Real Vigo Sporting Club, was a Spanish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...

, Galicia, founded in 1905.

Background

was one of the cities through which football entered the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

, thanks to British sailors and workers. The first demonstrations of the sport were made by the team of the British company

Electric Telegraph Company The Electric Telegraph Company (ETC) was a British telegraph company founded in 1846 by William Fothergill Cooke and John Ricardo. It was the world's first public telegraph company. The equipment used was the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph, ...

, which was installing the telegraph cable between the islands and Vigo, to connect with

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

from there. This team was called the Exiles Football Club and played several matches against British merchant and military crews passing through the

Port of Vigo Port of Vigo (, ) is located in Vigo, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain. Vigo is the base for the big fishing companies which have prominent presence in countries such as Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Australia, Argentina, the Falkland Islands, C ...

. The first mixed teams between Galicians and the British were soon created, such as Petit FC, who in 1905 beat the Exiles for the first time.

History

Following the example of

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, where

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

and

Català FC Català Futbol Club, and later Català Sport Club, was a football team based in Barcelona, Spain, which existed from 1899 until its dissolution in the late 1920s. It was one of the most important entities in the amateur beginnings of football in C ...

had been founded in 1899, Vigo came up with their own clubs in 1905, the Fortuna Football Club and the Vigo Football Club, and ever since their birth, there has been a great rivalry between the two. The club's greatest achievement was reaching the 1908 Copa del Rey Final (still as Vigo FC), which they lost 1-2 to

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. Sporting was crowned champion of the

Galician Championship Galician may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Galicia (Spain) ** Galician language ** Galician people ** Gallaeci, a large Celtic tribal federation who inhabited Gallaecia (currently Galicia (Spain) * Something of, from, or related t ...

eight times in 1908, 1909, 1914, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920 and 1923. Historic players of the club include the Yarza brothers (

Joaquín Joaquín or Joaquin is a male given name, the Spanish version of Joachim. Given name * Joaquín (footballer, born 1956) (Joaquín Alonso González), Spanish football midfielder * Joaquín (footballer, born 1981) (Joaquín Sánchez Rodríguez) ...

and

Manuel Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name), a given name and surname * Manuel (''Fawlty Towers''), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * Manuel I of Portugal, king of Po ...

), who were crowned champions of Spain with

, and Moncho Gil and Otero, who represented Spain at the

1920 Olympic Games The 1920 Summer Olympics (; ; ), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (; ; ) and commonly known as Antwerp 1920 (; Dutch and German: ''Antwerpen 1920''), were an international multi-sport event held in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium. In M ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

. In order to create a powerful team that could successfully compete against the likes of Barcelona and

, Sporting merged with their great rivals, Fortuna, to give birth to

Real Club Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta Vigo, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), the club was foun ...

in 1923. The last match between these two rivals was held on 11 March 1923, which the ''viguistas'' won to claim the 1922–23 Galician championship. Ramón González was the hero of the match as he scored the only goal of the game in a 1–0 win. Real Vigo Sporting: Isidro; Otero, Pérez; Queralt,

Hermida Hermida is a surname, and may refer to: *Alfred Hermida (born 1965), British digital media scholar *Hugo Campos Hermida (1928–2001), Uruguayan police officer *Jeremy Hermida (born 1984), American baseball player * José Antonio Hermida (born 197 ...

, Vázquez; Gerardo, R. González, Chiarroni, Tito and Pinilla Real Fortuna: Lilo;

Juanito Juanito is a given name or nickname, meaning "Little Juan" or Johnny. Notable people with the name include: Professional footballers * Juan Ignacio Gomez Taleb (born 1985), Argentinian forward * Juan Díaz Sánchez (1948–2013), Spanish forw ...

, Pasarín; Balbino,

Torres Torres may refer to: People *Torres (surname), a Spanish and Portuguese surname * Torres (musician), singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott ** ''Torres'' (album), 2013 self-titled album by Torres Places Americas * Torres, Colorado, an unincorporated ...

Córdoba Córdoba most commonly refers to: * Córdoba, Spain, a major city in southern Spain and formerly the imperial capital of Islamic Spain * Córdoba, Argentina, the second largest city in Argentina and the capital of Córdoba Province Córdoba or Cord ...

; Reigosa, Rodríguez,

Chicha ''Chicha'' is a Fermentation, fermented (alcoholic) or non-fermented beverage of Latin America, emerging from the Andes and Amazonia regions. In both the pre- and post-Spanish conquest of Peru, Spanish conquest periods, corn beer (''chicha de jo ...

, Correa and Salvador.

Club names

* Vigo F.C. (1905–1913) ** Merged with New F.C. (1906) ** Merged with Español F.C. (1910) ** Merged with Sporting Club (1913) * Vigo Sporting Club (1913–1914) * Real Vigo Sporting Club (1914–1923)

Honours

Regional

* Campionato Gallego ** Winners (8): 1906–07, 1907–08, 1913–14, 1916–17, 1917–18, 1918–19, 1919–20, 1922–23

Domestic

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

** Runners-up (1):

1908 This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time. Events January * January ...

References

Defunct football clubs in Galicia RC Celta de Vigo Association football clubs established in 1905 Association football clubs disestablished in 1923 1905 establishments in Spain 1923 disestablishments in Spain Sport in Vigo {{Spain-footyclub-stub