Leganes Sports Club

The Club Deportivo Leganés, S. A. D. is a Spanish football club based in Leganés (Comunidad de Madrid) that currently plays in the Second Division of Spain.

The entity was founded in 1928 and did not stand out nationally until the 1992-93 season when it managed to climb to the Second Division. The debut in the Professional Soccer League also meant the transformation into a sports limited company from 1995. The club remained in the silver category for eleven consecutive years until it was relegated in 2003-04. After a decade in Segunda B, they returned to Segunda in 2014 and two years later they were promoted to the First Division as runner-up in the 2015-16 edition, in which they remained for four seasons.

History

Club Deportivo Leganés was founded on June 23, 1928 by Félix Pérez de la Serna, its first president being Ramón del Hierro, and it played its first match on July 1 of the same year. The Centro Regional Federation (now the Madrid Royal Football Federation) advanced to the Second Preferred Category in the 1930s. However, the entity had to cease its activity in 1936 due to the Spanish Civil War and remained inactive for a decade.

The team was reconstituted on September 4, 1946, the date of its registration in the Castilian Federation from the Second Ordinary Category, and from there it advanced positions until making its debut in the Third Division in the 1954-55 season. that level were not very successful, since in the 1960s the bronze category would alternate with the regional ones. The demographic growth of Leganés motivated the construction of new facilities such as the Luis Rodríguez de Miguel Municipal Field, inaugurated in 1966 and the club's headquarters for more than three decades.

The main promoter of Club Deportivo Leganés was the businessman from La Mancha Jesús Polo González, who assumed the presidency from 1978 to 2005. At the time of his arrival, the blue and white team was in the Third Division, but the growth of the city led to an investment that would give them greater potential. The flagship player in that category and the Club's first legend was Benjamín Moreno, who spent five seasons at Leganés (1980-85), with 165 games played and 52 goals scored. consolidate itself in the Castilian category, in 1986-87 it was third and was promoted to Second Division B thanks to the increase in groups. The other key man was the coach Luis Ángel Duque, who arrived at the club in the 1989-90 campaign and built a block of players who aspired to promote to the professional category.

Finally, in the 1992-93 season, they managed to be promoted to the Second Division, after finishing first in the group stage and winning a promotion against Elche, Xerez and Palencia without conceding a single defeat. The promotion was certified on 27 June 1993 against the Elche team at Luis Rodríguez de Miguel. The arrival in the Professional Football League (LFP) implied the transformation of C. D. Leganés in a sports limited company, concluded on September 21, 1995 with Jesús Polo as the largest shareholder.

Leganés spent eleven consecutive seasons in the Second Division, although the beginnings were difficult. In 1994-95 the team finished penultimate and a priori should lose the category, but it benefited from the expansion of the First Division to 22 members and the administrative relegation of Palamós. Their best position was an eighth place in 1996-97, the year in which they were on the brink of playing for the promotion. On February 14, 1998, the Butarque Municipal Stadium was inaugurated, on whose grass players like Catanha, Samuel Eto'o and Patxi Puñal could be seen before excelling in the top flight.

The 2003-04 season saw relegation in a very turbulent season: the team was acquired by an Argentine music producer, Daniel Grinbank, who formed a squad with José Pekerman as sports director, Carlos Aimar as coach, and up to sixteen South American players. The low return on investment caused Grinbank to abandon the project in winter, also discovering that the purchase had never been made official. And although Jesús Polo returned to the presidency, the poor results condemned Leganés to the bronze division.

The blue and white team focused on returning to the professional category, but the results in Segunda B were not with them. The leadership that replaced Polo, headed by local businessman Rubén Fernández as the new president, was not able to straighten the course sports and as a consequence of the economic crisis there were cases of non-payment to players, fearing even for the survival of the entity. However, in December 2008 the club was purchased by local businessman Felipe Moreno, while his wife María Victoria Pavón assumed the presidency. The new owners settled all debts, restructured the entity, and designed a plan aimed at recovering the local social mass. Although the objective continued to be promotion, Leganés had an unstable sporting career in which up to ten coaches succeeded each other in four seasons, and two eliminations in the promotion play-off as their greatest achievement.

Celebration of promotion to Leganese First Division in 2016.

The arrival in 2013 of Basque coach Asier Garitano marked a turning point for C. D. Leganes. Thanks to a style of play that prioritized defensive solidity, the "pepinero" team finished runners-up in 2013-14 and returned to the Second Division, winning L'Hospitalet in the promotion phase with a goal from Carlos' Chilean kick. Álvarez. On his return to LaLiga he finished tenth, and in the 2015-16 season he surprised by achieving direct promotion to the First Division as second classified, resolved on the last day with Pablo Insua's headed goal that gave them the victory over Mirandés. After 88 years of history, the leganenses had reached the highest level of the Spanish league system.

Leganés debuted in the First Division in 2016-17 and managed to remain four seasons in the elite. In the first two campaigns he maintained a similar block to promotion, with Asier Garitano as coach and the Argentine Martín Mantovani as captain; After making his debut with a save in the last days, in the 2017-18 campaign he improved his performance and reached the semifinals of the Copa del Rey after having eliminated Real Madrid. Garitano left the club in 2018 and was replaced by Mauricio Pellegrino, who made several signings and achieved the best "pepinera" classification in First Division with a thirteenth place. No However, in the 2019-20 season the team fell to promotion positions and that led to the departure of the Argentine coach. The situation was aggravated by the mid-term sale of Youssef En-Nesyri and Martin Braithwaite, the two stars from the squad. Despite the fact that the Mexican Javier Aguirre took the reins, Leganés could not avoid relegation on the last day. Since the 2020-21 season, the Madrid team has competed in the Second Division.

On June 23, 2022, the purchase of the club by the American investment group Blue Crow Sports, led by sports director Jeff Luhnow, became official.

Uniform

The C. D. Leganés wears a white and blue uniform with vertical stripes, with white pants and socks. The second kit is white with two vertical stripes, one green and one red. The third kit is dark blue with purple tones. The manufacturer is the Spanish company Joma and for the 2022-23 season the main sponsor is the company that owns the club, Blue Crow Sports.

The current distinctive colors were adopted in 1954, are present in the shield and are also representative of the city. The first Leganés of 1928 wore a blue and maroon shirt, later changed to a tricolor in green, white and red. When the entity was re-founded in 1946, a completely green kit was adopted, replaced eight years later by the blue and white one. Since then, green has traditionally been used for the second kit.

1928-1946

1946-1954

Actual

Infrastructure

Stadium

Panoramic of the Butarque Municipal Stadium from the rostrum.

The C. D. Leganés plays its home games at the Butarque Municipal Stadium, with capacity for 12,450 spectators and natural grass. It was inaugurated on the 14th February 1998 with an original capacity of 8,138 seats; the construction was carried out by the ACS group and the cost of 700 million pesetas was financed between the Leganés city council —owner of the facility— and the government of the Community of Madrid. After promotion to the First Division, its capacity has been increased, and a future expansion of up to 16,000 seats is planned.

The box and the press area are located in the grandstand, physically divided from the rest of the stands, which stands out for being the only covered sector. The rest of the field is divided into a side stand and two pools, the southern pool being the one for rival fans. In the surroundings is the annex field "Jesús Polo", made of artificial grass, used by grassroots football and other local teams.

Before moving to Butarque, three different enclosures have been used. In his first year he was on land ceded by the army in the Campo del Tiro, to later move to a dirt field in Plaza Roma. From 1966 to 1998 it was based in the Luis Rodríguez de Miguel stadium, with a capacity for 5,000 spectators and a dirt field that in the 1980s became natural grass. The new town hall and the Plaza Mayor of Leganés have been built on the land of the former field.

Sports facilities

Leganese C.D. Party "B" in the Butarque Sports Installation.

Since 2017, he has been training at the Butarque Sports Facility, expanded with a sports complex that has been paid for by the club. This facility has natural grass fields for training, as well as a gym, medical rooms, dining room, and parking. The main ground has a stand with 1,750 seats and is used by the subsidiary team and Juvenil A.

The rest of the lower categories play in the Butarque Annex "Jesús Polo" (artificial grass, 1,300 spectators), and grassroots football also has the municipal sports center "La Cantera" (artificial grass, 400 spectators).

Sports organization chart

Players

Among all the Leganés players for whom there are statistical records, Miguel Ángel is both the top scorer and the one who has played the most games. More than 550 footballers have been part of the entity since its debut in Second Division B in the 1987-88 season.

The foreign footballer with the most games for Leganés is the Argentine Martín Mantovani, a total of 150 in five seasons. It is considered that the first foreigner of the team was the Bosnian striker Nebojša Gudelj in the 1996-97 edition, and the following year others such as Andréi Moj, Catanha, Teixeira and a very young Samuel Eto'o arrived on loan from Real Madrid. The Leganés squads have been made up mostly of Spanish footballers except in the 2003-04 season, when Daniel Grinbank hired 16 South American footballers: fifteen Argentines and one Chilean. This was possible because the only non-EU citizen was Fede Domínguez and the rest had dual European nationality, applying the Bosman law.

The most expensive signing in the club's history was that of striker Youssef En-Nesyri in 2018, for which just over 5 million euros were paid to Málaga Club de Fútbol, followed by midfielder José Manuel Arnaiz Díaz also in 2018 and of Martin Braithwaite and Kenneth Omeruo in 2019, for which 5 million euros were paid, and the hiring of the midfielder Luis Perea in 2020 for three million euros to Club Atlético Osasuna, from the Greek center-back Dimitrios Siovas in 2017, for which 2.7 million euros were paid to Olympiacos, from the Argentine Ezequiel Muñoz (1.5 million) in 2017 and from the Ivorian Mamadou Koné (1.3 million) in 2016. On the other hand, the highest sales have been those of Youssef En-Nesyri for 20 million euros to Sevilla F.C., Martin Braithwaite for 18 million euros to F.C. Barcelona, Diego Rico for 15 million euros to A.F.C. Bournemouth, the sale of the rights of Thomas Partey in different years (despite not having played with the club) for a total of 11 million, the transfer of Gabriel Appelt to Benfica for 10 million euros, the joint sale of Sergio Pachón and Antonio López to Real Valladolid C. F. for 400 million pesetas in 2000, Alfredo Sánchez Benito's to Club Atlético Osasuna for 100 million pesetas, Erik Morán's (300,000 euros to AEK Athens) and Sergio Postigo (130,000 euros to Spezia Calcio).

As for international soccer players, the first to be called up by their country while they were at the club have been Adrián Marín with the Spanish under-21, Carl Medjani with the Algerian absolute, and Darwin Machís with Venezuela.

Squad and coaching staff

Leganese Sports Club Template of the Season 2023/24

Players	Technical body		More used tactical scheme
N.o Nac. Pass. Pos. Name Age Eq. provenance Cont. INT. Porteros 1 ESP! 0BY "Dani" Jimenez 33 years A. D. Alcorcón 2024 13 ESP! 0BY Asier Risk 39 years Girona F. C. 2023 25 ESP! 0BY "Javi" Belman 24 years C. F. Fuenlabrada 2023 - ESP! 0BY Diego Conde 24 years Getafe C.F. 2025 Defense 2 CMR! 1DEF Allan Nyom 35 years Getafe C. F. 2024 4 NGR! 1DEF Kenneth Omeruo 29 years Chelsea F.C. 2024 Absolute 5 ESP! 1DEF "Josema" Sánchez 27 years Elche C. F. 2025 Sub-17 6 ESP! 1DEF Sergio González 31 years C. D. Mirandés 2024 21 ESP! 1DEF Jorge Miramón 34 years Levante U. D. 2024 33 ESP! 1DEF "Lalo" Aguilar 21 years Formed in the quarry 2023 - GHA! 1DEF Félix Ofoli 22 years Formed in the quarry 2025 - Spain! 1DEF "Javi" Hernández 25 years Real Madrid 2024 Campers 8 JPN! 2MED Gaku Shibasaki 31 years Deportivo de La Coruña 2023 Absolute 14 ESP! 2MED "Fede" Vico 28 years Grenada C. F. 2023 17 ESP! 2MED "Dani" Raba 27 years Grenada C. F. 2024 18 ESP! 2MED Ruben Pardo 30 years Girondins de Bordeaux 2023 20 ESP! 2MED Iker Undabarrena 28 years C. D. Tondela 2024 32 GUI! 2MED Seydouba Cissé 22 years Formed in the quarry 2026 Absolute 37 ESP! 2MED Sergio Navarro 22 years Formed in the quarry 2023 - ESP! 2MED Javier Avilés 25 years Formed in the quarry 2026 - ESP! 2MED Naím García 21 years Formed in the quarry 2027 - Spain! 2MED Luis Perea 25 years C. A. Osasuna 2025 - BRA! 2MED William De Camargo 24 years Formed in the quarry 2023 Delanteros 9 MAR! 3OF THE Yacine Qasmi 32 years Rayo Vallecano 2023 11 ESP! 3OF THE Juan Muñoz 27 years A. D. Alcorcón 2023 - ESP! 3OF THE Diego García 23 years Formed in the quarry 2025 - ESP! 3OF THE "Manu" Garrido 23 years Formed in the quarry 2024 Cessions N.o Nac. Pass. Pos. Name N. Age Eq. provenance Lost to	Coach(s) Borja Jiménez Deputy(s) Iván Sánchez Physical Preparer(s) Juan Piñero Coach(s) of porters "Juanjo" Valencia Assistant(s) / Analyst(s) Ander Murillo Delegate(s) David Monjo Physical therapist(s) Carlos Carballo Sergio Hontoria Alvaro Crespo Doctor(s) Alberto Lam Legend Captain Mission quarry (club-trained) Training (association-trained) European passport Aliens Extracommunity without restriction Lost to the club Granted to another club Discarded / No chip Updated on 12 April 2023 Official web template		4-2-3-1 ESP! BY 13 DEF 2 DEF 6 DEF 3 DEF MED 8 OF THE 19 MED 20 MED 21 MED 10 MED 32 Incorporation 2023-24 Filials with participation "Lalo" Aguilar (27 March 2023) Sergio Navarro (9 April 2023)

Technical staff

The sports organization chart of the C. D. Leganés has a technical secretariat, in charge of managing transfers, and a coach who deals with all sports aspects. The current sports director is "Txema" Indias, while the position of coach is held by Borja Jiménez. The coach who has been in charge of the team for the most seasons is Luis Ángel Duque, more than 300 games in three stages: from 1990 to 1995, including the first promotion to the Second Division; in the 2005-06 edition, and again in 2009-10. He has also been the sports manager between 2006 and 2010. On the other hand, it is considered that the most successful blue and white coach has been Asier Garitano. From his arrival in 2013 until his departure in 2018, the club went from playing in Second B to chaining two seasons in the First Division. In his two stages as a pepinero coach, he ranks as the second coach with the most games led, with 258.

Lower Categories

The main subsidiary is Club Deportivo Leganés "B", which has played in group V of the RFEF Second Division since 2021. It was founded in 1959 as an independent team called "Agrupacion Deportiva Legamar", but the June 4, 1991, it was absorbed under the presidency of Jesús Polo. In the 1995-96 and 1997-98 editions, it came to play in the Second Division B (equivalent to the First Federation). Since 2016-17 there is a third team, the Club Deportivo Leganés "C", which plays in the First Regional of the Community of Madrid.

Below are the lower categories, ranging from 13 to 18 years old. Its greatest exponent is the Juvenil "A" who competes in group V of the Juvenile Honor Division. In total there are three youth teams, three in Cadet, three in Infantil, three in Alevín, two in Benjamin and one in prebenjamín. There is a women's soccer team, although it has no professional consideration. The grassroots football director is Jorge Broto.

As part of its grassroots football policy, the entity has managed a Football School since 2010 with more than 600 students from 4 to 18 years of age, divided into 40 teams, and which is recognized by the Royal Football Federation from Madrid. In addition to instructing children in the practice of this sport, it aims to help them in their integration, learning and growth..

Club details

Board of Directors

María Victoria Pavón, President of the Club between 2008 and 2022 and the wife of the maximum shareholder, Felipe Moreno, in 2016.

• Jeffrey A. Luhnow, Counsellor-vocal President.
• Juan Antonio Ortiz Bernal, Counsellor-vocal.
• Juan Porras Pedraza, Counsellor-vocal.
• Winston Lacayo, Counselor-vocal.
• Richard Hojel, Counselor-vocal.
• Alfredo Garzón Vicente, secretary not advisor.

Organizational chart of the Club

• Jeff Luhnow, president.
• Eduardo Cosín, vice president.
• Martin Ortega, general director.
• Txema Indias, sports director.
• Jorge Broto, base football.
• Victor Marín, communication.
• David Monjo, delegate.

Shareholding

• Blue Crow Sports Group: 99.1%.
• Other minority shareholders: 0.9%.

Trajectory

Honours of Prizes

National tournaments

Friendly tournaments

Individual awards

• Trophy Miguel Muñoz: Asier Garitano (2016, 2017).

Symbols

Anthem

The team's official anthem, called «Homage to Leganés», was composed and premiered in 1992. Its creation is attributed to Mariano Sánchez Maroto, a supporter of the club, with music by Óscar Núñez and Regino's voice, all natives of the town. Despite the fact that none of them were professional musicians, the gap was filled through this popular initiative.

In 2015 a new anthem was released, «Siempre seremos el Lega», composed by the poet Santiago Gómez and performed by the flamenco rumba group Aldeskuido, natives of the Zarzaquemada neighborhood. The anthem The traditional one continues to sound at the start of each game, while the new one is put on after the final whistle.

Shield

The Leganés shield has a triangular shape. The description "Sports Club" is included in the upper part, while in the lower part there is a triumphal crown and the name of the city. Inside the coat of arms there is a roel in azure and argen, adorned with a marquis crown that represents the marquis of Leganés.

The ensign is an adaptation of the shield established in the 1946 refoundation, although the original was made of sinople and argen.

Rivalries

On a sporting level, the team maintains a rivalry with Getafe Club de Fútbol, a nearby municipality seven kilometers away, with which they dispute the so-called "Derbi del sur de Madrid". The first official match took place in 1946, when both clubs were part of the regional divisions, and it has been held in different categories until reaching the highest division of Spanish football, where they met for the first time in the 2017-18 season.