This is what happened while you were away

1On February 10, 1929 the first season of LaLiga started.

It was an edition with ten participants and that came three decades after the first official football match in Spain, a Huelva Recreation Club against Sevilla Football Club played at a racetrack and refereed by the British vice consul in the capital of Seville.

The title was lifted by FC Barcelona a week after the last day, by winning a match against Arenas Club de Guecho, currently in Segunda B, which had been suspended due to the death of José María Acha.

The president of Arenas was one of the men who fought the most for a unified tournament, but a car accident on the way to Madrid to attend a Spain-England match prevented him from seeing the outcome of his great illusion.

2At the same time that Hollywood found its first heartthrob in Clarck Gable, Spanish football witnessed the flowering of its first media footballer.

Ricardo Zamora, a dandy with a fitted cap and a turtleneck, performed so well outside the goal that he boasted of having shot the first kiss on the mouth in a Spanish film.

A fame that was not even equaled by Lafuente, Iraragorri, Bata, Chirri II and Gorostiza, the first surnames that the people of Bilbao (and the rest of Spain) learned by heart.

These five Athletic Club attackers won eleven cups from 1929 to 1934 and produced what is still the biggest win in history, a 12-1 win against FC Barcelona in the 1930/31 season.

3Before the businessmen reigned in the presidency of the clubs, the boxes were open to other notables.

One was Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, an illustrious bullfighter and leader of Real Betis.

But there were others.

From journalists like Alejandro de la Sota or Eduardo Aizpún, at Athletic Club and CA Osasuna, to doctors like Scotsman William Alexander Mackay, founder of Recreativo de Huelva.

Among the industrialists in love with football who would later make their fortune, the Swiss Hans Gamper, founder of FC Barcelona, ​​had a disastrous fate: in 1929 he ended up committing suicide after going bankrupt with the Wall Street stock market crash.

4The 1947/48 academic year has gone down in the annals of Madrid for the inauguration of its new stadium, which in 1955 would be renamed the Santiago Bernabéu, but it almost ended in disgust.

According to the journalist Alfredo Relaño, the cost of the work prevented the reinforcement of the squad and the team was just two points from relegation, the worst result in a centuries-old history that soon after would enter a period of unmatched glory with five European Cups consecutive.

The forties, in fact, were the only decade in which there has been a greater variety of champions, with FC Barcelona, ​​Athletic Club, Atlético de Madrid, Valencia CF and Sevilla FC rising with at least one league title.

5Valladolid, as in 'Welcome Mr. Marshall', remained in his forties waiting for a miracle to reach the football elite.

But unlike the movie, 1946 came and changed everything as the city's team became the first club to star in two consecutive promotions.

A revelation squad joined by Emilio Aldecoa, the first emigrant from the ball in England.

Born in Deusto (Vizcaya), he went into exile in the United Kingdom when he was 15 years old and from the team of the workshop where he worked he went to Wolverhampton first and Coventry later.

Back in Spain, he would finish his career at Girona FC, where he became one of the few coach-players that Spanish football has had.

6The conquest of the only league title for Sevilla FC in 1946 had an unexpected ally, Francisco Antúnez, a Real Betis footballer, signed the previous summer.

When the Betis managed to get the courts to annul a transfer, the Sevillistas had already won the title and Antúnez had played all the games.

Then the situation takes a new turn.

The player must return to Real Betis, but neither he wants nor the club can return the money from the operation.

Finally the defender continued in the ranks of the Nervión for six more years.

7The fifties gravitated around two great figures: Ladislao Kubala and Alfredo di Stéfano.

Both were the flag of two teams facing each other to gain hegemony in the highest category of Spanish football, anticipating the duel between Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Although unlike the latter, they did play together.

It was in 1955, during an exhibition match against the Italian Bologna and with the Catalan team shirt, where the two geniuses "combined wonderfully" in a "gale of games and luxuries", according to Alfredo Relaño in EL PAÍS.

8In the summer of 1953 the Elche CF players invented an unprecedented system to save the club from ruin: to set up a cooperative.

Together they repaired a stadium without electricity or water and decided to charge according to their trajectory.

In September they started in the Third Division towards what would be the first promotion to the elite in 1959, coinciding with a less romantic character than their initiative, Helenio Herrera.

"Buffoon and genius, scoundrel and ascetic", as defined by the journalist Gianni Brea, the coach innovated on the board perfecting the 'catenaccio' and in the press room, where he handed out harangues and phrases to remember.

Above all, too, the Argentine was a winner with four league titles.

9Before covid-19 forced the suspension of LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank matches for the 2019/2020 season between March and June, another epidemic that emerged in China arrived in Spain to stop football.

It was in 1957. The so-called yellow flu appeared after the summer and caused nearly 10,000 deaths in the country.

The contagions in several teams, devastating squads such as RC Celta, which only kept six 'healthy' players during the peak of transmission in October, forced the suspension of eleven games of the sixth day of the two highest categories, in addition to other encounters on matchday seven.

10 The sixties, the decade of the hippies and the explosion of the Beatles, were times of manes.

Although not in all places.

When a reporter portrayed six Real Madrid players in a 'beatle' style wig, the board did not like it at all.

Alfredo Relaño tells that the nickname of Madrid ye-yé of the generation after Di Stéfano did not like the president.

So the long-haired thing was already too much and he ordered the publication of the report to be stopped ... until he changed his mind.

The achievement of the 1966 European Cup loosened the rigidity of the leaders and photography would end up being the icon of a team that won eight of the ten titles in the top league competition of the decade.

11While the world was discovering total football with the Netherlands and AFC Ajax, a parallel football plan was being drawn up on an island in the Atlantic Ocean.

With its colorful yellow, UD Las Palmas lit up the sixties with a game of possession.

"We were applauded from most stadiums," recalled in Panenka a member of a squad that would reach a third and second place in LaLiga Santander.

A film destination comparable to that of Florencio Amarilla, who after a discreet passage through various teams found another vocation at UD Almería.

"As they saw me with an Indian face, they asked me if I wanted to participate in a movie," said Amarilla, who played an extra in a hundred films and as a supporting actor six times.

In Elche they continue to call him Great Captain because Miguel Quirant was an example of the defender who with his commitment, bravery and sacrifice becomes the spiritual leader of some colors.

He came to a club in debt in the early 1950s and led him on a meteoric rise from Third to the top flight.

In the elite he continued to fight to write down heroics such as the match against Sevilla FC in 1963. That day he retired injured in the middle with a pull, but the coach decided to keep him on the field.

He went from the left side to the top and, half lame, scored two goals to achieve the comeback and victory in his most memorable battle.

13Johann Cruyff arrived at FC Barcelona in 1973 in exchange for what today would be 360,000 euros.

The most expensive player ever.

He had won three consecutive European Cups and the 1971 Ballon d'Or at AFC Ajax.

Barça, with the Dutch Rinus Michel as coach, was second to last, but Cruyff made his debut with a double against Granada CF and, since then, they have not lost again.

League champions after 14 years, a goal with a flying kick against Atlético de Madrid and a historic 0-5 against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Cruyff is considered the best European player of all time by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics.

14After winning the league top flight in 1973 and reaching glory in Europe the following year, Luis Aragonés hangs up his boots and leads the team from the bench.

One of the most important idols in the history of Atleti is born.

In 1975 he raised the Intercontinental Cup and in 1976, another local championship, the second of the decade for the colchoneros.

They are also the most important years in the life of UD Salamanca, which in 1974, led by José Luis García Traid, entered the elite of Spanish football for the first time.

Fortified in the mythical Helmántico stadium, it maintained the category for seven seasons, remaining on the verge of European positions in 1975.

15In 1971, Alfredo Di Stéfano, as coach, led Valencia CF to their fourth league championship after 24 years of drought.

The bats would not lift a LaLiga top flight trophy again for 31 seasons.

With no previous experience on the bench, Di Stéfano arrived that same year at the Mestalla at the age of 44 and with the parchment of having been one of the best players of all time.

His team only conceded 19 goals in 30 games.

The alignment can be recited from memory by any Valencian player: Abelardo, Sol, Tatono, Aníbal, Antón;

Paquito;

Pellicer, Claramunt, Forment;

Sergio, Valdez ...

161982. While the Rolling Stones soak thousands of young people with rock (literally) at the Vicente Calderón, a group of boys is already doing their thing, on the other side of the path, at Castilla CF.

Miguel Pardeza, Manolo Sanchís, Míchel González, Martín Vázquez and Emilio Butragueño will make the leap to the Real Madrid first team.

On November 14, 1983, EL PAÍS, in a report signed by Julio César Iglesias entitled Amancio y la quinta del Buitre, names a generation of players who changed the history of Spanish football.

With other superstars such as the Mexican Hugo Sánchez or the goalkeeper Paco Buyo, they have managed, since 1985, with all the remaining leagues of the decade: five.

It is the team with the most consecutive league titles in the history of Spanish football.

17The Salvadoran Jorge Alberto González Barilla changed his nickname in Cádiz.

El Mago became Magico, the greatest idol in the history of the city's club.

After achieving the historical classification of his country for a World Cup, he joined the yellow team in 1982, the same year as Diego Armando Maradona at FC Barcelona.

His way of playing and understanding football as fun, his way of seeing life and his effusiveness for any type of celebration quickly united him with the fans.

On the other side of the country, the Real Sociedad de Arconada and Satrústegui were crowned in the highest category of LaLiga for the first time in their history after drawing two at El Molinón against Real Sporting de Gijón on April 26, 1981.

18The chronicles of that time say that in 1984 a million people crowded the banks of the Nervión, in Bilbao, to closely follow the triumphant barge of Athletic Club.

That year, under the guidance of Javier Clemente, former player of the lions, a one club man, the team achieved the two-time league championship on the last day against Real Sociedad and also won the Copa del Rey, defeating FC in the final Barcelona by Diego Armando Maradona.

Clemente forged a squad that combined homegrown players such as Andoni Zubizarreta or Santiago Urquiaga with veterans such as Daniel Ruiz Bazán (Dani) or Andoni Goikoetxea.

They all became legends.

19Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Scottie Pippen and Larry Bird made the Joventut field, converted into the Badalona Olympic Pavilion, delirious during the 1992 Games and a young Lluís Canut, a Catalan journalist who covered their matches and who, shortly after, he twinned FC Barcelona with that American basketball team.

Canut borrowed the nickname the world press used to refer to the geniuses of the NBA and used it to immortalize those led by Johan Cruyff in a preseason game that same year against Brazil's São Paulo.

In addition to revolutionizing the way of playing in Spain, the Dutch coach's Dream Team chained four league championships between 1990 and 1994 and won the first European Cup in the history of the Blaugrana club in 1992.

20While the Brazilian stars that marched past FC Barcelona, ​​such as Romario, Ronaldo or Rivaldo, were leaving their nineties stamp, by the middle of the decade a single top-flight match had not yet been played on Extremadura soil.

On TV, the Pharmacy on duty blind was closed forever, and the office of Dr. Nacho Martín, Family Physician, opened;

but for Extremadura the most desired script was written on May 27, 1995 in Ipurua.

The Mérida Polideportivo Club became the first Extremaduran to rise to the top flight of Spanish football with three days remaining.

Sergio Krešić sat on his bench and ahead they had Prieto, 10 goals only in the second round.

The hero ended up being his teammate at the top, Cuéllar, with a real goal against SD Eibar.

21Kiko's hair, which caressed the neck of his shirt when he insisted, from his back, with the defenders.

The lively eyes and well-pulled shorts of Simeone, a proud midfielder who scored 12 goals in the league season.

The game with the feet of the advanced Molina.

The 1.87 of Caminero's ingenuity and his goal, which was not scored by him but Roberto Fresnedoso.

Pantic's ankle, boot, or whatever it was, which contributed to half of the 75 goals being scored in strategy play.

The armband of the youth squad Solozábal, captain of the defense less thrashed.

The great beneficiary of the death pass, Penev.

Vizcaíno's bra.

Lopez.

Toni.

Geli.

Biagini… The 4-4-2 in diamond of the bold Antic.

And the fans who lived it.

The doublet.

1995-1996.

22Only nine of the 62 teams that participated in the 90 years of LaLiga Santander have been champions.

The last to join the list was RC Deportivo, who had become Arsenio's Super Depor during the nineties, specifically on October 3, 1992, when they came back from 0-2 against Real Madrid in Riazor, where the Whites did not win again until January 2010. The glory for Makaay, Djalminha, Donato, Fran and company, a more sophisticated Depor, directed by Javier Irureta, did not arrive until the turn of the century.

In the last game against RCD Espanyol de Barcelona, ​​the ghost of 1994, the one of the tournament that escaped them after a penalty missed by Djukic against Valencia CF, flew over Riazor, but Donato, head-first after three minutes, opened the time most glorious sportsmanship: the league title was succeeded by two runners-up, a Copa del Rey and two Super Cups (2000 and 2002).

23Since Lionel Messi made his debut for FC Barcelona's first team in a 2003 friendly against José Mourinho's FC Porto, it was known that he was destined to be one of the great protagonists of football of all time.

17 years later, he continues to break all records.

With 638 goals, he is the top scorer in the history of Barcelona and is only six goals away from surpassing Pelé's record as the player who scored the most goals for the same club.

A couple of years earlier, the idol of Rosario, Pablo Aimar, slipped across the Mestalla turf dribbling rivals, to lead Valencia CF to a new league championship after 31 seasons.

It was the golden age of the Che team, which also reached two European finals.

24Messi inherited Argentina's '10' from a certain Juan Román Riquelme, idol of a Villarreal CF, who in December 2004, under his sole and touch, came to be proclaimed as the best team in the world.

The Yellow Submarine, technically led by Chilean Manuel Pellegrini (now at Real Betis), finished in third place in the top flight in 2005, just four seasons after rising to the elite, with Román chosen as the best foreign player and maximum LaLiga Santander assistant, and Uruguayan Diego Forlán, top scorer of the tournament, as great protagonists.

Thanks to them, the following year, all of Europe got to know Vila-real, the city of 50,000 inhabitants that had placed their team in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

25Carlo Ancelotti's successful stint as an assistant at Real Madrid in 2013 gave Zinedine Zidane credit for donning the merengue coach's tracksuit.

I didn't need it.

He had already achieved everything as a player, but he reached the bench of the club of which he was already an idol to win everything that came his way, among others, a league championship and three consecutive UEFA Champions League.

One of the greatest feats of a team in the entire history of football, not only Spanish but also worldwide.

26LaLiga Santander allows all kinds of dreams to cross.

While Cristiano Ronaldo questioned the throne that Messi threatened to keep for years and won everything (four Ballons d'Or, three UEFA Champions League, and a league title), the team from LaLiga's smallest city, SD Eibar, he sneaked in among the greats for the first time.

It is still there, in the valley, where Ipurua gives the best landscapes and the most arduous battles to any of the stars who visit it.

Led by José Luis Mendilibar, the gunsmiths are playing their seventh consecutive season in the elite and are a role model for all modest clubs in Europe and the world.

27 These are the times of Messi, Guardiola, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Mourinho, Iniesta, Kroos, Xavi and other stars.

The one who rose up was defender Diego Godín and made Diego Pablo Simeone's Atlético de Madrid fly, the only team that in the last 16 years managed to snatch the league title from FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Consolidated under the solidarity style of the Argentine coach, all together, on May 17, 2014, they drew one at the Camp Nou against Barça and won the championship.

The Uruguayan Godin jumped more than anyone to equalize the score and give a historic title to the Cholo team, who chased him in the corridors of the Blaugrana stadium, shouting: “Dear Mom, Godin!

You will remain in the history of Atlético de Madrid! ”.