Sporting De Gijón

Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting is a Spanish professional football club from Gijón, Principality of Asturias. Founded on 1 July 1905, it plays in the Segunda Division. Known as ''Los Rojiblancos'' because of their red and white striped jerseys, their home ground is El Molinón stadium, the oldest professional football ground in Spain, in use since at least 1908. Traditionally their red and white shirts are accompanied by blue shorts with the socks also being blue. Its Asturian name is ''Real Sporting de Xixón''.

The most important milestones of the club were in the 1970s and 1980s, when it finished as runner-up of the 1978–79 La Liga and played two finals of the Copa del Rey in 1981 and 1982.

Real Sporting is also one of only nine Spanish teams that have never played below the second division. Its local rivals are Real Oviedo from the neighbouring city slightly inland.

History

1905–1940: First years

The club was established in 1905 with the name Sporting Gijonés, Anselmo López being the first club president. The first game of the club is dated on 18 August 1907, against Sport Ovetense. The decline of other local clubs like Gijón Sport Club (founded in 1903) and Sportiva Gijonesa allowed Sporting Gijonés to become the main team in the city. In 1912, King Alfonso XIII accepted the Royal patronage of the club for the Spanish Crown, introducing the term "Real" (Spanish for ''Royal'') to its name, becoming Real Sporting Club Gijonés.

In 1914, Sporting Gijón won its first Regional Championship of Asturias, success repeated two years later when the club started the first steps to buy El 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 the Copa del Rey, but was eliminated in the first round by Arenas Club de Getxo. 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 the Spanish national team, for a friendly game against Belgium. In 1929, Sporting Gijón joined Segunda División. In its first season, the club finished in the fourth position.

1940–1970: Real Gijón era

From 1940 until 1970, due to a temporary law forbidding the use of foreign words in football club names, the team's official denomination was Real Gijón.

In 1944, the club was promoted to La Liga for the first time as champion of the 1943–44 Segunda División. The first game in the top tier was played on 24 September 1944, against Español at Sarriá. The game finished without goals. The first goal was scored in the next game against Deportivo de La Coruña, by Gundemaro, but the first win did not arrive until the week 6, when the team beat Atlético 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 the 1960–61 Segunda División the club was relegated to Tercera División after losing the relegation playoffs against Burgos, but the resignation of Condal to continue playing in the second tier allows Sporting to play a repechage playoff against Sevilla Atlético and Castellón. In the first match, Sporting tied 3–3 against Castellón. The winner of the match would be decided by a coin toss. After winning the two previous coin tosses during the match, choosing tails in both, captain Pepe Ortiz decided to choose again tails, and Sporting became the winner of the game. In the final for remaining in the category, Sporting defeated Sevilla Atlético by 2–1.

1970–1992: The golden years and ''EuroSporting''

In 1970, with the name of "Sporting" recovered, 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 the 1977–78 season by accumulating eight matches without losses. Finally, the ''Rojiblancos'' finished in the fifth position qualifying for the first time to the UEFA Cup.

Players like Quini, Cundi, Enzo Ferrero or Antonio Maceda and others would make history in the 1978–79 club's season, considered the best one in the history of the club. The season started with the first round of the UEFA Cup, where on 13 September 1978, Sporting beat Torino 3–0 at El Molinón. In the second round, Sporting was eliminated by Red Star Belgrade. The club finished the first half of La Liga leading the table, tied in points with Real Madrid, but a 0–1 loss to the ''Merengues'' completely ruined their title hopes.

In 1981, the club played for the first time the Cup Final. In the game played at Estadio Vicente Calderón on 18 June 1981, Sporting was defeated 1–3 by Barcelona. Former Sporting Gijón player Quini, considered as the most important player in the club's history, scored two goals for the ''blaugranas''. Sporting repeated success in 1982, but this time Real Madrid beat the ''rojiblancos'' 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 against Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan, but a 0–3 defeat in Italy cut off Sporting's possibilities. In the previous 1986–87 season, Sporting beat Barcelona at Camp 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 the 1991–92 season. Sporting Gijón eliminated Partizan after a penalty shootout, but failed to defeat Steaua București in the second round.

On 6 October 1992, Sporting Gijón played its 1,000th game in La Liga.

1992–2008: Decline of the club

In 1992, following the law, Real Sporting de Gijón became a Sociedad Anónima Deportiva. Its official name since that moment is ''Real 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 the 1994–95 season, Sporting remained in La Liga thanks to winning the relegation playoffs against Lleida, but three years later, following a disastrous 1997–98 campaign where Sporting only earned 13 points (two wins and seven draws in 38 games), the club was relegated to Second 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 the Escuela de Fútbol de Mareo to the Municipal Town Hall for €12m in August 2001. The 2003–04 season started with several doubts after the transfer of David Villa to Zaragoza and the election of Marcelino García Toral as head coach, who previously relegated the reserve team to Tercera 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 the 2004–05 season.

2008–2012: Return to La Liga with Manuel Preciado

With Manuel Preciado at the helm of the team since 2006, the 2007–08 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 2–0 Eibar in the last round.

In its first season after the return, the 2008–09, Sporting conceded 20 goals in its first five games, but achieved important wins like the one at Mestalla against Valencia by 3–2 or the 1–0 win against Sevilla. In a season where the team broke La Liga record of 29 consecutive games without any draw (a 1–1 finish with Athletic Bilbao on 3 May 2009), Sporting avoided relegation in the last round after a win by 2–1 against last qualified Recreativo de Huelva.

On 2 April 2011, they beat Real Madrid 1–0 at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to end Real manager José Mourinho's nine-year home league unbeaten run. This was the best season of the club since the last promotion, as it finished in the 10th position.

The 2011–12 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 against Real Sociedad, Manolo Preciado was sacked. 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.

2014–2022: ''Los guajes'' and a new decline

On 4 May 2014, Abelardo Fernández was appointed as head coach after José 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 the play-offs by Las Palmas.

However, the manager extended his contract for two years. Sporting was not allowed to sign any player out from the reserve team during 2014–15 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 3–0 Real Betis at Benito Villamarín stadium and a late equaliser conceded by rival Girona in their separate match against CD Lugo, when Sporting's game just finished.

During its comeback 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 from Roma, Alen Halilović from Barcelona and Omar Mascarell from Real Madrid).

The season started with a 0–0 draw against Real Madrid, managed by Rafa Benítez, at El Molinón. Despite an irregular path, Sporting obtained very important wins like a 1–0 at Mestalla, a 2–1 against Atlético Madrid or a 5–1 against Real Sociedad. After earning a 1–1 draw at Getafe, the club finally avoided relegation in the last round after beating Villarreal by 2–0 and taking advantage of the win of Real Betis against Getafe. 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.

2022–present: Grupo Orlegi as new owners

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. Alejandro Irarragorri became the first foreign President of the club.

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 against Espanyol.

Club colours and crest

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 both Athletic Bilbao and Atlético Madrid wore blue and white until 1909. The colors are those of the official flag of Gijón, which itself is based on the flag of the maritime province of Gijón, established in 1845. 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.

From 1931 to 1936, during the Spanish Second Republic, the badge consisted of a circular shield and had the royal crown in the top replaced by a mural crown.

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.

Flag

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.

Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors

Home kit evolution

Stadium

El Molinón, with a capacity for 29,371 spectators, 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 in Somió

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