Deportivo Alavés
El Glorioso · Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country · LaLiga EA Sports
A model of small-club stability in Spain's most competitive football region.
The club
Founded on 23 January 1921 in Vitoria-Gasteiz and playing at Mendizorrotza since 1924. Alavés operate in the shadow of Athletic and Real Sociedad and have carved out an identity anyway: compact, disciplined, shrewd in the second-tier market. Their defining season remains 2000–01, when they reached the UEFA Cup final. Mendizorrotza, opened in 1924, holds 19,840 and is one of the last genuinely old-fashioned grounds in the top flight.
Things worth knowing
- Lost the 2001 UEFA Cup final 5–4 to Liverpool on a golden goal in extra time, in a match with two red cards and two disallowed goals.
- Beat Kaiserslautern 9–2 on aggregate in that season's semi-final.
- Their best league finish, sixth in 1999–2000, came twelve years after finishing eighth in the fourth tier.
- Beat champions Barcelona at Camp Nou in September 2016, then lost 6–0 to them at home weeks later.