UD Almería

History

The first football club in Almería was founded in 1909: el Almería Foot-Ball Club. Since then, several Almería football clubs appeared and disappeared. One of them was AD Almería, a team that played in La Liga between 1979 and 1981, but disappeared in 1982, and was arguably UD Almería's predecessor.

In 1989, a club named Almería Club de Fútbol was born, but in 2001 was renamed Unión Deportiva Almería. On 19 January 2001 the mayor of Almería Santiago Martínez Cabrejas announced in the city council that the new club UD Almería had been formed after the merger of two city teams - Polideportivo Almería and Almería CF. But UD Almería was not official until 28 June 2001, when Almería CF approved at the General Meeting of Shareholders the renaming. After playing one season in the second division, it was relegated to the third and the fourth divisions.

After spending several seasons in the second level, Almería side was first promoted to the top flight after finishing runner-up in the 2006–07 season. After some outstanding performances, as the away win against Deportivo de La Coruña 3–0 in the first La Liga match, the team achieved a final 8th league place in 2007–08. At the club's helm was coach Unai Emery, as striker Álvaro Negredo finished team topscorer with 13 goals.

After Emery left for Valencia CF, Gonzalo Arconada stepped in, but was sacked on 21 December 2008, after a string of poor results, albeit without ever reaching the last three. Mexican Hugo Sánchez took the job, and fared slightly better, for a final mid-table position.

In 2010–11, Almería reached the semifinals of the Copa del Rey for the first time ever. In the league, however, the club was finally relegated after a four-year spell in the top flight; in November 2010, coach Juan Manuel Lillo was fired after a 0–8 home loss against FC Barcelona (precisely the team that ousted the Andalusians in the domestic cup's last-four, with the same score, but on aggregate), and his successor José Luis Oltra met the same fate, in April 2011. He was replaced by Roberto Olabe.

After two seasons in the second level, Almería returned to the main category of Spanish football on 22 June 2013, after defeating Girona FC in the play-offs. After the departure of manager Javi Gracia, the club appointed their former player and manager of the reserves at the time Francisco Javier Rodríguez Vílchez; the team eventually managed to survive in 2013–14, finishing 16th.

Francisco was sacked in December 2014, after only managing two points out of 24, and was later replaced by Juan Ignacio Martínez. "JIM" also only lasted until April of the following year, and even with new manager Sergi Barjuán, the club was relegated after finishing 19th.

In the 2018–19 season, Almería finally escaped the tough fight for the permanence in Segunda División until the last matches as during 3 previous seasons. This time they were closer to the promotion play-offs to La Liga, and finished 10th from 22 teams participated.

On 2 August 2019, Turki Al-Sheikh became the owner of the club, replacing Alfonso García Gabarrón. He appointed Mohamed El Assy as general director, Dario Drudi as sporting director, who replaced Miguel Ángel Corona, and manager Óscar Fernández was replaced by Pedro Emanuel. On 5 November 2019, it was announced Guti replaced Emanuel. On 26 June 2020, he was ceased and replaced by Mario Silva, who was himself replaced by José Gomes on 27 July.

In August 2021, UD Almería (Mohamed El Assy) and the () agreed to a lease on the operation of the municipally owned Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos for a 25-year period. In June 2022, the club achieved promotion to the first division by sealing a 1st position in the table, respectively, on the very last match day of the season, after spending seven years in the second tier.

In the 2023–24 season, UD Almería started the season with record of 28 league games without a win between 11 August 2023 to 11 March 2024. At last, the club secured a victory against Las Palmas οn 17 March 2024. However, they were relegated to second division after a 1–3 loss to Getafe on 27 April 2024, ending their two-year stay in top tier.

In May 2025, UD Almería underwent a significant ownership change, with Saudi investment consortium SMC Group, led by Mohammed Al-Khereiji, acquiring the club from Turki Al-Sheikh.

Season to season

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• 8 seasons in La Liga
• 18 seasons in Segunda División
• 6 seasons in Segunda División B
• 2 seasons in Tercera División
• 3 seasons in Categorías Regionales

Players

Reserve team

Main article: UD Almería B

Other players under contract

Out on loan

Technical staff

Notable players

Note: this list includes players that have appeared in at least 100 league games and/or have reached international status.

• ALG Sofiane Feghouli
• ARG Hernán Bernardello
• ARG Pablo Piatti
• ARG Óscar Ustari
• ARG Diego Valeri
• BRA Diego Alves
• BRA Paulo Jamelli
• BRA Felipe Melo
• BRA Michel Macedo
• BFA Jonathan Zongo
• CMR Modeste M'bami
• CHI Hans Martínez
• CHI Lorenzo Reyes
• COL Fabián Vargas
• COL Luis Suárez
• CGO Thievy Bifouma
• CRO Mate Bilić
• DEN Michael Jakobsen
• EQG Sena
• ERI Henok Goitom
• GHA Iddrisu Baba
• HUN Ferenc Horváth
• ISR Tomer Hemed
• MLI Ibrahima Koné
• NED Sander Westerveld
• NGA Ramon Azeez
• NGA Kalu Uche
• PAR Diego Barreto
• PAR Peque Benítez
• PER Santiago Acasiete
• PER Miguel Rebosio
• POR Hélder Barbosa
• POR Nélson Marcos
• ROM Constantin Gâlcă
• SCG Veljko Paunović
• SEN Dion Lopy
• SRB Srđan Babić
• ESP Bruno
• ESP Álvaro Cervera
• ESP Juan Cervián
• ESP Corona
• ESP Albert Crusat
• ESP Esteban
• ESP Esteban Navarro
• ESP Fernando
• ESP Francisco
• ESP Carlos García
• ESP Julio
• ESP López Rekarte
• ESP Luna
• ESP Mané
• ESP Álvaro Negredo
• ESP José Ortiz
• ESP Juanma Ortiz
• ESP Juan Portillo
• ESP Raúl Sánchez
• ESP Fernando Soriano
• ESP Ángel Trujillo
• ESP Verza
• ESP Aleix Vidal
• THA Teerasil Dangda
• VEN Julio Álvarez
• URU Darwin Núñez
• YUG Ivica Barbarić

World Cup players

The following players have been selected by their country in the World Cup Finals, while playing for Almería.

• NGA Kalu Uche (2010)
• NGA Ramon Azeez (2014)
• SRB Srđan Babić (2022)

Uniform

1 The shirt contained messages such as Isla del Fraile or Corredor de Vida.

Honours

• Segunda División
  • Champions (1): 2021–22

References

References

1. "Estadio Juegos del Mediterráneo". UD Almería.
2. (2007). "Un club joven con un gran futuro". UD Almeria SAD.
3. "Estadio Juegos del Mediterráneo". UDA Almeria SAD.
4. "Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos". [[Ideal (newspaper).
5. (28 May 2017). "1909: el año en el que nace el primer club de fútbol almeriense". Ideal.
6. "La historia del Club {{!}} Almería - Web Oficial".
7. Europa Press. (1 July 2008). "Gonzalo Arconada firma como nuevo entrenador del Almería para las dos próximas temporadas". [[Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española]].
8. EFE. (21 December 2008). "Gonzalo Arconada, destituido como entrenador del Almería". [[Grupo Joly]].
9. EFE. (20 November 2010). "Juan Manuel Lillo es destituido como entrenador del Almería". [[20 Minutos]].
10. Europa Press. (23 November 2010). "Lillo se despide, junto a sus ayudantes, de la plantilla del Almería". [[Unidad Editorial]].
11. (25 November 2010). "El Almería se encomienda a Oltra". [[Vocento]].
12. EFE. (5 April 2011). "La UD Almería destituye a José Luis Oltra para salvarse en ocho jornadas". [[Cadena SER]].
13. EFE. (5 April 2011). "Roberto Olabe sustituye a José Luis Oltra como técnico de la UD Almería". Titania Compañía Editorial, S.L..
14. (29 June 2013). "Francisco Javier Rodríguez, nuevo entrenador del Almería". Editorial Ecoprensa, S.A..
15. (2013–2014). "2013/14 Spanish Liga BBVA Table / Table". [[ESPN FC]].
16. (2013–2014). "Clasificación Liga BBVA - Temporada 2013/2014.Jornada 7". [[Liga BBVA]].
17. Espino, Rafa. (9 December 2014). "El Almería destituye a Francisco". [[AS (newspaper).
18. Europa Press. (11 December 2014). "Juan Ignacio Martínez, nuevo entrenador del Almería hasta final de temporada". [[20 Minutos]].
19. Europa Press. (5 April 2015). "El Almería destituye a Juan Ignacio Martínez". [[La Voz de Galicia]].
20. EFE. (6 April 2015). "Sergi Barjuán, nuevo entrenador del Almería". Grupo La Información.
21. "Clasificación Liga BBVA". [[Liga BBVA]].
22. (27 May 2015). "El Almería retira el recurso y acaba la Liga con 29 puntos". Prensa Ibérica.
23. "2018-2019 La Liga 2 Stats".
24. Góngora, Rafa. (2 August 2019). "Turki Al-Sheikh ya es el dueño del Almería". [[La Voz de Almería]].
25. (2 August 2019). "Su excelencia Turki Al-Sheikh, nuevo propietario de la UD Almería". [[Unión Deportiva Almería]].
26. (2 August 2019). "Pedro Emanuel, Darío Drudi, Mohamed El Assy, los hombres fuertes del proyecto de Al-Sheihk". [[Joly Digital]].
27. Góngora, Rafa. (2 August 2019). "Pedro Emanuel sería el nuevo entrenador del Almería". [[La Voz de Almería]].
28. de Rivas, Eduardo. (5 November 2019). "Guti, nuevo entrenador del Almería". [[Vocento]].
29. (26 June 2020). "Guti, cesado como entrenador del Almería". [[Sport.es]].
30. Aguilera, Juanjo. (26 June 2020). "Mario Silva dirige la primera sesión de trabajo post-'Guti'". [[Vocento]].
31. (9 August 2021). "La UD Almería da el primer paso para la construcción de su estadio "Champions"".
32. (27 April 2024). "1-3: UD Almería get relegated to Segunda Division as they lost to Getafe CF". UD Almería.
33. (17 May 2025). "Almeria's future in Saudi hands after ownership shift". BeSoccer.
34. "Plantilla Unión Deportiva Almería SAD - Jugadores".