If Leicester’s adventure winning the Premier League last year captivated the planet, Villarreal’s story has amazed all European soccer for almost twenty years. And we are not talking about a Cinderella fairytale. Because Villarreal’s run is not a matter of one precious night (season). It is the tale of a very modest club fighting head-to-head with soccer powerhouses for more than three lustrums, which has no precedent in Spanish sports history. 

For those who are not familiar with it, Villarreal is an inside town of the Castellón province, 40 miles away from Valencia, that has a population of 50,000 people. Its soccer team, which uniform is completely yellow, had not gone beyond Second Division B on its first 70 years of existence. After being promoted to Second Division A in 1992, the squad remained there six season until making the big jump to Spain’s First Division with a lucky bounce. Villarreal finished fourth and played a playoff home-and-away matchup with Compostela, winning it after two draws thanks to score more away goals than its opponent.

Very few thought success was going to last for The Yellow Submarine –as the Spanish media started calling the team after it reached the top division- especially when it was relegated back to Second Division at the end of its first season at La Liga. But it only took Villarreal one year to comeback and this time for good to the First Division.  

After four years of survival at La Liga, the club signed as coach from River Plate Chilean Manuel Pellegrini in 2004. He turned things around immediately.  After finishing in third place in La Liga, Villarreal qualified for the first time to participate in the Champions League, where it shocked everybody. Under the guidance of Argentinean midfielder Juan Román Riquelme, who found his home at this modest club after a troubled tenure at Barcelona, Villarreal upset many of Europe’s top teams, including Inter Milan until reaching the semifinals. The images of Italian fans walking through orange fields while going to the town’s stadium El Madrigal made most of the continent’s TV news shows. In the semifinals, Villarreal suffered a cruel elimination in the hands of Arsenal after Riquelme missed a key penalty kick in the second game.

The architect of Villarreal’s success is ceramic entrepreneur Fernando Roig, who bought the club majority stocks in the 1997-1998 season. The owner grew the club step by step, not allowing a night success becoming the next morning failure. Under Roig’s leadership El Madrigal was rebuilt to a capacity of 25,000 (half of the town’s population) and a 70,000 square meter Sports City was built to host young Spanish and Latin American players with excellent potential. 

The club’s biggest achievement has been having the strength to get up rapidly after falling. When Coach Pellegrini left headed to Real Madrid, Villarreal reinvented itself to find stability under Marcelino García Toral. After his departure early this season, Francisco Escribá was signed to coach the team and the club performance remained the same. Other tough test was when Villarreal was surprisingly relegated to Second Division in 2012, but the club kept its composure and came back right away to La Liga the next year. 

Villarreal has been the springboard for excellent players who have succeeded in top European teams, like Santi Cazorla or Uruguayan center back Diego Godín. But it also has been a great development squad for hometown players, who still excel at El Madrigal, like midfielder Bruno Soriano, who was recently call to play with Spain’s National Team.  

La Liga’s current season is very even. After nine weeks, five teams were at the top within two points. In the quintet we could find powerhouses Real Madrid and Barcelona, two squads that recently climbed to the top of Spanish and European soccer, Sevilla and Atlético Madrid, and undefeated Villarreal.

When referring to La Liga, do not make a mistake. Talking about the great ships plowing through Spain’s soccer waters, do not forget to include a team that has emerged from the depths known as The Yellow Submarine.