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As is it is we are playing at a golf resort so it will be a training pitch
Getafe Club de Fútbol (Spanish pronunciation:
[χeˈtafe ˈkluβ ðe ˈfuðβol]), or simply
Getafe, is a professional
football club based in
Getafe, a city in the
Community of Madrid. The team competes in
La Liga, the highest tier of the
Spanish football system. The club's home stadium (owned and operated by the municipality) is
Coliseum Alfonso Pérez which was opened in 1998 and can hold 17,393 spectators. The club was founded in 1946 and refounded in 1983.
Since promoting to La Liga for the first time in 2004, Getafe participated in the top level of Spanish football for twelve years between 2004 and 2016, and again since 2017.
The club's main rivalry is against neighbours
Leganés, who are based near the town of Getafe, and a friendly rivalry against
Atlético Madrid and
Real Madrid.
History
Beginnings
Sociedad Getafe Deportivo was founded in 1923,
[1] only playing in lower divisions from 1928 to 1932. After the
Spanish Civil War, in 1945 five Getafe locals – Enrique Condes García, Aurelio Miranda Olavaria, Antonio Corridor Lozano, Manuel Serrano Vergara and Miguel Cubero Francés – while meeting at La Marquesina bar, decided to form a local team. Officially founded on 24 February 1946, the club was named
Club Getafe Deportivo.
[2]
The club originally played in the Campo del Regimiento de Artillería, which lacked goal posts. Shortly after, the club moved to
San Isidro, housed in the current Municipal Sports Center of San Isidro. Here, Club Getafe was promoted to the
third division following their victory against
Villarrobledo in the 1956–57 season. Getafe was nearly promoted to the
Segunda División in 1957–58, but was defeated by
CA Almería.
[3]
On 2 September 1970, the club inaugurated its own stadium after being promoted back to the Tercera División. Presided by chairman Francisco Vara,
Las Margaritas won a 3–1 victory over Michelín. The team survived in the third level that season, and six years later gained their first promotion to the second division.
[4]
Second Division
Club Getafe Deportivo played six seasons in the Segunda División, with little success. From 1976 to 1982, they placed below tenth level all six years.
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Pedro León with Getafe in 2013
In 1978, the club advanced to play against
Barcelona in the
Copa del Rey round of 16. Playing at home in the first leg, Getafe drew with a star-studded Barcelona team 3–3, before traveling away for the second leg and being thrashed 8–0 at the
Camp Nou.
At the conclusion of the
1981–82 season, players having not been paid, Getafe was automatically relegated and subsequently liquidated.
Meanwhile, on 1 September 1976, a new club was founded in the National Sports Council and the Regional Federation of Castille. The club was called Peña Madridista Getafe (the "
Real Madrid supporters' club of Getafe"). This club played for four seasons in various divisions, until taking the name Club Deportivo Peña Getafe, and played under this name for a further two seasons. On 10 July 1982, they joined forces with the much older Club Getafe Promesas, and were registered again in the Regional Federation of Castille.
[5]
Present existence
Based on the
merger the previous year, the present
Getafe Club de Fútbol was officially founded on 8 July 1983, after passing through assembly.
[5]
Starting in the regional leagues in 1983–84, Getafe was promoted for four consecutive seasons until reaching the
Segunda División B. The club started a new period with its promotion into Segunda in
1994–95, staying only two years.
[6] Threatening absolute disappearance just a few years later in 1997, Getafe survived relegation into the fourth level
Tercera División following a two-legged playoff victory over
Huesca.
Meanwhile, Getafe's current stadium, the
Coliseum Alfonso Pérez, was inaugurated on 1 January 1998.
[7]
Returning to the second division for
1999–2000, Getafe lasted another two seasons. However, one year later, they would return following an amazing promotion in
2001–02 during which one of their players, Sebastián "Sebas" Gómez, was murdered, and controversy regarding unpaid payments of players following a debt of
€3 million.
[8]
Consolidating their position after one year, Getafe had a fantastic
season in Segunda. At the top of the table for most of the year, the side travelled to the
Canary Islands on the final matchday needing a win to assure a historic promotion to
La Liga, the top-flight. Amazingly, they defeated
Tenerife 5–3 with five goals from
Sergio Pachón,
[9] thus becoming along with Real Madrid,
Atlético Madrid and
Rayo Vallecano the fourth team from the
Community of Madrid – and the first of them from outside of the
capital – to ever play in La Liga.
[10] With this promotion, Getafe had ascended the whole
Spanish football pyramid, achieving this feat in only 20 years.
La Liga
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Getafe Club de Fútbol vs.
FC Barcelona.
The club started
2004–05 poorly, lying at the bottom of the table. Home wins over
Espanyol,
Athletic Bilbao,
Valencia and Real Madrid,
[11] followed by a sole away win of the season over Athletic Bilbao,
[12] saw Getafe climb to finish 13th, being the only promoted side to avoid relegation. At the end of the season, the club lost head coach
Quique Sánchez Flores and several players to rival clubs.
[13] In Getafe's
next season, the club briefly topped the table
[14] before slipping to finish ninth.
[15] During the
2006 FIFA World Cup, Argentine-born
Mariano Pernía became Getafe's first ever
Spanish international,
[16] before moving to Atlético Madrid.
[17]
In
2006–07, Getafe again finished ninth in the league,
[18] conceding only 33 goals in 38 matches and
goalkeeper Roberto Abbondanzieri was awarded the
Zamora Trophy, having recorded 12 clean sheets. The highlight of the club's season was reaching the
2006–07 Copa del Rey final, a competition in which Getafe had never reached the quarter-finals before. The run included a two-legged semi-final against Barcelona in which Getafe lost the first leg 5–2 at the Camp Nou
[19] before producing a 4–0 rout in the second leg at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez.
[20] Getafe lost their first ever major final 1–0 to
Sevilla at the
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.
[21] Through this, the club qualified for the following season's
UEFA Cup qualification, as Sevilla had already qualified for the
UEFA Champions League through their league position.
The following season, coach
Bernd Schuster left after two seasons to become head coach at Real Madrid,
[22] and Getafe appointed
Michael Laudrup as his replacement.
[23] Under Laudrup, Getafe again finished the league mid-table. In the
UEFA Cup, the team managed to progress to the quarter-finals after finishing top of Group G, only losing once,
[24] setting up a tie against four-time European Cup winners
Bayern Munich. Getafe drew the away leg 1–1,
[25] thanks to an injury time equaliser from
Cosmin Contra. In the second leg,
Rubén de la Red was
sent off after six minutes. Contra put Getafe ahead just before half-time, but in the 89th minute,
Franck Ribéry equalized to send the match into
extra time. Two quick goals from
Javier Casquero and substitute
Braulio gave Getafe a 3–1 lead, but Bayern pulled a goal back from
Luca Toni, before Toni again scored seconds before the end of extra time, giving Bayern an
away goals win.
[26] Getafe also had successful run in the
Copa del Rey, reaching
the final for a second year running. In the final, at the
Vicente Calderón Stadium, Getafe were beaten 3–1 by Valencia.
[27]
In the
2015–16 season, Getafe were relegated to second division after spending 12 years in first campaign. However, in
2016–17, the club immediately returned to La Liga after defeating
Huesca and
Tenerife to gain promotion via
the play-offs. In the
2017–18 season Getafe finished in the 8th position, easily avoiding the relegation back to Segunda División.
[28]
2019–present
In the
2018–19 season Getafe finished 5th, their highest finish in the first division, and qualified for the
2019–20 UEFA Europa League group stage. They finished 2nd in their group, with 12 points from 6 games, which allowed them to advance to the next round. They managed to beat
Ajax 3–2 on aggregate in the Round of 32. Due to that win, they faced
Inter Milan in the round of 16, where their European dream ended with a 2–0 loss.
MANAGER
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Coaching career
Beginnings
Flores began his coaching career by taking charge of Real Madrid's youth teams in 2001. After earning plaudits during his three seasons at the youth teams he caught the eye of the newly promoted
Getafe CF, also in Madrid.
[13]
Valencia
After the
2004–05 campaign with Getafe, in which they finished in 13th place, Flores was given the opportunity to coach his former club Valencia, succeeding
Claudio Ranieri.
[14] In
his first year, he guided them to third place and thus
qualified for the
UEFA Champions League where the team went on to reach the quarter-finals, being knocked out by
Chelsea.
[15]
In May 2007, the
Che achieved a
top-four league finish and consequently a place in
the next Champions League. On 29 October, however, the board of directors dismissed Flores after a string of poor results.
[16]
Benfica
Flores was appointed as manager of
S.L. Benfica on 24 May 2008.
[17] On 8 June of the following year he left the
Primeira Liga side by mutual consent, after a
third place in the league and
winning the
domestic league cup.
[18]
Atlético Madrid
On 23 October 2009, Flores signed for
Atlético Madrid following the dismissal of
Abel Resino,
[19] penning a contract until 30 June 2010.
[20] At the end of
the campaign, he led the team to the ninth position in the domestic competition, but also to two cup finals: the
UEFA Europa League against
Fulham (2–1 win)
[21] and the
Copa del Rey,
lost to
Sevilla FC.
[22]
Frequently clashing with star player
Diego Forlán during
2010–11,
[23][24] Flores announced his departure from the
Colchoneros before the season ended, with the team finally
qualifying to the
Europa League.
Al Ahli
In early May 2011, Flores was linked with a move to
FC Spartak Moscow.
[25] On 8 November, however, he was named new coach of
UAE Pro League team
Al Ahli Dubai FC, replacing
Ivan Hašek.
[26] He left on 11 June 2013.
Al Ain
On 28 September 2013, only three months after leaving the country, Flores returned to the
United Arab Emirates, being appointed at
Al Ain FC.
[27] However, his tenure was brief as he was dismissed on 8 March 2014 due to poor results.
[28]
Return to Getafe
After nearly nine months without a club, Flores returned to Getafe on 5 January 2015 to succeed
Cosmin Contra as the new manager following the latter's departure to China.
[29] His first match in charge took place two days later, and it ended with a
1–1 away draw against
UD Almería for the domestic cup;
[30] on 26 February, however, citing personal reasons, he resigned.
[31]
Watford
On 5 June 2015, Flores was appointed the head coach of newly promoted
Premier League side
Watford, replacing
Slaviša Jokanović and being the fifth man to hold that position in twelve months.
[32] In December, the team won three and lost only one of their league matches, earning him the
Premier League Manager of the Month accolade; his forward
Odion Ighalo earned
the equivalent award for his five-goal haul that month.
[33]
However, despite going on to lead the team to a comfortable
mid-table position and
the semi-finals of the
FA Cup, it was announced on 13 May 2016 that Flores would be leaving at the end of the season.
[34]
Espanyol
On 9 June 2016, Flores returned to Spain, signing a three-year deal to replace
Constantin Gâlcă as manager of
RCD Espanyol.
[35] His second signing was
José Antonio Reyes, with whom he had previously worked at Benfica and Atlético.
[36]
Flores was dismissed on 20 April 2018, after achieving poor results towards the end of
the season.
[37] In July, he was on a four-man shortlist for the vacant
Egyptian national team manager job.
[38]
Shanghai Shenhua
On 25 December 2018, Flores was appointed manager of Chinese club
Shanghai Greenland Shenhua FC.
[39] The following July, he left.
[40]
Return to Watford
Flores returned to Watford on 7 September 2019, replacing his compatriot
Javi Gracia who was dismissed the same day.
[41] His team completed a comeback from 2–0 down to draw 2–2 with
Arsenal at
Vicarage Road in his first game back on 15 September.
[42] However, one week later, they were defeated 8–0 at the
City of Manchester Stadium by
Manchester City, with the opposition scoring five goals in the first 15 minutes for their biggest ever Premier League win.
[43]
On 30 November 2019, Watford went away to
Southampton and lost 2–1. The next day, Flores was sacked after securing only a single victory in his second stint in charge.
[44]
Third Getafe spell
On 6 October 2021, Flores was presented as Getafe manager for the third time.
[45]
