Real Sociedad

Real Sociedad is a football (soccer) club from Spain.

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Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D. (more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad) is a Spain football (soccer) club from the Basque Country (autonomous community) city of San Sebastián in Guipúzcoa. Founded on September 7 1909, it was relegated to Segunda División at the end of the La Liga 2006-07 season. The home stadium is the Estadio Anoeta, which seats 32,076 spectators.

Name

Real Sociedad 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. Real Sociedad 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 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 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 the King Alfonso XIII, who used San Sebastián as his summer capital, gave Real Sociedad 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.

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 Republic of Ireland national football team John Aldridge from Liverpool F.C..

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 Serbia national football team (Darko Kovačević), a Turkey national football team (Nihat Kahveci), a Russia national football team (Valeri Karpin), a Netherlands national football team goalkeeper (Sander Westerveld), and Spain national football team home-grown talent Xabi Alonso, Coached by France manager Raynald Denoueix .
Key moments from that season came when Real Sociedad beat Real Madrid in April 4-2 at the Estádio 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 has beaten city rival Atletico Madrid 4-0, this meant that Real Sociedad from Madrid secured first place two points clear 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 has 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 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.

They were relegated from La Liga in 2006–2007, finishing 19th.
On 9 July 2007, former Wales national football team and Fulham F.C. manager Chris Coleman (footballer) 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 January 16 2008.

Honours

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

The numbers are established according to the official website:

Seasons

Recent season

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- 14 seasons in Segunda División

Famous players

- Meho Kodro
- Sávio
- Adriano Fabiano Rossato
- Júlio César Santos Correa
- Claudio Bravo
- Miguel Ramírez
- Mark González
- Igor Cvitanović
- Dalian Atkinson
- Kevin Richardson (footballer)
- Jérémie Bréchet
- Lionel Potillon
- Georgi Demetradze

- Edgaras Jankauskas
- Stéphane Collet
- Luis García Postigo
- Sander Westerveld
- Mutiu Adepoju
- Bjørn Tore Kvarme
- Oceano da Cruz
- Ricardo Sá Pinto
- Gheorghe Craioveanu
- Dmitri Khokhlov
- Valeri Karpin
- Darko Kovačević
- Dragan Mladenović

- Mikel Alonso
- Miguel Ángel Alonso
- Xabi Alonso
- Agustín Aranzábal
- Luis Arconada
- Mikel Arteta
- José Mari Bakero
- Txiki Begiristain
- Óscar de Paula
- Javier de Pedro
- Joseba Etxeberría
- Ion Andoni Goikoetxea
- Loren Juarros

- Musti Mujika
- Jesús María Satrústegui
- Javier Urruticoechea
- Jesús María Zamora
- Vicente Biurrun
- Roberto López Ufarte
- Håkan Mild
- Mattias Asper
- Necati Ateş
- Arif Erdem
- Nihat Kahveci
- Tayfun Korkut
- Sebastian Abreu

- Rafael Iriondo
- Alberto Ormaechea
- John Toshack
- Javier Irureta
- Miguel Ángel Alonso
- Javier Clemente
- José Mari Bakero
- Raynald Denoueix
- Chris Coleman (footballer)
- Juan Manuel Lillo

see also

Related pages

Alavés, Albacete, Alicante Club de Fútbol, Castellón, Celta Vigo, Córdoba CF, Elche CF, Gimnàstic, Girona Club de Fútbol, Hércules CF, Las Palmas, Levante UD, Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, Real Murcia, Real Sociedad, Salamanca, SD Eibar, Sevilla Atlético, Sociedad Deportiva Huesca, Tenerife, Xerex CD, Zaragoza