Levante Unión Deportiva is a football club that has won promotion to the Primera División (First Division) of the Spanish Football League for the 2006–2007 season after finishing 3rd in the Segunda División (Second Division).
| logo | |||
| Full name | Levante Unión Deportiva | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Granotes Sapos | ||
| Founded | 1909 | ||
| Ground | Ciudad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain | ||
| Capacity | 25,354 | ||
| Chairman |  Pedro Villarroel | ||
| Manager | López Caro | ||
| League | La Liga | ||
| 2005-06 | Segunda División, 3rd | ||
|
| |||
History
Levante UD, or Llevant UE to give the team its name in Valencian, is the second team of the city of Valencia, Spain.
Always in the shadows of Valencia, CF, Levante has been around since the early 1900s and originally played in their modest stadium Campo de Vallejo. In the early 1970s they moved into their current stadium, the 25,354 seater Ciudad de Valencia.
Before 2004, Levante UD had only been in the First Division for two seasons (1963–1964 and 1964–1965), although they came very close in 2003. The two most illustrious players to play for the team are Johan Cruijff and Caszely. Levante fans are known as Granotes, or frogs.
After gaining promotion, Levante had a positive start to the season, quickly gathering several points to challenge among the top ten for the first half of their season. But things went suddenly downhill as the season went on. A poor run of form saw them slip alarmingly down the pecking order until they found themselves needing a win to stay up on the last day. They didn't get it, and were relegated straight back down again, a surprise considering their earlier form.
Levante won its ticket to return to Spanish first division (La Liga) after winning their last game of the season against Lleida on June 17, 2006. This means Levante will return to the top division only one year afer being relegated to second division. The four largest cities of Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla) will each have two clubs in the golden division, which will make for exciting derbies in each of those cities.
Current squad 2005/06
The numbers are established according to the official website:www.levanteud.com and www.lfp.es
As of February 1 2006 Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
|
|
Famous players
see also Category:Levante UD footballers
Famous Coaches
- Bernardo Schuster 2004 to 2005
- Juan Ramón López Caro 2006-
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. |