-03-18) (as Valencia Foot-ball Club)
Ground	Mestalla
Capacity	49,430
Owner	Peter Lim
President	Lay Hoon Chan
Head coach	Carlos Corberán
League	La Liga
2023–24	La Liga, 9th of 20
Website	valenciacf.com
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

Valencia Club de Fútbol (Spanish: [baˈlenθja ˈkluβ ðe ˈfuðβol]; Valencian: València Club de Futbol [vaˈlensi.a ˈklub de fubˈbɔl]), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia), is a Spanish professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the Spanish league system. Valencia was founded in 1919 and has played its home games at the 49,430-seater Mestalla since its opening.

Valencia has won six Spanish League titles, eight Copa del Rey titles, one Supercopa de España, and one Copa Eva Duarte. In European competitions, they have won two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, one UEFA Cup, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, two UEFA Super Cups, and one UEFA Intertoto Cup. They have also reached two consecutive UEFA Champions League finals (2000 and 2001). Valencia were also members of the G-14 group of leading European football clubs and since its end has been part of the original members of the European Club Association.

Historically one of the biggest clubs in the world in terms of number of associates (registered paying supporters), with around 50,000 season ticket holders at their peak, the club began to decline in the mid-2010s. Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim acquired the team in 2014.

Over the years, the club has achieved a global reputation for their prolific youth academy, or "Acadèmia." Products of their academy include world-class talents such as Raúl Albiol, Javier Farinos, David Albelda, Vicente Rodríguez, Gaizka Mendieta and David Silva. Current stars of the game to have graduated in recent years include Isco, Jordi Alba, Juan Bernat, José Gayà, Carlos Soler, Ferran Torres, and Lee Kang-in.

History

The club was established on 5 March 1919 and officially approved on 18 March 1919, with Octavio Augusto Milego Díaz as its first president; incidentally, the presidency was decided by a coin toss. The club played its first competitive match away from home on 21 May 1919 against Valencia Gimnástico, and lost the match 1–0.

Valencia moved into the Mestalla Stadium in 1923, having played its home matches at the Algirós ground since 7 December 1919. The first match at Mestalla pitted the home side against Castellón Castalia and ended in a 0–0 draw. In another match the day after, Valencia won 1–0 against the same opposition. Valencia CF won the Regional Championship in 1923, and was eligible to play in the domestic Copa del Rey cup competition for the first time in its history.

1940s: Emergence as a giant in Spanish football

The Spanish Civil War halted the progress of the Valencia team until 1941, when it won the Copa del Rey, beating RCD Espanyol in the final. In the 1941–42 season, the club won its first Spanish La Liga championship title, although winning the Copa del Rey was more reputable than the championship at that time. The club maintained its consistency to capture the league title again in the 1943–44 season, as well as the 1946–47 league edition. They would conclude their decade of success by winning the 1949 Copa del Rey; this meant Valencia ended the decade with a record of three La Liga and two Copa del Rey titles. This success would help cement the club's name in Spanish football.

In the 1950s, Valencia failed to emulate the success of the previous decade, even though it grew as a club. A restructuring of Mestalla resulted in an increase in spectator capacity to 45,000, while the club had a number of Spanish and foreign stars. Players such as Spanish international Antonio Puchades and Dutch forward Faas Wilkes graced the pitch at Mestalla. In the 1952–53 season, the club finished as runners-up in La Liga, and in the following season, won the Copa del Rey, then known as the Copa del Generalísimo.

1960s: European successes in the Fairs Cup

While managing average league form in the early 1960s, Valencia had its first European success in the form of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (the forerunner to the UEFA Cup), defeating Barcelona in the final of the 1961–62 edition. The following edition of the tournament pitted Valencia against Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb in the final, which the Spanish side also won. Valencia reached a third consecutive Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final in the following season, but this time were defeated 2–1 by fellow Spanish club Zaragoza.

1970s to early 1980s: More domestic and European glory

Former two-time European Footballer of the Year award winner Alfredo Di Stéfano was hired as Valencia coach in 1970, and immediately inspired his new club to their fourth La Liga championship and first since 1947. This secured Valencia its first qualification for the prestigious European Cup, contested by the various European domestic champions. Valencia reached the third round of the 1971–72 competition before losing both legs to Hungarian champions Újpesti Dózsa. In 1972 the club also finished runners-up both in La Liga and the domestic cup, losing to Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, respectively. The most notable players of the 1970s era include Austrian midfielder Kurt Jara, forward Johnny Rep of the Netherlands and Argentinian forward Mario Kempes, who was consecutively La Liga top scorer in 1976–77 and 1977–78. Valencia would go on to win the Copa del Rey again in the 1978–79 season, and also capture the European Cup Winners' Cup the next season, after beating English club Arsenal in the final, with Kempes spearheading their success in Europe.

Mid to late 1980s: Stagnation and relegation

In 1982, the club appointed Miljan Miljanić as coach. After a disappointing season, Valencia was in 17th place and faced relegation with seven games left to play. Koldo Aguirre replaced Miljanić as coach, and Valencia barely avoided relegation that year, relying on favorable results from other teams to ensure their own survival. In the 1983–84 and 1984–85 seasons, the club was heavily in debt under the presidency of Vicente Tormo. The club finally hit rock bottom when it was relegated at the end of the 1985–86 season, and riven with internal problems such as unpaid player and staff wages, as well as poor morale. The club was relegated for the first time after 55 years in Spanish top-flight football.

Arturo Tuzón was named the new club president, and he helped steer Valencia back to La Liga. Alfredo Di Stéfano returned as coach in 1986 and Valencia won promotion again following the 1986–87 season. Di Stéfano stayed on as coach until the 1987–88 season, when the team finished in 14th position in La Liga. Bulgarian forward Luboslav Penev joined the club in 1989, as Valencia aimed to consolidate their place in La Liga. In the 1988–89 La Liga season, Valencia finished third, which would signal their competitiveness going into the 1990s.

1990s: Re-emergence

In the 1989–90 La Liga season, Valencia finished as runners-up to Real Madrid, and thus qualified for the UEFA Cup.

Guus Hiddink was appointed as head coach in the 1991–92 season, and the club finished fourth in the League and reached the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey. In 1992, Valencia officially became a Sporting Limited Company, and retained Hiddink as their coach until 1993.

Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, fresh from winning the 1994 FIFA World Cup with the Brazil national team, became manager at Mestalla in 1994. Parreira immediately signed Spanish goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta, Russian forward Oleg Salenko, and Predrag Mijatović, but failed to produce results expected of him. He was replaced by new coach José Manuel Rielo. The club's earlier successes continued to elude it, although it was not short of top coaching staff like Luis Aragonés and Jorge Valdano, as well as foreign star forwards like Brazilian Romário, Claudio López, Ariel Ortega from Argentina, and Adrian Ilie from Romania. In the 1995–96 La Liga season, Valencia finished second to Atlético Madrid, being unable to capture the title after a close fought race.

Valencia would struggle for the next two seasons, but the 1998–99 La Liga season would signal the start of one of the club's most successful periods in their history; they lifted their first trophy in nineteen years by winning the 1998–99 Copa del Rey under Claudio Ranieri, and also qualified for the UEFA Champions League.

2000s: Valencia returns to the top of Spanish and European football

Valencia started the 1999–2000 season by winning another title, beating Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup. Valencia finished third in the league, four points behind champions Deportivo La Coruña, and level on points with second-placed Barça. The biggest success for the club, however, was in the Champions League; for the first time in its history, Valencia reached the European Cup final. However, in the final played in Paris on 24 May 2000, Real Madrid would beat Valencia 3–0.

The final would also be Claudio López's farewell, as he had agreed to sign for Italian side Lazio; also leaving was Farinós for Inter Milan and Gerard for Barcelona. The notable signings of that summer were John Carew, Rubén Baraja, Roberto Ayala, Vicente Rodríguez, and Brazilian left-back Fábio Aurélio. That season Valencia also bought Pablo Aimar in the winter transfer window. Baraja, Aimar, Vicente, and Ayala would soon become a staple of Valencia's dominance of the early 2000s in La Liga.

Valencia started the championship on the right foot and were top of the league after ten games. After the Christmas break, however, Valencia started to pay for the top demand that such a draining competition like the Champions League requires. After passing the two mini-league phases, Héctor Cúper's team eliminated English sides Arsenal in the quarter-finals and Leeds United in the semi-finals, reaching the final for the second consecutive year. In the final match against Bayern Munich, played in Milan at the San Siro on 23 May, Gaizka Mendieta gave Valencia the lead by scoring from the penalty spot right at the start of the match. Goalkeeper Santiago Cañizares then stopped a penalty from Mehmet Scholl, but Stefan Effenberg drew Bayern level after the break thanks to another penalty. After extra time, the match went to a penalty shoot-out, where a Mauricio Pellegrino miss gave Bayern Champions League glory and dealt Valencia a second-straight defeat in the final. Valencia went on to slip to fifth place in La Liga and out of the Champions League positions for the 2001–02 season. Going into the final league match, Valencia only needed a draw at the Camp Nou against Barcelona to seal Champions League qualification. However, Los Che lost to Barcelona 3–2, with a last minute goal completing a hat-trick from Rivaldo, resulting in Barcelona qualifying for the Champions League ahead of their side.

Valencia president D. Pedro Cortés resigned for personal reasons and left the club in July, with the satisfaction of overseeing the club win the Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup, as well as reaching two successive Champions League finals. D. Jaime Ortí replaced Cortés as president and expressed his intention of maintaining the good form that had made the club so admired on the European circuit. There were also some changes in the team and staff. Rafael Benítez, after helping Tenerife to promotion, replaced Héctor Cúper after the latter became the new coach at Inter in Italy. Among the playing squad, Gaizka Mendieta, Didier Deschamps, Luis Milla, and Zlatko Zahovič left, while Carlos Marchena, Mista, Curro Torres, Francisco Rufete, Gonzalo de los Santos, and Salva Ballesta all arrived.

From 1999 up until the end of the 2004 season, Valencia had one of their most successful periods in the club's history. With a total of two La Liga titles, a UEFA Cup, a Copa del Rey, and a UEFA Super Cup in those six years, no less than five first class titles and two Champions League finals had been achieved.

That first match against fellow title rivals Real Madrid produced a significant and important victory. This was followed by a record of eleven consecutive wins, breaking their existing record set in the 1970–71 season, which was also the club's La Liga title win under Alfredo Di Stéfano.

After a defeat in A Coruña against Deportivo on 9 December 2001, the team had to overcome Espanyol at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys to avoid further backsliding behind the league leaders. at half-time, Valencia were 2–0 down, but a comeback in the second half saw them win 3–2.

In the second part of the season, Benítez's team suffered a temporary setback after losing 1–0 at the Santiago Bernabéu to Real Madrid, but in the coming six matches they recovered from this defeat and achieved four victories and two draws.

In one of these crucial games against Espanyol, Valencia were trailing 1–0 at half-time and down a player as well following the dismissal of Carboni. However, after a second half brace from Rubén Baraja, they would achieve a 2–1 comeback win. Furthermore, Real Madrid's defeat at the Anoeta to Real Sociedad left Valencia with a three-point lead at the top of the table.

Valencia's final game of the season was on 5 May 2002 at La Rosaleda against Málaga, a day that has gone down in Valencia's history. The team shut itself away in Benalmádena, close to the scene of the game, in order to gain focus. An early goal from Roberto Ayala and another close to half-time from Fábio Aurélio secured Valencia a fifth La Liga crown, 31 years after their last title win.

The 2002–03 season was a disappointing one for Valencia, as they failed in their attempt to retain the La Liga title and ended up outside of the Champions League spots in fifth, behind Celta Vigo. They were also knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Champions League by Inter Milan on away goals. The 2003–04 season saw Valencia trailing longtime leaders Real Madrid. In February, with 26 matches played, Madrid were eight points clear at the top of the table. However, their form severely declined in the late stage of the season, and consecutive losses in their last five games of the campaign allowed Valencia to overtake them and claim the title, their second in three seasons. The club also added the UEFA Cup to this success, defeating Marseille 2–0 in the final.

In the summer of 2004, manager Benítez decided to depart Valencia, stating he had had problems with the club president; he would soon become head coach of Liverpool. He was replaced by former Valencia coach Claudio Ranieri, who had recently been sacked by Chelsea. His second reign at the club was a disappointment, however, as Valencia harboured realistic hopes of retaining their La Liga crown but, by February, found themselves in seventh place. Valencia had also been knocked out of the Champions League group phase, with Ranieri being sacked promptly in February. The 2004–05 season ended with Valencia outside of the UEFA Cup spots.

In the summer of 2005, Getafe coach Quique Flores was appointed as the new manager of Valencia and ended the season in third place, which in turn gained Valencia a place in the Champions League after a season away from the competition. The 2006–07 season was one with many difficulties; a campaign which started with realistic hopes of challenging for the title was disrupted with a huge list of injuries to key players, as well as internal arguments between Flores and new sporting director Amedeo Carboni. Valencia ended the season in fourth place and were knocked out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals by Chelsea 3–2 on aggregate, after they had knocked out Italian champions Inter in the second round. In the summer of 2007, the internal fight between Flores and Carboni was settled, with Carboni being replaced by Ángel Ruiz as the new sporting director of Valencia.

On 29 October 2007, the Valencia board of directors fired Flores after a string of disappointing performances, and caretaker manager Óscar Fernández took over on a temporary basis until a full-time manager was found, rumoured to be either Marcello Lippi or José Mourinho. A day later, Dutch manager Ronald Koeman announced he would be leaving PSV Eindhoven to sign for Valencia. However, Koeman's appointment failed to lead to improvement; in fact, Valencia even went on to drop to the 15th position in the league, just two points above the relegation zone. Despite their poor league form, Valencia would still go on to lift the Copa del Rey on 16 April 2008, following a 3–1 victory over Getafe at the Vicente Calderón. This was the club's seventh Copa title. Five days later, one day after a devastating 5–1 league defeat in Bilbao, Valencia fired Koeman and replaced him with Voro, who would guide Valencia as caretaker manager for the remainder of the season. He went on to win the first match since the sacking of Koeman, beating Osasuna 3–0. Voro would eventually drag Valencia from the relegation battle to a safe mid-table finish of tenth place, finally ending a disastrous league campaign for Los Che.

Highly rated Unai Emery was announced as the new head coach of Valencia on 22 May 2008. The start of the young manager's career looked to be promising, with the club winning four out of its first five games, a surge that saw the team rise to the top position of the La Liga table. Despite looking impressive in Europe, Los Che then hit a poor run of form in the league that saw them dip as low as seventh in the standings. Amid the slump emerged reports of a massive internal debt at the club exceeding 400 million euros, as well as that the players had been unpaid for weeks. The team's problems were compounded when they were knocked out of the UEFA Cup by Dynamo Kyiv on away goals. After a run where Valencia took only five points from ten games in La Liga, an announcement was made that the club had secured a loan that would cover the players' expenses until the end of the year. This announcement coincided with an upturn in form, and the club won six of its next eight games to surge back into the critical fourth place Champions' League spot. However, Los Che were then pushed down to sixth place in the league following defeats to top four rivals Atlético Madrid and Villarreal in two of their final three games, meaning they failed to qualify for the Champions League for a second successive season.

2010–2014: Debt issues and stability

No solution had yet been found to address the massive debt Valencia was faced with, and rumors persisted that top talents such as David Villa, Juan Mata, and David Silva could leave the club to help balance the books. In the first season of the new decade, Valencia returned to the Champions League for the first time since the 2007–08 campaign, as they finished comfortably in third place in the 2009–10 La Liga standings. However, in the summer of 2010, due to financial reasons, David Villa and David Silva were sold to Barcelona and Manchester City, respectively, to reduce the club's massive debt. Despite the loss of two of the club's most important players, the team was able to finish comfortably in third place again in the 2010–11 La Liga for the second season running, although they would be eliminated from the Champions League by German side Schalke 04 in the round of 16. In the summer of 2011, then-captain Juan Mata was sold to Chelsea to further help Valencia's precarious financial situation. It was announced by club president Manuel Llorente that the club's debt had been decreased and that the work on the new stadium would restart as soon as possible, sometime in 2012.

During the 2012–13 season, Ernesto Valverde was announced as the new manager, but after failing to qualify for the Champions League, he stepped down and was replaced by Miroslav Đukić. On 5 July 2013, Amadeo Salvo was named as the new president of the club. Almost a month after Salvo was named president, on 1 August, Valencia sold star striker Roberto Soldado to English club Tottenham Hotspur for a reported fee of €30 million. Đukić was sacked six months into the 2013–14 season after just six wins in his first sixteen matches, Valencia's worst start to a season in fifteen years. He was replaced by Juan Antonio Pizzi on 26 December 2013. Under Pizzi, Valencia reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League, where they lost to eventual winners Sevilla on away goals, and finished eighth in La Liga despite a disastrous start to the season.

2014–present: Decline under Peter Lim's ownership

In May 2014, Singaporean businessman Peter Lim was designated by the Fundación Valencia CF as the buyer of 70.4% of the shares owned by the club's foundation. After months of negotiations between Lim and Bankia (the main creditor of the club), an agreement was reached in August 2014. Juan Antonio Pizzi was unexpectedly sacked as head coach and replaced by Nuno Espírito Santo on 2 July 2014. Later, Salvo revealed in an interview that hiring Nuno was one of the conditions Lim had insisted on when buying the club. This raised eyebrows in the media because of Nuno's close relationship with the football agent Jorge Mendes, whose first-ever client was Nuno. Lim and Mendes were also close friends and business partners. Regardless, Nuno's first season was a successful one. Notable signings included Álvaro Negredo, André Gomes and Enzo Pérez, who had just won the Player of the Year in the Portuguese Primeira Liga. Valencia finished the 2014–15 season in fourth place, achieving Champions League qualification with 77 points, just one point ahead of Sevilla after a dramatic final week where they defeated Granada 4–0.

On 2 July 2015, Amadeo Salvo resigned from his post as the executive president of Valencia, citing personal reasons. He was a popular figure among the fans. On 10 August 2015, Nicolás Otamendi was sold to Manchester City for £32 million and Aymen Abdennour was signed from Monaco for £22 million as his replacement. Valencia defeated Monaco in the Champions League play-off round with a 4–3 aggregate victory. However, Valencia had a poor start to the 2015–16 league season, winning only five out of thirteen matches and failing to progress from the Champions League group stage. The fans were also increasingly concerned about the growing influence of Jorge Mendes in the club's activities. On 29 November, Nuno resigned as manager and former Manchester United defender Gary Neville was hired as his replacement on 2 December. Valencia went winless for nine matches before earning their first win under Neville in a 2–1 victory at home against Espanyol. On 30 March 2016, Neville was sacked after recording the lowest win percentage in La Liga history for a Valencia manager with minimum of five matches, winning just three out of sixteen games. He was replaced by Pako Ayestarán, who had been brought in by Neville as the assistant coach just one month prior. Valencia finished the season in twelfth place.