Valencia CF

Valencia
Full nameValencia Club de Fútbol, S.A.D.
Nickname(s)Los Ches[1]
Short nameValencia, VCF
Founded18 March 1919; 105 years ago (1919-03-18) (as Valencia Foot-ball Club)
Ground Mestalla
Capacity49,430[2]
OwnerPeter Lim
PresidentLay Hoon Chan
Head coachRubén Baraja
LeagueLa Liga
2023–24La Liga, 9th of 20
Websitevalenciacf.com
Current season

Valencia Club de Fútbol (Spanish: [baˈlenθja ˈkluβ ðe ˈfuðβol]; Valencian: València Club de Futbol [vaˈlensi.a ˈklub de fubˈbɔl]),[3] commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia), is a Spanish professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the Spanish league system. Valencia was founded in 1919 and has played its home games at the 49,430-seater Mestalla since its opening.[2]

Valencia has won six Spanish League titles, eight Copa del Rey titles, one Supercopa de España, and one Copa Eva Duarte. In European competitions, they have won two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, one UEFA Cup, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, two UEFA Super Cups, and one UEFA Intertoto Cup. They have also reached two consecutive UEFA Champions League finals (2000 and 2001). Valencia were also members of the G-14 group of leading European football clubs and since its end has been part of the original members of the European Club Association. In total, Valencia have reached seven major European finals, winning four of them.

Historically one of the biggest clubs in the world in terms of number of associates (registered paying supporters), with around 50,000 season ticket holders[4] at their peak, the club began to decline in the mid-2010s. Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim acquired the team in 2014.[5][6]

Over the years, the club has achieved a global reputation for their prolific youth academy, or "Acadèmia." Products of their academy include world-class talents such as Raúl Albiol, Javier Farinos, David Albelda, Vicente Rodríguez, Gaizka Mendieta and David Silva. Current stars of the game to have graduated in recent years include Isco, Jordi Alba, Juan Bernat, José Gayà, Carlos Soler, Ferran Torres, and Lee Kang-in.

  1. ^ "Why are the Valencia players called 'Ches'?". La Liga. Archived from the original on 9 November 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  2. ^ a b "About Mestalla". Valencia CF. 11 March 2019. Archived from the original on 2 July 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  3. ^ Valencia CF history in Valencian (named València CF in article) Archived 27 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine,
  4. ^ EFE (11 November 2008). "El club roza los 50.000 socios tras la nueva campaña de abonos". Superdeporte (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
  5. ^ Baillif, Elias. "Institution bafouée et résistance : Valence est-il (ir)récupérable ?". Eurosport. Archived from the original on 5 March 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  6. ^ "'An abandoned club' - the staggering decline of Valencia". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 9 February 2023.