RCD Espanyol
Els Pericos · Barcelona, Catalonia · LaLiga EA Sports
Catalonia's other club, with an academy record that embarrasses far richer rivals.
The club
Founded on 28 October 1900 by Ángel Rodríguez Ruiz as Sociedad Española de Football, the first club in Spain formed entirely by Spaniards rather than by British residents. Espanyol have four Copa del Rey wins and lost UEFA Cup finals in 1988 and 2007, both on penalties. The Dani Jarque academy remains a disproportionate supplier of internationals. The move to the 40,000-seat RCDE Stadium in Cornellà in 2009 ended eight decades at Sarrià and Montjuïc.
Things worth knowing
- The first Spanish football club founded exclusively by Spanish nationals, at a time when the game here was run by British expatriates.
- Captain Dani Jarque died of cardiac arrest in 2009, aged 26. His number 21 is retired and the crowd applauds in the 21st minute of every match.
- In 2007 they became the only side to go unbeaten through a whole UEFA Cup and still not win it.
- The blue and white honour Roger de Llúria, a 13th-century Sicilian-Aragonese admiral.