The Asturian club boasts an interesting story, especially in the 21st century, and these are five facts you might not have known.
Real Oviedo last played in La Liga in the 2000/01 season, so younger football fans may never have seen them in Spanish football’s top flight. However, this club from the Asturian city of the same name is one of the most respected and prestigious clubs in Spain. Let’s, then, take a look at five facts that may have been forgotten.
Real Oviedo are a top 20 team in La Liga history
Although Real Oviedo haven’t played in Spanish football’s top flight since 2001, this club used to be a regular fixture in the highest division in the land. In fact, if looking at the all-time league table for points collected in Spanish football’s top flight, Real Oviedo would sit 19th, ahead of clubs such as Las Palmas, Getafe and Rayo Vallecano.
The fans saved the club from insolvency
Following relegation out of La Liga at the end of the 2000/01 season, Real Oviedo tumbled down the divisions and went as low as the fourth tier. The club’s future was in jeopardy, with financial issues and the threat of insolvency impacting the institution. In order to save the club, there was a mobilisation of Real Oviedo fans, led by the most prominent and international academy graduates and by famous journalists. They shared the club’s story via social media, sparking a global movement, and the club now has more than 45,000 shareholders spread across more than 125 countries and five continents.
Santi Cazorla fulfilled a lifelong dream by signing
One of the members of the current Real Oviedo squad is Santi Cazorla, who signed for the club in 2023 at the age of 38. The midfielder is from the region and had come through the Real Oviedo youth academy, however he never made an appearance for the first team before departing for Villarreal in 2003. As such, it was a dream come true when he finally pulled on the blue shirt and made his first-team debut two decades later.
The season Real Oviedo sat out
Following the Spanish Civil War, when football was preparing to return in Spain with the 1939/40 season, the club and city of Oviedo were struggling. As such, the club asked the authorities if they could sit out the season but keep their place in the top flight given that they’d finished third in 1935/36, the final season before the war. The petition was accepted and Real Oviedo didn’t play in 1939/40, before returning to the top flight the next year.
Their derby has a Mexican element
Real Oviedo’s biggest rivals are Real Sporting, a club from the city of Gijon, also in Asturias. In recent years, this rivalry has developed a Mexican twist. That’s because Grupo Pachuca acquired a majority holding of the shares of Real Oviedo in 2022, while Grupo Orlegi similarly became the majority shareholder of Real Sporting that same year. With both these groups having Mexican origins, it’s little surprise to learn that both clubs now have significant followings in the Central American country.
