Everything You Need to Know About Elche
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Elche are a club that came so close to glory in one moment of their history and have also suffered severe financial crises. Elche have a ‘yoyo’ relationship with La Liga since the late 1950s and returned to the top-flight this season.
Name: Elche Club de Futbol
Nicknamed: ‘The Green-striped ones’ and ‘The Ones from Elche’
Founded: 1923
Stadium: Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero. Capacity, 33,732.
Noteworthy Former Players: Gonzalo Villar, Alvaro Gimenez, Chema.
Manager: Jorge Almiron. Almiron wasn’t very well known as a player, spending most of his career in Mexico, predominantly as a defensive midfielder for Morelia. As a manager, Almiron hadn’t been in charge of a European club until Elche offered him the position of manager in 2020. In his native homeland of Argentina, Almiron managed some very famous clubs, which include Independiente and San Lorenzo, but his most recent job was with Al-Shabab of Saudi Arabia. Almiron claimed the Argentine Primera Division, Copa del Bicenteario and the Supercopa Argentina in 2016 as manager of Lanus.
History
Elche, like so many other teams around the world, were formed when multiple local clubs joined forces to create one team. Elche started out in the third tier in 1929 but soon earned promotion to the second division.
Elche competed in their first ever La Liga campaign in 1959/60, where they finished 10th out of 16 clubs and avoided relegation. In 1963/64 the club finished 5th in La Liga, just a point off the Cup Winners’ Cup position. The club came so close to glory in 1969 when they made it through to the Copa del Rey final, only to lose 1-0 to Athletic Club.
Elche were relegated in 1989 and struggled with their finances, eventually being relegated to the newly created Segunda Division B (third tier) in 1991. Elche earned promotions and relegation from the third to the second tier during the 1990s and eventually established themselves back in the second division in the late 90s.
Sadly, during the 2014/15 season, Elche became the first Spanish club to be relegated due to not paying tax. Thankfully, the club managed to sort their finances out and returned to La Liga via the play-offs in 2019/20.
As Things Stand
Elche have been sat in the relegation zone for large parts of the 2020/21 campaign but remain hopeful of avoiding the drop. The club currently sit 19th in the table on 17pts, 2pts off safety. However, Elche have two games in hand over all of the teams in and around the relegation zone and this could prove key to their survival.
Fidel and Josan Ferrandez have put in some key performances from midfield, chipping in with 4 league goals apiece. The club have been let down a little by their strikers, with Boye scoring just 3 times in 16 appearances this season. Elche have a tricky home game against Villarreal this weekend, but a win could see them move out of the relegation places.
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