Sporting de Gijón

The club was established in 1905 with the name Sporting Gijonés, Anselmo López being the first club president. The first game of the club is dated on 18 August 1907, against Sport Ovetense.[2] The decline of other local clubs like Gijón Sport Club (founded in 1903) and Sportiva Gijonesa allowed Sporting Gijonés to become the main team in the city.[3] In 1912, King Alfonso XIII accepted the Royal patronage of the club for the Spanish Crown, introducing the term "Real" (Spanish for Royal) to its name, becoming Real Sporting Club Gijonés.[3]

In 1914, Sporting Gijón won its first Regional Championship of Asturias, success repeated two years later when the club started the first steps to buy El Molinón, where Sporting started to play its games in 1915. On 2 April 1916, a new change took place to adopt today's denomination, Real Sporting de Gijón. Thank to the win at the Regional Championship, on 24 April 1917 the club made its debut in the Copa del Rey, but was eliminated in the first round by Arenas Club de Getxo.[4] Sporting lost both games by 0–1 in Gijón and 0–7 at the Basque Country.

On 9 October 1921, Manolo Meana became the first Sporting Gijón player to be called up with the Spanish national team, for a friendly game against Belgium. In 1929, Sporting Gijón joined Segunda División. In its first season, the club finished in the fourth position.[5]

Logo during Real Gijón era.

From 1940 until 1970, due to a temporary law forbidding the use of foreign words in football club names, the team's official denomination was Real Gijón.

In 1944, the club was promoted to La Liga for the first time as champion of the 1943–44 Segunda División. The first game in the top tier was played on 24 September 1944, against Español at Sarriá. The game finished without goals. The first goal was scored in the next game against Deportivo de La Coruña, by Gundemaro, but the first win did not arrive until the week 6, when the team beat Atlético Aviación by 2–0. Sporting remained four seasons in La Liga before its relegation, but it would come back in 1951, after winning the 1950–51 Segunda División and scoring 100 goals.

Until the 1970s, Sporting alternated both divisions, spending all the decade of the 1960s in Segunda División. At the end of the 1960–61 Segunda División the club was relegated to Tercera División after losing the relegation playoffs against Burgos, but the resignation of Condal to continue playing in the second tier allows Sporting to play a repechage playoff against Sevilla Atlético and Castellón.[6] In the first match, Sporting tied 3–3 against Castellón. The winner of the match would be decided by a coin toss. After winning the two previous coin tosses during the match, choosing tails in both, captain Pepe Ortiz decided to choose again tails, and Sporting became the winner of the game.[7] In the final for remaining in the category, Sporting defeated Sevilla Atlético by 2–1.

In 1970, with the name of "Sporting" recovered,[8] the club would start its consolidation in La Liga despite a relegation to Segunda División in 1975. This year would mean the start of the golden era of the club.

Quini, all-time club's topscorer, was one of the players during the golden years.

Just after promoting in 1976, Sporting Gijón started the 1977–78 season by accumulating eight matches without losses. Finally, the Rojiblancos finished in the fifth position qualifying for the first time to the UEFA Cup.

Players like Quini, Cundi, Enzo Ferrero or Antonio Maceda and others would make history in the 1978–79 club's season, considered the best one in the history of the club. The season started with the first round of the UEFA Cup, where on 13 September 1978 Sporting beat Torino by 3–0 at El Molinón. In the second round, Sporting was eliminated by Red Star Belgrade. The club finished the first half of La Liga as leader, tied in points with Real Madrid, but a loss against the Merengues by 0–1 kept off the possibilities of the club to win the league title.[9]

In 1981, the club played for the first time the Cup Final. In the game played at Estadio Vicente Calderón on 18 June 1981, Sporting was defeated 1–3 by Barcelona. Former Sporting Gijón player Quini, considered as the most important player in the club's history, scored two goals for the blaugranas. Sporting repeated success in 1982, but this time Real Madrid beat the rojiblancos 1–2. During the 1980s Sporting accumulated four more participations at UEFA Cup, but always was eliminated in the first round. On 16 September 1987, Sporting won the first leg game against Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan, but a 0–3 defeat in Italy cut off Sporting's possibilities. In the previous 1986–87 season, Sporting beat Barcelona at Camp Nou by 0–4, the biggest win away in the club's history in La Liga. One year before, Manuel Vega-Arango, president since 1977, left office.

The last UEFA Cup participation was during the 1991–92 season. Sporting Gijón eliminated Partizan after a penalty shootout, but failed to defeat Steaua București in the second round.

On 6 October 1992, Sporting Gijón played its 1,000th game in La Liga.

In 1992, following the law, Real Sporting de Gijón became a Sociedad Anónima Deportiva. Its official name since that moment is Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. The internal financial crisis and the departure of important players triggers the decline of the club, pushing it to the lower positions in La Liga. In the 1994–95 season, Sporting remained in La Liga thanks to winning the relegation playoffs against Lleida, but three years later, following a disastrous 1997–98 campaign where Sporting only earned 13 points (two wins and seven draws in 38 games), the club was relegated to Second Division, finishing its 21-year continuous stretch in La Liga.

Due to the financial crisis during the 2000s, the club was menaced by its possible dissolution and was forced to sell the Escuela de Fútbol de Mareo to the Municipal Town Hall for €12m in August 2001. The 2003–04 season started with several doubts after the transfer of David Villa to Zaragoza and the election of Marcelino García Toral as head coach, who previously relegated the reserve team to Tercera División. However, the club was close to promotion to La Liga, but failed to accomplish the goal, finishing in the fifth position. After accumulating €51m of debts in its worst years, Real Sporting was close to being administratively relegated at the end of the 2004–05 season.[10]

Football players celebrate with their fans the club's return to top-flight, 15 June 2008

With Manuel Preciado at the helm of the team since 2006, the 2007–08 season started with the club unbeaten during the first nine games. Finally, on 15 June 2008, the club secured promotion back to La Liga after beating 2–0 Eibar in the last round.

In its first season after the return, the 2008–09, Sporting conceded 20 goals in its first five games, but achieved important wins like the one at Mestalla against Valencia by 3–2 or the 1–0 win against Sevilla. In a season where the team broke La Liga record of 29 consecutive games without any draw (a 1–1 finish with Athletic Bilbao on 3 May 2009), Sporting avoided relegation in the last round after a win by 2–1 against last qualified Recreativo de Huelva.

On 2 April 2011, they beat Real Madrid 1–0 at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to end Real manager José Mourinho's nine-year home league unbeaten run.[11][12] This was the best season of the club since the last promotion, as it finished in the 10th position.

The 2011–12 season started without wins in the first eight games and the team remained in the relegation positions almost all the season. On 31 January 2012, after a 5–1 loss against Real Sociedad, Manolo Preciado was sacked.[13] The Cantabrian coach ended his era after nearly six years in the club and being very appreciated by all the club supporters. Javier Clemente was hired for avoiding the relegation, but despite keeping the possibilities until the last round, failed and the club was condemned to a new relegation, that carried a new financial crisis in the club.

On 4 May 2014, Abelardo Fernández was appointed as head coach after José Ramón Sandoval was sacked. In his first season at the first squad, Abelardo could not achieve the promotion to La Liga after being eliminated in the semifinals of the play-offs by Las Palmas.

However, the manager extended his contract for two years. Sporting was not allowed to sign any player out from the reserve team during 2014–15 season due to the non-payments, but despite this disadvantage, Sporting once again returned to La Liga with a squad where 17 players played before in the reserve team or any of the youth teams of the club. After only two losses in all the season, Sporting promoted in the last round by beating 3–0 Real Betis at Benito Villamarín stadium and a late equaliser conceded by rival Girona in their separate match against CD Lugo, when Sporting's game just finished.

During its comeback season, Sporting had the same sanction due to a delay in payments to the players during the previous season. The club was only allowed to sign, by loan, three new under-23 players without experience in La Liga (Antonio Sanabria from Roma, Alen Halilović from Barcelona and Omar Mascarell from Real Madrid).

The season started with a 0–0 draw against Real Madrid, managed by Rafa Benítez, at El Molinón. Despite an irregular path, Sporting obtained very important wins like a 1–0 at Mestalla, a 2–1 against Atlético Madrid or a 5–1 against Real Sociedad. After earning a 1–1 draw at Getafe, the club finally avoided relegation in the last round after beating Villarreal by 2–0 and taking advantage of the win of Real Betis against Getafe.[14]

The era of Abelardo ended in January 2017, when he left the club after earning only five points in 15 matches and, despite changing the manager, the club was finally relegated again to Segunda División.

The club's official flag consists of nine equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white in a rectangular field in a 2:3 ratio. The club logo is displayed in the centre.

Kit manufacturers and shirt sponsors Period Kit manufacturer Shirt sponsors 1979–1986 Adidas none 1986–1989 Cajastur 1989–1991 Rasán 1991–1994 Lotto 1994–1997 Joma 1997–2002 Astore Gijón 2002–2011 Gijón Asturias 2011–2013 Kappa[17] 2013–2016 Gijón 2016–2017 Nike 2017–2018 Teslacard[18] 2018–2019 Pastón 2019–2020 Interwetten 2020– Integra Energía

Home kit evolution 1905–1910s 1905–1984 1984–1989 1989–1997 1997–present

• La Liga: runners-up, 1978–79[31]
• Copa del Rey: runners-up, 1981,[32] 1982[33]
• Segunda División: winners, 1943–44, 1950–51, 1956–57, 1969–70, 1976–77; runners-up 1929–30, 2014–15

• La Liga: Quini (3) (1973–74, 1975–76, 1979–80)
• Segunda División: Ricardo (1956–57), Solabarrieta (1966–67), Quini (2) (1969–70, 1976–77)

• La Liga: Ablanedo II (3) (1984–85, 1985–86, 1989–90)
• Segunda División: Roberto (2005–06), Cuéllar (2014–15)

As of 1 February 2021.[34][35]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 2 DF  ESP Guille Rosas 3 DF  ESP Saúl García (on loan from Alavés) 4 DF  ESP Marc Valiente 5 DF  ESP Borja López 6 DF  MTQ Jean-Sylvain Babin 7 FW  ESP Aitor García 8 MF  ESP Pedro Díaz 10 MF  ESP Carlos Carmona (Captain) 11 FW  ESP Víctor Campuzano 13 GK  ESP Diego Mariño (Vice-captain) 14 MF  ESP Nacho Méndez 16 MF  ESP José Gragera

No. Pos. Nation Player 17 FW  SRB Nikola Čumić (on loan from Olympiacos) 18 MF  ESP Javi Fuego 19 MF  ESP Manu García 20 MF  ESP Cristian Salvador 22 FW  ESP Pablo Pérez (3rd captain) 23 FW  SRB Uroš Đurđević 26 DF  ESP Pablo García 27 MF  ESP Gaspar Campos 30 GK  CUB Christian Joel 32 DF  UKR Bogdan Milovanov 34 DF  ESP Pelayo Suárez

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 28 MF  ESP Berto González 29 MF  ESP Mateo Arellano 31 MF  ESP Pelayo Morilla 33 GK  ESP Joel Jiménez 35 FW  ESP César García 36 DF  ESP Álex Zalaya

No. Pos. Nation Player 38 DF  ESP David Argüelles 39 MF  ESP Marcos Trabanco 40 GK  ESP Pablo Díez 41 GK  ESP Gonzalo Ardura 43 MF  ESP Javier Mecerreyes

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  ESP Hernán Santana (to Mumbai City FC until 31 May 2021) — FW  ESP Álvaro Vázquez (to Sabadell until 30 June 2021)

No. Pos. Nation Player — FW   SUI Neftali Manzambi (to Mjällby until 30 June 2021)