Football in Spain is much more than a game. It is almost a religion for some of its fans. Week after week millions of Spanish people gather at local bars and follow their favorite football teams with a passion. The country stops and the streets are empty when an important game is played.
Spain has a great football history. Players’ names such as Raúl, Puyol or Casillas appear constantly on sports pages around the world.
Each city and each town, however small it may be, has its own football team, and Mallorca was not going to be the exception
The Real Club Deportivo Mallorca is the official football club of the island. It is located in the city of Palma de Mallorca in the Balearic Islands in the Son Moix Stadium. It was founded in 1916 and currently plays in the Second Division B.
History
Manolo Villanova was the coach of Mallorca who led the team to First Division. Despite having a spectacular team, which included Pep Bonet, Manolo Preciado, Antonio Orejuela, Paco Higuera o Gerry Armstrong, among others, it wasn’t enough and the team didn’t advance until 1985.
The 1985-86 season was a time to remember. In that year, the Mallorca football team got its promotion after beating Logroñés team in Las Gaunas. That season, the team changed coaches and Llorenç Serra Ferrer was in charge of leading Mallorca.
In 1986, the most important Mallorcan player of all time debuted: Miquel Ángel Nadal. With only 20 years, he started debuting in the Mallorca team, and later he would end up playing in FC Barcelona and he would be part of the Spanish National Football Team.
In that year, the Mallorca team also had one of the best goalkeepers in the history of the team, Ezaki Badou, who is one of the characteristic figures of the World Cup in Mexico in 1986.
The team stood out in the “play off”. In that year, the team managed to get into the first six but didn’t get Access to the UEFA Cup. It is noteworthy that are two important events that season, Enrique Magdaleno’s scoring record and Lluís Sitjar’s attendance record, which won in 1987 against Real Madrid with 29,000 people in the stands.
Despite so many achievements, the good run of Mallorca ended in 1988 when the team had to play for the permanence against Real Oviedo. A year after achieving its best historical classification, Mallorca returned to the Second Division.
Titles
The Mallorcan team has so far the recognition of 11 titles of national tournaments.
- Copa del Rey in 2002-03
- Copa del Rey runner-up in 1990-91 and 1997-98
- Champion of Supercopa of Spain in 1998
- Supercopa runner-up in 2003.
It obtained the category of Second Division in Spain, in 1959/60, 1945/65, the category of Second Division B in 1980/81.
Six logos
A curious fact about this team is that the number of logos that this team has had throughout its history. Nothing more and nothing less than six different logos.
1º change. Founding logo
The founding logo of the team was created on March 5, 1916 and lasted only twenty days. The name of the team was Alonso Football Club. The logo of this team has a great resemblance to the Real Madrid logo because of the great sympathy felt by the team’s founder, Alfonso XIII, towards the white team. However, the first logo format didn’t have a crown.
2º change
In 1916, it is when the title of Real comes first, like so many others Spanish clubs. For that reason, it was renamed as Real Sociedad Alfonso XIII.
3º change
The political changes that occurred in Spain led to a change in the Club’s name and Club logo. It was replaced by the name of the Club Deportivo Mallorca, with a new logo, popularity known as “se rata pinyada”. And, it stayed 18 years.
4º change
After a new promotion to the Second Division, it confirms again the Mallorca’s royalty and restitutes the name. It was when it was renamed as Real Club Mallorca, so its logo adopted a firm and sober form, as it is now known.
5º change
It was an insignificant change. There was an attempt to change the Mallorca’s badge again.
6º change
From this moment and up to the present, the Mallorcan logo wasn’t changed. It is also known as “s’escut des xapet”.
Important characters of the RCD Mallorca
In the RCD Mallorca, Eto’o starts playing and become known in Spanish football. Each time he played more games until, finally, he was the number 11 of his club.
This soccer player is known for his great step by the FC Barcelona team. Although, he was played in several Spanish and important football clubs like the Real Madrid, in the Mallorca team he has great recognition as an athlete.
He scored two of three goals of the Real Mallorca in the final of the Copa del Rey of the 2002-2003 season, in which Mallorca defeated the Recreativo de Huelva by three to zero.
Eto’o remained at RCD Mallorca five seasons, playing 133 league games, scoring 54 goals, becoming the top scorer in the history of the Real Mallorca in the league. With the Mallorca team he also played in the Champions League (although he had already debuted with the Real Madrid), and with his two goals in the competition, he is also Mallorca’s top scorer in the Champions League.
For this, he was named African footballer of the year in 2003, for the first time. All Mallorcan fans expected that Etoo to retire on this team one day.
Another important figure in the team was Héctor Cúper. The coach in his time united the Mallorca, won the admiration of the entire island and was the best that symbolized the success of the team during those campaigns. He was the man that created a team based on work and collective effort.
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