With the final whistle at the RCDE Stadium the curtain was drawn on the 2022-23 LaLiga Santander season. there were tears in Valladolid and euphoria in Almería in the eternal and arduous fight for permanence. Barcelona won the national championship four years later, while the Pucelanos fell to LaLiga SmartBank along with Elche and Espanyol. An atypical campaign, not without controversy, with moments to remember conditioned in advance by a world intraseason, that of Qatar, which paralyzed the championship for the first time in history during the months of November and December.
Yamal and Veiga, ‘remember the name’
The permanence of Celta de Vigo has names and surnames, beyond Iago Aspas. The Príncipe de las Bateas demanded quality from Luís Campos and ended up arriving from A Madroa: Gabri Veiga. Since the brilliant appearance of Sergio Canales with Racing Santander in 2008, no one with such a sporting footprint was remembered, as attested to by his eleven goals and four assists. A little less than the moañés, to put it in perspective. Although if we talk about generational debut, the name is Lamine Yamal Nasraouri Ebana. The chosen one of La Masía. At 15 years and 290 days, he became the youngest player to debut for Barcelona in its entire history and the fifth in LaLiga Santander after Luka Romero, Sansón, Irastorza and Pellicer.
Iñaki Williams is human
Almost seven years later, the name of the now international striker for Ghana did not appear in the starting eleven that the Athletic Club used on the occasion of the visit to Celta de Vigo this past January 29. A muscular overload in the hamstrings caused ernesto valverde will send it to its least natural habitat: the bench. A match had not started there since it did against Atlético de Madrid, in San Mamés, on April 20, 2016.
The poker of Taty Castellanos to Madrid
There are games that can change the life of a player and the one against Girona against Real Madrid could have been for Taty Castellanos. The Argentine striker became known to the whole world after a stellar performance against the whites. The ‘9’ made history and scored four goals in the win in Montilivi against Carlo Ancelotti’s team. He became the sixth player to score four goals against real Madrid in the same game in the entire history of La Liga and the first to do so since December 21, 1947 (Esteban Echevarría with Real Oviedo). A duel of his career.
Vinicius, heads and tails
The star that he imagined real Madrid It is already an undeniable reality. Even beyond. From being meme meat to unleashing storms in his band in each game. On the field, with another service sheet to frame, sporting 23 goals and 21 assists and overtaking Benzema as a reference, but also outside of it. He has not whistled the referee but he is already playing. His record of incidents in Spanish stadiums, such as those in Mallorca, Valladolid or Valencia, has made him a symbol of the anti-racist fight, with the massive intervention of public entities and organizations beyond the sports field and a notable international significance, for above the social debate.
Simeone and Koke, record men
Simeone forever changed the history of the entity since its arrival more than a decade ago. Koke It has been beating a lifetime in rojiblanco. It is the bear, strawberry tree and stripe of the shield. And this course, both enlarged their legend. The one from Buenos Aires became the coach who has directed the most games in the history of the mattress club, surpassing the 612 duels of Luis Aragonés, and the ‘6′ is already the footballer who has played the most league games with the rojiblanca elastic ( 554), above Adelardo. The other name in the Metropolitan has been Antoine Griezman. The Frenchman signed the definitive reconciliation with the mattress parish, forgetting the famous clause of 30 minutes per game at the beginning of the campaign thanks to his 15 goals and 16 assists.
He click of the league
For a few minutes, Real Madrid was six points behind Barcelona with twelve games to play. What it took for VAR to annul Marco Asensio’s goal, which made it 1-2. The second, in added time, would write it down Franck Kessie that made ashes the white hopes of a comeback. Samu Chukwueze, with a magical double and an individual exhibition to remember that turned the Santiago Bernabéu upside down, finished off the few strongholds of faith in Carlo Ancelotti’s team. The African talent ended Madrid.
LaLiga says goodbye to a golden generation
The season of farewells with the goodbyes as professional footballers of two of the most historic players in Spanish football: Gerard Piqué and Joaquin. The Catalan central defender hung up his boots and left the club he loves, Barcelona, after 15 seasons with the entity and 30 titles in his pocket. He was also the turn of the eternal Betis captain. The man from Puerto de Santa María said a tearful goodbye to Heliópolis and left equaling Andoni Zubizarreta’s record for matches in the First Division (662 games). Other noted exits were Karim Benzema from Real Madrid, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets from Barcelona or Asier Illarramendi from Real Sociedad.
Ter Stegen, at the height of Liaño
Lime and sand for the German goalkeeper, who won his first Zamora trophy nine years after his arrival. However, he ended up throwing overboard on the last day the record for the fewest goals conceded and the record for clean sheets, equaling the 26 clean sheets of paco liano (Sports). His divine aura was protected by a steel rearguard (Koundé, Araújo, Christensen and Balde) on which Xavi cemented the alirón culé. “The club was in the UCI,” he declared Joan Laporta before spending 158 million euros on transfers. Never before had a club from the Barça entity undertaken such a financing operation by selling part of its assets.
The Lightning, to the ‘Cruyff and Messi’
One of the great images throughout this season was the surreal penalty missed by Rayo Vallecano, in the match against Girona, with Isi and Trejo as protagonists. Like Johan Cruyff Along with Jesper Olsen at Ajax in 1982 and Leo Messi and Luis Suárez in 2016 with Barcelona, the two footballers tried to emulate this indirect maximum penalty which, in this case, had a fateful outcome. Gazzaniaga read the intentions of Trejo and quickly narrowed at the start once the ‘8’ caressed the ball to one side causing the failure over the crossbar of isi. An action difficult to forget in Vallecas and that went around the world.
Mendilibar and Bordalás do it again
After flirting with relegation, Seville and azulones amended the permanence ballot to two experienced technicians: Jose Luis Mendilibar, to Nervión, and José Bordalás, to the capital of Spain. Months later, both met their objective and, both in Seville and in Getafe, they have a new hero. The one from Alicante achieved the long-awaited salvation of a “chronically ill patient”. The one from Zaldibar, directly, exceeded any type of expectation until taking Sevilla to touch the European sky. Also deserves a special mention Ruben Baraja in Valencia. The Ché club pounced on the Valencian legend like a castaway on dry land and, from the limelight to the quarry and a city turned upside down, Mestalla once again smiled with permanence.
Arbitration, in the target of criticism
Climate of maximum tension towards the refereeing group that is currently going through Spanish football. Since a possible strike for the Negreira case to battles of statements between the CTA saying ‘enough is enough’ and the different LaLiga clubs against arbitration decisions. In an absolute distance from the RFEF, came the withdrawals of Mateu Lahoz and Del Cerro Grande. The Valencian referee, one of the most iconic referees, decided to hang up his whistle and had his last dance in an episode with Sergio Canales that ended with a four-game ban for the man from Santander. The expulsion and gesture of Lewandowski in El Sadar, also raised controversy.