Eight seasons after the bitter relegation, a historic Spanish big team returns to the top flight. Behind it are the CEO Massimo Adalberto Benassi, but also Quagliata and Mulattieri and many young people
A great story, which also brings with it a little piece of Italy. After 8 seasons Deportivo La Coruña returns to La Liga. Thanks to the 2-0 win in Valladolid with a brace from Cameroonian Canterano Bil Nsongo, the Galician team secured second place with direct promotion, after that of Racing Santander. At the Nuevo Zorrilla there were thousands of Depor fans, because the passion around Riazor’s team is enormous, and this year at home there were always between 25 and 29,000 spectators and yesterday at the Depor stadium a fan zone was opened for possible promotion. Sensational enthusiasm.
THE JOURNEY
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Deportivo left La Liga in 2018 at the end of a horrible championship, which ended with 21 defeats and just 6 victories. President Tino Fernandez dreamed of Europe and found himself in Segunda, with the club besieged by creditors and drowned in debt. And sold in 2020 to the Abanca group, the credit institution that coordinated the economic salvation operation of a historic club. The sale came 20 years after the historic conquest of La Liga, the times of SuperDepor which played in the Champions League semi-final and had become one of the 9 Spanish clubs capable of winning the championship. And on 7 August of the same 2020, with the world shaken by Covid, Deportivo fell to the third series. Four years in hell, and the return to Segunda in 2024. A year of Purgatory and finally Paradise.
ITALY
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We were talking about the little piece of Italy: Giacomo Quagliata, a 26-year-old defender taken from Cremonese after a year on loan to Catanzaro, and a valuable contribution from 25-year-old Samuele Mulattieri, a striker from Inter school and loaned in the summer by Sassuolo, are on the pitch. Off the pitch, great merit goes to Massimo Adalberto Benassi, who is only 34 years old and we had interviewed just a year ago: “I arrived at Depor in the summer of 2022 as director of the revenue area. A year later I was appointed General Director and since July 24th I have been CEO”. First the degree and Master in Sports Law in Bologna, another Master in Sport Management at the Real Madrid school, the internship at Leganes, and the move to Ibiza. A young prodigy who feels great in La Coruña.
LOCAL YOUNG PEOPLE
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And he has clear ideas. Depor has 12 Spaniards and 4 Canterani among the top 14 most used players in the championship just concluded. The star is 23-year-old Yeremay Hernandez, a product of the house in great demand in Spain and abroad: they gave him a 10 and leveraged his sense of belonging: “Here in the city the people who aren’t from Madrid or Barça, are from Depor” Benassi told us.
THE CLUB
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The coach is Antonio Hidalgo, a Catalan with a long and discreet career as a footballer and then on the bench after moving from Sabadell, from the ‘subsidiary’ of Sevilla and arriving last summer from Huesca, where he had achieved a semi-miracle. The Sports Director is Fernando Soriano, a former player and coach who Benassi met during his time in Ibiza. The president is Juan Carlos Escotet: “He avoided the club’s bankruptcy – Benassi told us -. He did it thanks to the financial institution Abanca, his main company, with a strong and clear project. He did not make an investment similar to that of other banks, which entered into equity by capitalizing loans and then selling. The president is convinced of bringing Depor back to La Liga and then to Europe”. The first step has been taken, and it is accompanied by incredible enthusiasm. Now comes the fun part. Welcome back SuperDepor.
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