Ud Almería

Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as Almería Club de Fútbol until 2001, when it was renamed Unión Deportiva Almería. The club currently plays in the Spanish Primera División after winning the Segunda División title in 2022, and plays their home games at the 17,400-seat capacity Power Horse Stadium.

Almería

Full name	Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D.
Nickname(s)	Rojiblancos La Unión Almeriensistas UDA Indálicos
Founded	26 July 1989; 34 years ago (1989-07-26) as Almería Club de Fútbol
Ground	Power Horse Stadium
Capacity	17,400
Owner	Turki Al-Sheikh
President	Turki Al-Sheikh
Head coach	Pepe Mel
League	La Liga
2022–23	La Liga, 17th of 20
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

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 1979–81, 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 Ayuntamiento de Almería [es] (Ramón Fernández-Pacheco Monterreal [es]) 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.

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

As of 5 February 2024.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK   ESP Diego Mariño 3 DF   ESP Edgar González 4 MF   GHA Iddrisu Baba (on loan from Mallorca) 5 MF   ARG Lucas Robertone 6 MF   SEN Dion Lopy 7 MF   BEL Largie Ramazani 8 MF   ESP Jonathan Viera 9 FW   COL Luis Suárez 10 MF   ESP Adrián Embarba 11 MF   ESP Gonzalo Melero 12 FW   BRA Léo Baptistão 13 GK   ESP Fernando Martínez 15 FW   HON Choco Lozano (on loan from Getafe)

No. Pos. Nation Player 16 DF   SRB Aleksandar Radovanović 17 DF   ESP Alejandro Pozo 18 DF   ESP Marc Pubill 19 MF   ESP Sergio Arribas 20 DF   ESP Álex Centelles 21 DF   ESP Chumi 22 DF   MEX César Montes 23 FW   MLI Ibrahima Koné 24 DF   MOZ Bruno Langa (on loan from Chaves) 25 GK   POR Luís Maximiano (on loan from Lazio) 29 FW   SRB Marko Milovanović 38 FW   ARG Luka Romero (on loan from AC Milan)

Reserve team

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 26 MF   ESP Marcos Peña 27 DF   ESP Paco Sanz 29 FW   MAR Rachad Fettal

No. Pos. Nation Player 30 DF   ESP Carlos Ballestero 32 DF   ESP Miguel Peñalver 37 GK   ESP Bruno Iribarne

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF   ESP Arnau Solà (at Cartagena until 30 June 2024) — DF   BRA Kaiky (at Albacete until 30 June 2024) — DF   GNB Houboulang Mendes (at Mirandés until 30 June 2024) — MF   POR Gui Guedes (at Porto B until 30 June 2024) — MF   SVK Martin Šviderský (at Murcia until 30 June 2024)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF   ESP Arnau Puigmal (at Elche until 30 June 2024) — MF   BRA Lázaro (at Palmeiras until 30 June 2024) — FW   ENG Arvin Appiah (at Rotherham United until 30 June 2024) — FW   ESP Carlos Rojas (at Murcia until 30 June 2024) — FW   GNB Marciano Sanca (at Alcorcón until 30 June 2024)

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

World Cup players

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

 

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

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

• UD Almería B – Almería's B team
• AD Almería
• List of managers
• List of statistics

 

Wiki Commons has media related to UD Almería.

• Official website (in Spanish)
• Futbolme team profile (in Spanish)
• BDFutbol team profile
• Almeria on kouragoal site