UD Las Palmas

Las Palmas

Full name	Unión Deportiva Las Palmas, S.A.D.
Nickname(s)	Los Amarillos (The Yellows)
Founded	1949
Ground	Estadio Gran Canaria
Ground Capacity	32,150
Chairman	Miguel Ángel Ramírez
Manager	Quique Setién
League	La Liga
2015–16	La Liga, 11th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Unión Deportiva Las Palmas, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the autonomous community of Canary Islands. Founded on 22 August 1949, it plays in La Liga, holding home games at the Estadio Gran Canaria, with a capacity of 32,150 seats.

The club remains the only one in Spanish football to achieve back-to-back promotions to La Liga in its first two seasons. It had a 19-year run in the competition, ending in 1982–83.

History

Foundation and early years

Even though the club registered with the Royal Spanish Football Federation on 6 June 1949, UD Las Palmas was officially founded on 22 August of that year, as the result of a merger between all five clubs on the island: Club Deportivo Gran Canaria, Atlético Club de Fútbol, Real Club Victoria, Arenas Club and Marino Fútbol Club. The union was to create a club strong enough to keep Canarian players on the island and not to seek a better career on the mainland.

Debate was held on the name of the club, which it was agreed would not include the names of any of its predecessors. An early option, Deportivo Canarias, was scrapped due to referring to the Canary Islands on a whole rather than the island of Gran Canaria. The name Las Palmas by itself was also put forward, and then rejected due to the name having already been taken by a defunct club in the city; Unión Deportiva Las Palmas was finally chosen due to its connection to the union which created the team, and its home city of Las Palmas. The first training session at the new club was held on 16 September 1949.^[1]

Las Palmas finished second in their first season in the Tercera División (1949–50), ranking third in the following year's Segunda División to reach La Liga for the first time ever, and became the first Spanish club to achieve consecutive promotions in its first two years of existence. The first season in the top flight ended, however, in relegation, but the team returned to the category in 1954, going on to enjoy a six-year spell.

Top-flight success

After Las Palmas returned to La Liga at the end of the 1963–64 season, again as champions, the club went on to have their most successful spell in the competition. Managed by Vicente Dauder, they finished third in 1967–68 behind Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, and four club players made the Spain squad which hosted and won the UEFA Euro 1968 tournament; the following season the team fared even better and only lost the league to Real Madrid, and thus qualified for European competition for the first time in its history, appearing in the 1969–70 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and being knocked out in the first round by Germany's Hertha BSC (0–0 home draw, 0–1 away loss).

Las Palmas player Juan Guedes died suddenly on 9 March 1971 at the age of 28. The next season, French coach Pierre Sinibaldi led the club to the fifth place, with subsequent qualification for the UEFA Cup: after disposing of Torino F.C. and ŠK Slovan Bratislava, the Spaniards bowed out to Dutch club FC Twente; at the end of 1974–75 another team player, Tonono – a defender who played with Guedes – died of a liver infection.

Las Palmas' third appearance in European competition came with the 1977–78 UEFA Cup, where they defeated FK Sloboda Tuzla of Yugoslavia in the first round before falling to eventual champions Ipswich Town.^[2] Under the management of Miguel Muñoz, and with players such as Argentines Miguel Ángel Brindisi, Daniel Carnevali (the first to arrive in 1973), Carlos Morete and Quique Wolff, the club also reached their first final of the Copa del Rey in that year, losing on 19 April to Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (1–3).^[3]

From the 1990s onwards, Las Palmas played mainly in the Segunda División, but also spent six years in Segunda División B – the new third level created in 1977 – and, from 2000–02, competed in the top flight. On 3 October 2001 the side managed a 4–2 home win against Real Madrid, with youth product Rubén Castro scoring two goals for the hosts, but the season ended nonetheless in relegation.^[4] On the 22 December 2001, Las Palmas played its 1,000th game in La Liga. On 21 June 2015 Las Palmas was promoted back to La Liga after defeating Real Zaragoza on the away goals rule.

Seasons

Season to season

• 33 seasons in La Liga
• 28 seasons in Segunda División
• 6 seasons in Segunda División B
• 1 season in Tercera División

Recent seasons

Current squad

As of 31 August 2016^[5]

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Raúl Lizoain 2 DF David Simón 3 DF Mauricio Lemos 4 MF Vicente Gómez 5 DF David García (captain) 6 MF Ángel Montoro 7 MF Kevin-Prince Boateng 8 FW Nabil El Zhar 9 FW Marko Livaja 10 FW Sergio Araujo 11 MF Momo 12 DF Michel Macedo 13 GK Javi Varas

No. Position Player 14 MF Hernán 15 MF Roque Mesa 16 DF Aythami Artiles (4th captain) 17 DF Pedro Bigas 18 MF Javi Castellano 19 MF Mateo García 20 FW Tyronne del Pino 21 MF Jonathan Viera 22 DF Hélder Lopes 23 DF Dani Castellano 24 MF Tana 25 FW Asdrúbal

Out on loan

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

No. Position Player — MF Leo (at Arandina until 30 June 2017) — FW Jefté Betancor (at Arandina until 30 June 2017)

No. Position Player — FW Héctor Figueroa (at Ponferradina until 30 June 2017) — FW Alfredo Ortuño (at Cádiz until 30 June 2017)

Honours

• La Liga (Primera División)

Runners-up (1): 1968–69

• Segunda División

Champions (2): 1984-85, 1999-2000

• Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup)

Runners-up (1): 1977–78

Managers

Affiliated teams

Las Palmas has used farm teams since 1954, but its official B-team, Las Palmas Atlético, was founded in 1976.^[6] A third side was founded in 2006 and reached the highest division of regional football, the Preferente, before folding in 2010 and being re-created the following season.^[7]

The club also had a women's team in the top division between 2009 and 2011. In 2010 Las Palmas founded an indoor football team for the Liga de Fútbol Indoor, staging matches at the Centro Insular de Deportes.^[8]

Crest

Las Palmas' badge is a blue shield with yellow scrolls on top with the club's name, city and archipelago. The municipal arms, granted by the city's mayor, feature in the centre of the design. Underneath lie the five crests of the clubs which united in 1949 to create the club: from left to right – Victoria, Arenas, Deportivo, Marino and Atlético; a smaller white scroll above them displays the city motto Segura tiene la palma.

In Spanish football, many clubs possess royal patronage and thus are permitted to use the prefix Real in their name and use an image of the Spanish crown. Las Palmas does not have such patronage, but tops its crest with the Spanish crown due to the patronage held by Real Club Victoria.

The crest is the central emblem of the club flag, a horizontal bicolour with yellow on top and blue underneath. The flag of the island of Gran Canaria uses these colours diagonally.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to UD Las Palmas.

• Official website
• Futbolme team profile (Spanish)
• BDFutbol team profile