RC Celta de Vigo

R.C. Celta de Vigo
	logo
Full name	Real Club Celta de Vigo S.A.D
Nickname(s)	Celtiñas (Little Celts); Celtistas ; Celestes (Sky Blues)
Founded	1923
Ground	Estadio Balaidos
Capacity	31,800
Chairman	Carlos Mouriño
Manager	Fernando Vazquez
League	La Liga
2005-06	La Liga 6th
Home colours	Away colours

Real Club Celta de Vigo is a Spanish football team from Vigo in Galicia. Founded on March 28, 1923, from the union of Real Vigo Sporting and Real Club Fortuna de Vigo.

Nicknamed Celtiñas (Galician for little celts), they play in light blue shirts and white shorts. The club's home stadium is the Balaídos that seats 31,800 spectators.

History

Foundation

R.C Celta de Vigo was formed as a result of the aspiration of Vigo's teams to achieve more at the national level, where the Basque sides were their "bete noire" in the Campeonato de España (Spanish Championship). The idea was to merge both teams to create a more powerful team at national level. The standard-bearer of this movement was Manuel De Castro "Handicap" the sports writer for Faro de Vigo who from 1915 started to write in his articles of the need for a unitarian movement. The slogan of his movement was "Todo por y para Vigo" which eventually found support amongst the directors of Real Vigo Sporting and Real Club Fortuna de Vigo. It was backed unanimously when Manuel De Castro himself presented the motion at the assembly of the National Federation in Madrid on the 22 June, 1923.

On the 12 July, 1923 at the AGM's of Vigo and Fortuna held at the Odeon Theatre and in the Hotel Moderno, repectively, the merger was approved. Thus the "Team of Galicia" was born, as it was dubbed. In the last AGM of Fortuna and Vigo to approve the formation of a new club held on the 10 August, 1923 the members set about on deciding the team's name. There were various names suggested:

Real Unión de Vigo
Club Galicia
Real Atlántic
Breogán
Real Club Olimpico

The last name was popular but they eventually decided on Real Club Celta a race linked to Galicia (see Celts). The first president of Celta was Manuel Bárcena de Andrés, the Count of Torrecedeira. At this AGM the squad was also decided which numbered 64 players in total which included some notable players from both Fortuna and Vigo:

Goalkeepers: Isidro, Lilo and Rubido.
Defenders: Otero, Pasarín, Juanito Clemente, Daniel and Kaíto.
Midfielders: Jacobo Torres, Balbino, Queralt, Hermida, Pombo, Cruces, Córdoba, Máximo and Bienvenido.
Forwards: Reigosa, Chiarrioni, Posada, Polo, Correa, Gerardito, Ramón González and Caride.

Celta de Vigo have played for many years in the Spanish first division, but have never been champions of the league or cup, despite having come close. Their best season was 1970-71, when they were not beaten at home and were known as the "giant-killers." They finished the season in sixth place (with the same number of points as Athletic Bilbao in fifth). This meant that the team qualified for the UEFA Cup for the next season. Unfortunately for them, they were knocked out by Aberdeen in the first round, not being able to recover from a 2-0 loss at home.

Club Colours & Badge

Celta Vigo's original team strip consisted of a red shirt with black shorts, this was later changed at an unknown date to the traditional sky blue and white strip - representative of the Galician flag.

Like many Galician clubs the badge is based on the red cross of Santiago (St. James) - such as Racing de Ferrol. It also has the royal crown hence the name Real Club Celta de Vigo.

EuroCelta

The late 90's (1997-2001) saw the best result's in the Vigo side's history in which they managed to consolidate themselves as a top six side in La Liga , culminating in 2000-01 when they did not go below sixth place the whole season. They were dubbed EuroCelta by the Spanish press.

During this period they achieved a number of famous results in the UEFA Cup, beating Liverpool in home and away games (3-1 and 1-0) and thrashing Benfica (7-0) and Juventus (4-0).

Celta had a dramatic reversal of fortune in the 2003-04 season. The previous season, they finished fourth in La Liga, putting them in the third qualifying round of the Champions League. Celta entered the group phase, and eventually reached the round of 16 before being knocked out by Arsenal. However, their domestic form was disastrous, and they finished penultimate in La Liga, consigning them to the Segunda División. Celta earned a return to La Liga at the first attempt, finishing second in the Segunda in 2004-05.

Last season (2005-06) they finished sixth earning a return once more to the UEFA Cup.

Club Anthem

Download in mp3 format:

Galician: [1] Castilian: [2]

Other popular songs sung by the celtistas are A Rianxeira, O Miudiño , and the Foliada Celeste.

The Galician Derby

The Galician derby is between Celta Vigo from the south and their northern rivals Deportivo La Coruña

Teams	P	W	D	L	F	A
CELTA VIGO vs Deportivo	58	20	16	23	77	88

Trophies

King's Cup: Runner-up: 3
- 1948, 1994 and 2001.
1 UEFA Intertoto Cup (winner, 2000) defeating FC Zenit St. Petersburg 4-3 on aggregate.
13 Trofeo Ciudad de Vigo
8 Trofeo Memorial Quinocho
1 Trofeo Teresa Herrera

1 Participation in Champions League
6 Participations in UEFA Cup
1 Participation in Intertoto Cup
44 seasons in La Liga
27 seasons in Segunda División
1 season in Segunda División B
1 season in Tercera División

Pichichi & Zamora Trofies

Pichichi

1947-1948 - Pahiño (23)

Zamora

1992-1993 - Santiago Cañizares (30 Goals/36 Games - Coefficient 0.83)
2002-2003 - Pablo Oscar Cavallero (27 Goals/34 Games - Coefficient 0.79)
2005-2006 - José Manuel Pinto Colorado(28 Goals/36 Games - Coefficient 0.78)

Top Goalscorers in Primera División

Hermidita 104
Mauro 69
Vlado Gudelj 68
Pahiño 61
Mostovoi 55
Roig 50
Atienza 49
Del Pino 48
Olmedo 46
Torres 39

Internationals

Number of capped players (with Spain) - 18

First Capped Player - Pasarín
- Debut Match -Italy 1-0 Spain (París, 25/05/1924)

Last Capped Player - Ángel
- Debut Match - Spain 0-1 Romania (Estadio Ramón de Carranza, Cádiz, 15/11/2006)

Current squad 2006/07

The numbers are established according to the official website:www.celtavigo.net and www.lfp.es

As of September 14 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.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	ESP	Esteban
3	DF	BRA	George Lucas
4	MF	ESP	Borja Oubiña
5	DF	ARG	Lequi
7	MF	ESP	Antonio Núñez
8	DF	ESP	Ángel
9	FW	BRA	Fernando Baiano
11	MF	ARG	Gustavo López
12	DF	ARG	Diego Placente
13	GK	ESP	José Pinto
14	FW	ESP	Jesús Perera
15	DF	CHI	Pablo Contreras
16	MF	URU	Pablo García
17	DF	ROU	Gabriel Tamaş


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
18	FW	ESP	Antonio Guayre
19	DF	CIV	Yago
20	MF	ESP	Jonathan
21	MF	ESP	Jorge Larena
22	FW	NED	Daniel de Ridder
23	MF	BRA	Nené
24	FW	URU	Nestor Canobbio
25	GK	ESP	Rubén Rivas
26	MF	BRA	Iriney
27	GK	ESP	Sergio Alvarez
28	GK	ESP	Yoel
29	DF	ESP	Richi
30	DF	ESP	Roberto Lago
31	MF	ESP	Jonathan Vila

Captains

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	CF	ESP	Javi Guerrero (at Recreativo Huelva)

Foreigners 2006/2007

Only three non-EU nationals can be on the pitch at anytime. Those with European ancestry can claim a passport from the nation their ancestors came from. e.g Diego Placente can claim an Italian passport as he has Italian ancestry. If a player does not have European ancestry he can claim a Spanish passport by playing in Spain for 5 years.

Statistics 2005/06

La Liga	Position	Pts	P	W	D	L	F	A
Celta de Vigo	6	64	38	20	4	14	45	33

Top Scorers:
- Baiano - 14 goals
- Cannobio - 8 goals
- Perera - 4 goals
Top Goalkeepers
- Pinto - 28 goals In 37 Matches
- Esteban - 5 goals In 2 Matches