Real Sociedad

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Real Sociedad

Full name

Real Sociedad de Fútbol

Nickname(s)

Txuri-urdin (white-blue)
Erreala

Founded

1909

Ground

Anoeta,
San Sebastián, Basque Country,
Spain
(Capacity 32,200)

Chairman

Iñaki Badiola

Manager

Juanma Lillo

League

Segunda División

2006-07

La Liga, 19th (relegated)





Home colours





Away colours

Real Sociedad is a Spanish football club from the Basque city of San Sebastián/Donostia in Guipúzcoa/Gipuzkoa. Founded on September 17, 1909, it was relegated to Segunda División at the end of the 2006-2007 season.

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. The home stadium is the Estadio Anoeta, which seats 32,000 spectators.

1 History
2 Honours
3 Current squad
- 3.1 Out on loan
4 Recent history
5 Famous players
6 Famous coaches
7 External links

[edit] 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 September 7th, 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 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 "Cuqui" 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. 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. 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 Kovacevic), a Turk (Nihat Kahveci), a Russian (Valeri Karpin), and a Dutch goalkeeper (Sander Westerveld). While they still attempt to keep a core of Basque players, whether coming from their own teams or signed from other clubs, they will also employ non-Basque Spanish players, as well as foreigners.

On 9 July 2007, former Welsh international and Fulham manager Chris Coleman was appointed as the new coach of the club, a recommendation by former Real Sociedad (and current Welsh National team) manager John Toshack, who remains a respected and influential figure at the club. Coleman resigned on January 16, 2008.

[edit] Honours

Copa del Rey: 2
- 1909 and 1987.
Primera División: 2
- 1981 and 1982.
Spanish Super Cup: 1
- 1982.
European Champions Cup
- Semi-Finalists 1982-83.

[edit] 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 player such foreigners.

As of 18 June 2007

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Asier Riesgo
2	DF	Xabier Castillo
3	DF	Mikel González
4	MF	Gorka Elustondo
5	MF	Markel Bergara
6	DF	Mikel Labaka
7	FW	Gari Uranga
8	MF	Gaizka Garitano
9	FW	Andrija Delibašić
10	MF	Álvaro Novo
11	MF	Mikel Aranburu (captain)
12	FW	Morten Skoubo
13	GK	Claudio Bravo
14	MF	Josep Lluís Martí
15	DF	Ion Ansotegui

No.	Position	Player
16	MF	David Vaughan
17	DF	Gerardo García
18	DF	Víctor López
19	MF	Gorka Larrea
20	DF	Carlos Martínez
21	MF	Nacho
22	MF	Daniel Estrada
23	FW	Iñigo Díaz de Cerio
24	MF	Xabier Prieto
25	FW	Víctor
26	DF	Iñigo Sarasola
28	FW	Imanol Agirretxe
32	FW	Borja Viguera
37	DF	Alberto Morgado
42	MF	Fran Mérida(loan from Arsenal)
-	MF	Carlos Villanueva

[edit] Out on loan

No.	Position	Player
-	MF	Mikel Alonso (to Bolton Wanderers until May 2008)
-	MF	Diego Rivas (to Cádiz CF until May 2008)
-	MF	Dalibor Stevanovič (to Deportivo Alavés until May 2008)

[edit] Recent history

Season		Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Cup	Europe		Notes
1997-1998	1D	3	38	16	15	7	60	37	63
1998-1999	1D	10	38	14	12	12	47	43	54		UC	last 16
1999-2000	1D	13	38	11	14	13	42	49	47
2000-2001	1D	13	38	11	10	17	52	68	43
2001-2002	1D	13	38	13	8	17	48	54	47
2002-2003	1D	2	38	22	10	6	71	45	76
2003-2004	1D	15	38	11	13	14	49	53	46		ECL	last 16
2004-2005	1D	14	38	13	8	17	47	56	47	last 64
2005-2006	1D	16	38	11	7	20	48	65	40	last 64
2006-2007	1D	19	38	8	11	19	32	47	35				Relegated