Perfect climb
After eight years: traditional club back in the first league
May 24, 2026 – 10:01 p.mReading time: 1 min.
One game day before the end of the season, a club with a great history completes its return to the top division of its country. One player becomes the match winner.
Eight years after relegation, Deportivo La Coruña returns to the Spanish La Liga. The team owes its decisive away win at Real Valladolid primarily to a 21-year-old: Bil Nsongo scored twice.
Nsongo scored his goals in the 11th and 34th minutes. One game day before the end of the season, Deportivo is in second place – and can no longer be displaced from this position.
The club looks back on an eventful history. In 2000, Deportivo won the Spanish championship. Four years later, the club reached the Champions League semi-finals and lost to eventual winners FC Porto. In the 2018/19 season, they were relegated to the second division, and in the 2020/21 season even to the third division. The team from the port city only needed two seasons in the second division to return.
Racing Santander is promoted together with Deportivo. The club returns to the Spanish top flight after a 13-year absence and leads the table by two points over Deportivo. Santander was also third-rate for a time and, like Deportivo, is a founding member of the Spanish championship round of 1928/29. The third promoted team will be determined by the teams in third to sixth place in promotion playoffs.
