UD Almería

Almería

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Full name	Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D.
Nickname(s)	Rojiblancos, La Unión, Almeriensistas, UDA, Indálicos
Founded	1989 (1989)
Ground	Juegos Mediterráneos, Almería, Andalusia, Spain
Ground Capacity	21,350
Chairman	Alfonso García
Manager	Fernando Soriano
League	Segunda División
2014–15	La Liga, 19th (relegated)
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1989 as Almería Club de Fútbol it currently plays in Segunda División, holding home games at Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos, with a 22,000-seat capacity.

History

AD Almería was a team that played in La Liga between 1979–81, but disappeared in 1982, and was arguably UD Almería's predecessor. In 1989, a club named Almería Club de Fútbol was born, but in 2001 was renamed Unión Deportiva Almería. After playing one season in the second division, it was relegated to the third and the fourth divisions.

After spending several seasons in the second level, Almería side was first promoted to the top flight after finishing runner-up in the 2006–07 season. After some outstanding performances, the team achieved a final 8th league place in 2007–08. At the club's helm was coach Unai Emery, as striker Álvaro Negredo finished team topscorer with 13 goals.

After Emery left for Valencia CF, Gonzalo Arconada stepped in, but was sacked on 21 December 2008, after a string of poor results, albeit without ever reaching the last three. Mexican Hugo Sánchez took the job, and fared slightly better, for a final mid-table position.

In 2010–11, Almería reached the semifinals of the Copa del Rey for the first time ever. In the league, however, the club was finally relegated after a four-year spell in the top flight; in November 2010, coach Juan Manuel Lillo was fired after a 0–8 home loss against FC Barcelona (precisely the team that ousted the Andalusians in the domestic cup's last-four, with the same score, but on aggregate), and his successor José Luis Oltra met the same fate, in April 2011.

After two seasons in the second level, Almería returned to the main category of Spanish football on 22 June 2013, after defeating Girona FC in the play-offs. After the departure of manager Javi Gracia, the club appointed their former player and manager of the reserves at the time Francisco; the team eventually managed to survive in 2013–14, finishing 16th.

Francisco was sacked in December 2014, after only managing two points out of 24, and was later replaced by Juan Ignacio Martínez. "JIM" also only lasted until April of the following year, and even with new manager Sergi Barjuán, the club was relegated after finishing 19th.

Season to season

See also: List of UD Almería seasons

Season Level Division Place Copa del Rey 1989/90 5 Regional 1st 1990/91 5 Regional 3rd 1991/92 5 Regional 2nd 1992/93 4 3ª 2nd 1993/94 3 2ªB 11th 1994/95 3 2ªB 2nd 1995/96 2 2ª 16th 1996/97 2 2ª 17th 1997/98 3 2ªB 7th 1998/99 3 2ªB 18th 1999/00 4 3ª 4th 2000/01 3 2ªB 11th 2001/02 3 2ªB 3rd 2002/03 2 2ª 18th Round of 32

Season Level Division Place Copa del Rey 2003/04 2 2ª 13th Round of 32 2004/05 2 2ª 16th Second round 2005/06 2 2ª 6th First round 2006/07 2 2ª 2nd Third round 2007/08 1 1ª 8th Round of 32 2008/09 1 1ª 11th Round of 16 2009/10 1 1ª 13th Round of 32 2010/11 1 1ª 20th Semifinals 2011/12 2 2ª 7th Round of 32 2012/13 2 2ª 3rd Round of 32 2013/14 1 1ª 17th Round of 16 2014/15 1 1ª 19th Round of 16 2015/16 2 2ª — Round of 32

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• 6 seasons in La Liga
• 10 seasons in Segunda División
• 6 seasons in Segunda División B
• 2 seasons in Tercera División
• 3 seasons in Categorías Regionales

Current squad

As of 1 February 2016

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Julián Cuesta 2 DF Michel Macedo 3 DF Fran Vélez 4 DF Ximo Navarro 5 DF Carlos Cuéllar 6 DF Esteban Saveljich (on loan from Racing Club) 7 MF Iago Díaz 8 MF Mohammed Fatau (on loan from Granada) 9 FW Quique González 10 FW José Ángel Pozo 11 MF Juan Ramírez (on loan from Colorado Rapids) 12 FW Chuli

No. Position Player 13 GK Casto 14 FW Kalu Uche 15 DF Ernesto Goñi 16 DF Sebastián Dubarbier (Captain) 17 FW Antonio Puertas 18 MF Ramon Azeez 19 MF Jonathan Zongo 20 MF José Ángel 21 DF Jorge Morcillo 22 MF Iván Sánchez 25 MF Lolo Reyes (on loan from Betis)

Out on loan

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

No. Position Player  — DF Míchel Zabaco (on loan at Cultural Leonesa)

Notable players

Note: this list includes players that have appeared in at least 100 league games and/or have reached international status.

Sofiane Feghouli Hernán Bernardello Pablo Piatti Óscar Ustari Diego Valeri Diego Alves Paulo Jamelli Felipe Melo Michel Macedo Jonathan Zongo

Modeste M'bami Hans Martínez Fabián Vargas Thievy Bifouma Mate Bilić Michael Jakobsen Ferenc Horváth Tomer Hemed Sander Westerveld Ramon Azeez

Kalu Uche Diego Barreto Peque Benítez Santiago Acasiete Miguel Rebosio Hélder Barbosa Nélson Marcos Constantin Gâlcă Veljko Paunović Bruno

Álvaro Cervera Juan Cervián Corona Albert Crusat Esteban Esteban Navarro Francisco Carlos García Julio López Rekarte

Luna Mané Álvaro Negredo José Ortiz Juanma Ortiz Juan Portillo Raúl Sánchez Fernando Soriano Ángel Trujillo Verza

Aleix Vidal Henok Goitom Teerasil Dangda Julio Álvarez Ivica Barbarić

see also Category:UD Almería players

Uniform

Almería's uniform in the 2011–12 season.

Years	Manufacturers	Sponsors
2001–07	Cejudo	Obrascampo
2007–08	UDA
2008–10		None1
2010–12	Rasán	Estrella Damm
2012–	Nike

¹ The shirt contained messages such as Isla del Fraile or Corredor de Vida.

See also

• UD Almería B – Almería's B team
• AD Almería
• List of managers
• List of statistics

External links

• Official website (Spanish)
• Futbolme team profile (Spanish)
• BDFutbol team profile