Real Oviedo
Los Carbayones · Oviedo, Asturias
The club a global share issue saved from disappearing altogether.
The club
Founded on 26 March 1926 in Asturias. Consecutive relegations dropped Oviedo to the fourth tier by 2003 and the club nearly folded. In 2012 a public share issue drew small investors from dozens of countries, backed by former players Cazorla, Mata and Michu, and a $2.5m investment from Carlos Slim secured its survival. The Carlos Tartiere holds 30,500, and Oviedo went back up to LaLiga in 2025 after a 24-year absence.
Things worth knowing
- The 2012 share issue is the best story in Spanish football about what a club actually is, thousands of strangers buying shares to keep it alive.
- Franco's troops used the ground as an ammunition dump; the pitch was unplayable and the club missed the 1939–40 season.
- The 1930s forward line played a one-touch passing game contemporaries described as decades ahead of its time.