Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (Spanish pronunciation:[reˈalesˈpoɾtindexiˈxon]), commonly known asReal Sporting,Sporting Gijón, or simplySporting is a Spanish professionalfootball club fromGijón,Principality of Asturias. Founded on 1 July 1905, it plays in theSegunda Division. Known asLos Rojiblancos because of their red and white striped jerseys, their home ground isEl Molinón stadium, the oldest professional football ground inSpain, in use since at least 1908. Traditionally their red and white shirts are accompanied by blue shorts with the socks also being blue. ItsAsturian name isReal Sporting de Xixón.
The most important milestones of the club were in the 1970s and 1980s, when it finished as runner-up of the1978–79 La Liga and played two finals of theCopa del Rey in1981 and1982.
Real Sporting is also one of only nine Spanish teams that have never played below the second division. Its local rivals areReal Oviedo from the neighbouring city slightly inland.
The club was established in 1905 with the nameSporting Gijonés, Anselmo López being the first club president. The first game of the club is dated on 18 August 1907, against Sport Ovetense.[2] The decline of other local clubs likeGijón Sport Club (founded in 1903) and Sportiva Gijonesa allowed Sporting Gijonés to become the main team in the city.[3] In 1912, KingAlfonso XIII accepted the Royal patronage of the club for the Spanish Crown, introducing the term "Real" (Spanish forRoyal) to its name, becomingReal Sporting Club Gijonés.[3]
In 1914, Sporting Gijón won its firstRegional Championship of Asturias, success repeated two years later when the club started the first steps to buyEl Molinón, where Sporting started to play its games in 1915. On 2 April 1916, a new change took place to adopt today's denomination,Real Sporting de Gijón. Thanks to the win at the Regional Championship, on 24 April 1917 the club made its debut in theCopa del Rey, but was eliminated in the first round byArenas Club de Getxo.[4] Sporting lost both games by 0–1 in Gijón and 0–7 at the Basque Country.
On 9 October 1921, Manolo Meana became the first Sporting Gijón player to be called up with theSpanish national team, for a friendly game againstBelgium. In 1929, Sporting Gijón joinedSegunda División. In itsfirst season, the club finished in the fourth position.[5]
From 1940 until 1970, due to a temporary law forbidding the use of foreign words in football club names, the team's official denomination wasReal Gijón.
In 1944, the club was promoted toLa Liga for the first time as champion of the1943–44 Segunda División. The first game in the top tier was played on 24 September 1944, againstEspañol at Sarriá. The game finished without goals. The first goal was scored in the next game againstDeportivo de La Coruña, by Gundemaro, but the first win did not arrive until the week 6, when the team beatAtlético Aviación by 2–0. Sporting Still is in remaining in La Liga Right now.
Until the 1970s, Sporting alternated both divisions, spending all the decade of the 1960s in Segunda División. At the end of the1960–61 Segunda División the club was relegated toTercera División after losing the relegation playoffs againstBurgos, but the resignation ofCondal to continue playing in the second tier allows Sporting to play a repechage playoff againstSevilla Atlético andCastellón.[6] In the first match, Sporting tied 3–3 against Castellón. The winner of the match would be decided by acoin toss. After winning the two previous coin tosses during the match, choosing tails in both, captainPepe Ortiz decided to choose again tails, and Sporting became the winner of the game.[7] In the final for remaining in the category, Sporting defeated Sevilla Atlético by 2–1.
Quini, Sporting's all-time top scorer, was one of the club's best players during their golden years.
In 1970, with the name of "Sporting" recovered,[8] the club would start its consolidation in La Liga despite a relegation to Segunda División in 1975. This year would mean the start of the golden era of the club.
Just after promoting in 1976, Sporting Gijón started the1977–78 season by accumulating eight matches without losses. Finally, theRojiblancos finished in the fifth position qualifying for the first time to theUEFA Cup.
Players likeQuini,Cundi,Enzo Ferrero orAntonio Maceda and others would make history in the1978–79 club's season, considered the best one in the history of the club. The season started with the first round of theUEFA Cup, where on 13 September 1978, Sporting beatTorino 3–0 at El Molinón. In the second round, Sporting was eliminated byRed Star Belgrade. The club finished the first half ofLa Liga leading the table, tied in points withReal Madrid, but a 0–1 loss to theMerengues completely ruined their title hopes.[9]
In 1981, the club played for the first time the CupFinal. In the game played atEstadio Vicente Calderón on 18 June 1981, Sporting was defeated 1–3 byBarcelona. Former Sporting Gijón player Quini, considered as the most important player in the club's history, scored two goals for theblaugranas. Sporting repeated success in1982, but this time Real Madrid beat therojiblancos 1–2. During the 1980s Sporting accumulated four more participations at UEFA Cup, but always was eliminated in the first round. On 16 September 1987, Sporting won the first leg game againstArrigo Sacchi'sAC Milan, but a 0–3 defeat in Italy cut off Sporting's possibilities. In the previous1986–87 season, Sporting beat Barcelona atCamp Nou by 0–4, the biggest win away in the club's history in La Liga. One year before, Manuel Vega-Arango, president since 1977, left office.
The last UEFA Cup participation was during the1991–92 season. Sporting Gijón eliminatedPartizan after a penalty shootout, but failed to defeatSteaua București in the second round.
On 6 October 1992, Sporting Gijón played its 1,000th game in La Liga.
In 1992, following the law, Real Sporting de Gijón became aSociedad Anónima Deportiva. Its official name since that moment isReal Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. The internal financial crisis and the departure of important players triggers the decline of the club, pushing it to the lower positions in La Liga. In the1994–95 season, Sporting remained in La Liga thanks to winning the relegation playoffs againstLleida, but three years later, following a disastrous1997–98 campaign where Sporting only earned 13 points (two wins and seven draws in 38 games), the club was relegated toSecond Division, finishing its 21-year continuous stretch in La Liga.
Due to the financial crisis during the 2000s, the club was menaced by its possible dissolution and was forced to sell theEscuela de Fútbol de Mareo to the Municipal Town Hall for €12m in August 2001. The2003–04 season started with several doubts after the transfer ofDavid Villa toZaragoza and the election ofMarcelino García Toral as head coach, who previously relegated thereserve team toTercera División. However, the club was close to promotion to La Liga, but failed to accomplish the goal, finishing in the fifth position. After accumulating €51m of debts in its worst years, Real Sporting was close to being administratively relegated at the end of the2004–05 season.[10]
Football players celebrate with their fans the club's return to top-flight, 15 June 2008
WithManuel Preciado at the helm of the team since 2006, the2007–08 season started with the club unbeaten during the first nine games. Finally, on 15 June 2008, the club secured promotion back to La Liga after beating 2–0Eibar in the last round.
In its first season after the return, the2008–09, Sporting conceded 20 goals in its first five games, but achieved important wins like the one atMestalla againstValencia by 3–2 or the 1–0 win againstSevilla. In a season where the team broke La Liga record of 29 consecutive games without any draw (a 1–1 finish withAthletic Bilbao on 3 May 2009), Sporting avoided relegation in the last round after a win by 2–1 against last qualifiedRecreativo de Huelva.
The2011–12 season started without wins in the first eight games and the team remained in the relegation positions almost all the season. On 31 January 2012, after a 5–1 loss againstReal Sociedad, Manolo Preciado was sacked.[13] The Cantabrian coach ended his era after nearly six years in the club and being very appreciated by all the club supporters.Javier Clemente was hired for avoiding the relegation, but despite keeping the possibilities until the last round, failed and the club was condemned to a new relegation, that carried a new financial crisis in the club.
On 4 May 2014,Abelardo Fernández was appointed as head coach afterJosé Ramón Sandoval was sacked. In his first season, he could not win Gijón promotion to La Liga after being eliminated in the semi-finals of theplay-offs byLas Palmas.
However, the manager extended his contract for two years. Sporting was not allowed to sign any player out from the reserve team during2014–15 season due to the non-payments, but despite this disadvantage, Sporting once again returned to La Liga with a squad where 17 players played before in the reserve team or any of the youth teams of the club. After only two losses in all the season, Sporting promoted in the last round by beating 3–0Real Betis atBenito Villamarín stadium and a late equaliser conceded by rivalGirona in their separate match againstCD Lugo, when Sporting's game just finished.
During itscomeback season, Sporting had the same sanction due to a delay in payments to the players during the previous season. The club was only allowed to sign, by loan, three new under-23 players without experience in La Liga (Antonio Sanabria fromRoma,Alen Halilović from Barcelona andOmar Mascarell from Real Madrid).
The season started with a 0–0 draw against Real Madrid, managed byRafa Benítez, atEl Molinón. Despite an irregular path, Sporting obtained very important wins like a 1–0 atMestalla, a 2–1 againstAtlético Madrid or a 5–1 againstReal Sociedad. After earning a 1–1 draw atGetafe, the club finally avoided relegation in the last round after beatingVillarreal by 2–0 and taking advantage of the win of Real Betis against Getafe.[14] The era of Abelardo ended in January 2017, when he left the club after earning only five points in 15 matches and, despite changing the manager, the club was finally relegated again to Segunda División.
In the successive years, Sporting remained in Segunda División, only playing the promotion play-offs in 2018. The club continued a decline until 2022, where it narrowly avoided relegation to the third division. Abelardo came back to ensure the place in Segunda in the latest four rounds.
On 28 June 2022, majority shareholder Javier Fernández sold the club to Mexican group Orlegi Sports by €43m, thus becoming the second highest sale of a club in Spain.[15] Alejandro Irarragorri became the first foreign President of the club.[16][17]
After two first seasons narrowly avoiding relegation to the third division, in 2024 Sporting Gijón qualified again to the promotion play-offs to La Liga. However, it was eliminated in the first round againstEspanyol.
Real Sporting de Gijón have worn red and white striped jerseys since their inception, being the first Spanish team to wear red and white, as bothAthletic Bilbao andAtlético Madrid wore blue and white until 1909. The colors are those of the official flag ofGijón, which itself is based on the flag of the maritime province of Gijón, established in 1845.[18] The color of the shorts alternated between blue and white, as in the first years there was not any officiality for its colors. In the 1910s, finally, the color blue was established as the color of the shorts of the first kit.
Currently, Sporting wears both blue shorts and socks but until the 1980s they were black. In the 1990s, Sporting wore white shorts and socks, until the supporters voted to come back to the traditional blue.
Like most old football clubs, Real Sporting de Gijón did not initially have any badge displayed on their shirts. Their first official badge was introduced in the 1920s. It consisted of a traditionally shaped shield split into three sections, representing the club and the city.
The club's badge is a triangle with red and white vertical stripes with 'S' (for Sporting) and 'G' (for Gijón) intertwined, in gold, across them. A crown in the top symbolizes the royal patronage.[19]
The club's official flag consists of nine equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white in a rectangular field in a 2:3 ratio. The club logo is displayed in the centre.
El Molinón, with a capacity for 29,371 spectators,[1] holds the games of Sporting de Gijón.
Despite existing since at least 1908, Sporting did not start to use it until 1915. Before this year, the club played its games in different zones of the city. Firstly at San Lorenzo beach and later in the pitches of Prau Redondu (near El Humedal), La Matona inSomió, that was rented by the club for three months by paying 100pesetas, and La Flor de Valencia in La Guía.
In 2018, the stadium was renamed asEl Molinón-Enrique Castro "Quini" after the death of the club's all-time top scorerQuini.
The Escuela de Fútbol de Mareo is thetraining ground andacademy base of Sporting de Gijón. It was opened on 28 March 1978 and it also has the club headquarters in it.
Located just 7 km away from the city center and covering 112,000 m2, it is used for training andyouth teams matches. At present, facilities include inter alia, eight pitches, one service building (including team catering areas), a gymnasium, and a medical centre. The main pitch, whereSporting de Gijón B plays its games, is calledCampo Pepe Ortiz and has a capacity for 3,000 people.
Sporting de Gijón supporters commonly call themselvesSportinguistas in order to show their dedication to the club.[23]Sportinguistas are widely regarded as one of the most loyal, best travelling, and most cheerful supporter groups in La Liga,[24][25][26] providing one of the best atmospheres in the competition.[27] When following their team in large groups through the country, they are referred to asLa Mareona, Spanish forThe Big Tide, composed mainly by 240 groups of supporters orpeñas.[28]
About 300,000 fans showed up when Sporting's promotion was celebrated in June 2008.[29]
Sporting finished the2015–16 season with 23,400 season tickets; this record would be beaten in August 2016, when the club reached the 24,078 tickets sold,[30] and again in the2017–18 season, with 24,402 season tickets despite suffering a relegation in the previous season.[31]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
The women's team of Sporting Gijón was founded in 1995 asEF Mareo and declared officially as a section of the club in 2016. It currently plays in the third division, calledSegunda Federación.
