Real Sociedad

Real Sociedad

Full name	Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D.
Nickname(s)	Txuri-urdin (white-blue) Erreala
Founded	7 September 1909
Ground	Anoeta, San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain (Capacity: 32,076)
Chairman	Jokin Aperribay
Manager	Martín Lasarte
League	La Liga
2009-10	Segunda Division, 1st (promoted)
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D. (more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad) is a Basque football club based in the city of San Sebastián, founded on 7 September 1909. Their home stadium is the Estadio Anoeta, which seats 32,076 spectators.

Name

The club is known in Basque as Erreala or the txuri-urdin (meaning "white-blue" in Basque), from their colours: blue with white vertical stripes and white shorts. The club name means Royal Society of Football. A blue quarter on white also appears in the flag of their home town.

History

Early history

Football was introduced to San Sebastián in the early 1900s by students and workers returning from Britain. In 1904 they formed the San Sebastian Recreation Club and in 1905 they competed in the Copa del Rey. In May 1905 the San Sebastian Football Club was formed as a separate branch of the club. In 1909 they applied to enter the Copa del Rey but complications over registration permits saw them compete as Club Ciclista de San Sebastian. This team beat Club Español de Madrid 3-1 in the final. Out of the confusion the Sociedad de Futbol was formed on 7 September 1909. In 1910 Spanish clubs played in two rival cup competitions and Sociedad de Futbol entered the Copa UECF as Vasconia de San Sebastian. In the same year the King Alfonso XIII, who used San Sebastián as his summer capital, gave the club his patronage. They subsequently became known as Real Sociedad de Fútbol. Real Sociedad were founder members of La Liga in 1928. The team came fourth with Francisco "Paco" Bienzobas finishing as top scorer. The team's name was changed to Donostia Club de Futbol in 1931, with the advent of the Second Spanish Republic, but changed back to Real Sociedad after the Spanish Civil War in 1939. The team has generally fluctuated between the Primera and Segunda divisions, in one period (during the 1940s) managing to be relegated and promoted seven times. Around that time the sculptor Eduardo Chillida was the team's goalkeeper until injury put a stop to his football career.

Real Sociedad Ranking Graph 1929-2009

The success of the 1980s

The best period of the team's history must be the early 1980s where they won the Primera two seasons running. For many years, Real Sociedad followed the practice of their Basque rivals Athletic Bilbao of signing only Basque players. They abandoned the policy in 1989 when they signed Irish international John Aldridge from Liverpool.

La Liga 2002-2003

Real Sociedad's best league performance in recent years is their 2nd place finish in La Liga in 2002-03. Key contributors to that side included a Serb (Darko Kovačević), two Turks (Nihat Kahveci and Tayfun Korkut), a Russian (Valeri Karpin), a Dutch goalkeeper (Sander Westerveld), and Spanish home-grown talent Xabi Alonso, coached by French manager Raynald Denoueix. Key moments from that season came when Real Sociedad beat Real Madrid in April 4-2 at the Anoeta in San Sebastián. They kept first place in La Liga until matchday 37 when they were due to play Celta de Vigo in a match that ended up 3-2 in favor of Celta, while on the other hand Real Madrid had beaten city rivals Atletico Madrid 4-0. This meant that the team from Madrid secured first place two points clear of Real Sociedad just ahead of the last matchday of the season when a 3-0 Sociedad victory against Atletico Madrid was just not enough because Real Madrid had just secured another victory against Athletic Bilbao. The team quailfied directly for the UEFA Champions League 2003–04 by finishing 2nd, they ended up unbeaten at home with 71 goals scored and defeated on 6 occasions only. Strikers Nihat and Kovačević finished 2nd and 3rd respectively on the Pichichi chart with 23 and 20 goals.

Relegation

While Real Sociedad still attempt to keep a core of Basque players, whether coming from their own teams or signed from other clubs, they also employ non-Basque Spanish players, as well as foreigners.

They were relegated from La Liga in 2006–07, finishing 19th. On 9 July 2007, former Welsh international and Fulham manager Chris Coleman was appointed as the new club coach, on the recommendation of former Real Sociedad (and current Welsh National team) manager John Toshack, who remains a respected and influential figure at the club. Coleman resigned on 16 January 2008.

Return to La Liga

On 13 June 2010, Real Sociedad returned to La Liga.

Honours

• La Liga

• Winners (2): 1980-81, 1981-82
• Runners-up (3): 1979-80, 1987-88, 2002-03

• Copa del Rey

• Winners (2): 1908-09, 1986-87.
• Runners-up (5): 1909-10, 1912-13, 1927-28, 1950-51, 1987-88

• Supercopa de España

• Winners (1): 1982

• Segunda División

• Winners (3): 1948-49, 1966-67, 2009-10
• Runners-up (2): 1940-41, 1942-43

Current squad

The numbers are established according to the official website: www.realsociedad.com and www.lfp.es. The EU flags indicate players who, although foreign, are still members of the European Economic Community, thus the club is not restricted in playing such foreigners.

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Claudio Bravo 2 DF Carlos Martínez 3 DF Mikel González 4 MF Gorka Elustondo 5 MF Markel Bergara 6 DF Mikel Labaka 7 MF Antoine Griezmann 8 FW Joseba Llorente 9 FW Imanol Agirretxe 10 MF Xabi Prieto 11 MF Mikel Aranburu (captain) 12 FW Raúl Tamudo

No. Position Player 13 GK Eñaut Zubikarai 15 DF Ion Ansotegui 17 MF David Zurutuza 18 FW Borja Viguera 19 MF Diego Rivas 21 FW Diego Ifrán 22 MF Dani Estrada 23 MF Sutil 24 DF Alberto de la Bella 25 GK Toño Ramírez MF Jeffrey Sarpong MF Sergio

Seasons

Recent season

Season		Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Cup	Europe		Notes
1997-98	1D	3	38	16	15	7	60	37	63	last 16
1998-99	1D	10	38	14	12	12	47	43	54		UC	last 16
1999-00	1D	13	38	11	14	13	42	49	47
2000-01	1D	13	38	11	10	17	52	68	43
2001-02	1D	13	38	13	8	17	48	54	47	1st round
2002-03	1D	2	38	22	10	6	71	45	76	1st round
2003-04	1D	15	38	11	13	14	49	53	46	3rd round	UCL	last 16
2004-05	1D	14	38	13	8	17	47	56	47	last 32
2005-06	1D	16	38	11	7	20	48	65	40	3rd round
2006-07	1D	19	38	8	11	19	32	47	35	last 64			Relegated
2007-08	2D	4	42	18	14	10	55	39	68	2nd round
2008-09	2D	6	42	17	16	9	48	38	67	3rd round
2009-10	2D	1	42	20	14	8	53	37	74	2nd round			Promoted

Season to season

• As Real Sociedad de Fútbol

• 64 seasons in La Liga
• 16 seasons in Segunda División

External links

• Official website