Levante UD
Pedro Villarroel | manager =
López Caro | league =
La Liga |
season = 2005-06 |
position =
Segunda División,
3rd |
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Levante Unión Deportiva is a
football club that has won promotion to the
Primera División (First Division) of the
Spanish Football League for the
2006–
2007 season after finishing 3rd in the
Segunda División (Second Division).
Levante UD, or
Llevant UE to give the team its name in the
Valencian language, is the second team of the city of
Valencia, Spain.
Always in the shadows of
Valencia, CF, Levante has been around since the early
1900s and originally played in their modest stadium Campo de Vallejo. In the early
1970s they moved into their current stadium, the 25,354 seater Ciudad de Valencia.
Before 2004, Levante UD had only been in the First Division for two seasons (
1963–
1964 and
1964–
1965), although they came very close in
2003. The two most illustrious players to play for the team are
Johan Cruijff and
Caszely. Levante fans are known as
Granotes, or
frogs.
After gaining promotion, Levante had a positive start to the season, quickly gathering several points to challenge among the top ten for the first half of their season. But things went suddenly downhill as the season went on. A poor run of form saw them slip alarmingly down the pecking order until they found themselves needing a win to stay up on the last day. They didn't get it, and were relegated straight back down again, a surprise considering their earlier form.
Levante won its ticket to return to Spanish first division (La Liga) afer winning their last game of the season against Lleida on June 17, 2006. This means Levante will return to the top division only one year afer being relegated to second division. The four largest cities of Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla) will each have two clubs in the golden division, which will make for exciting derbies in each of those cities.
The numbers are established according to the official website:www.levanteud.com and www.lfp.es
As of
February 1 2006
Squad changes during 2006/07 season
In:
* Manolo - Signed From UD Almería
* Nino - Signed From Elche CF
* Déhu - Signed From Olympique de Marseille
* Laurent Robert - Signed From SL Benfica
* Tommasi - Signed From A.S. Roma
* Cesar - Signed From Deportivo de La Coruña
* Alvaro - Signed From Real Zaragoza
* Meyong - Signed From CF Os Belenenses
Out
* Javi Rodriguez - On Loan To Lorca Deportiva
* Ceballos - Transferred To Ciudad de Murcia
* Lombardi - Return To Paraná Clube
* Edwin Congo - Released
* Culebras - Transferred To CD Tenerife
* Sandro - Transferred To Málaga CF
* Jesule - Transferred To Málaga CF
* Nagore - Transferred To Málaga CF''
*
Levante UD Official Website
