Villarreal CF
El Submarino Amarillo · Villarreal, Valencian Community · LaLiga EA Sports
A town of 50,000 people that has spent twenty years being better at European football than it has any right to be.
The club
Founded on 10 March 1923 in a Castellón town of roughly 50,000 people. Villarreal finished second in LaLiga in 2007–08 and won the Europa League in 2021, beating Manchester United 11–10 on penalties. Their ground holds 23,008, smaller than the population of the town, and the club's model is to buy early, coach hard and sell at the peak.
Things worth knowing
- The yellow kit was an accident: in 1947 a club official sent to buy replacements found only yellow shirts in stock.
- The 2021 Europa League final went to a penalty shootout in which all eleven outfield players and both goalkeepers took a kick.
- Manager Manolo Preciado died of a heart attack on 6 June 2012, the same day he was appointed.
- The nickname comes from staying beneath the radar next to Valencia, Madrid and Barcelona, not from anything on the pitch.