Real Sociedad

Football club infobox
clubname = Real Sociedad


fullname = Real Sociedad de Fútbol
nickname = "Txuri-urdin" (white-blue)
"Erreala"
founded = 1909
ground = Anoeta,
San Sebastián, Basque Country,
Spain
capacity = 32,200
chairman = flagicon|Spain Iñaki Badiola
manager = flagicon|Spain Juan Manuel Lillo
league = Segunda División
season = 2007-08
position = Segunda Division, 4th
shirtsupplier= Astore
shirtsponsors= FIATC
pattern_la1=_bluelower|pattern_b1=_whitestripes|pattern_ra1=_bluelower
leftarm1=FFFFFF|body1=0000FF|rightarm1=FFFFFF|shorts1=FFFFFF|socks1=0000FF
pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=FFFFFF|body2=FFFFFF|rightarm2=FFFFFF|shorts2=FFFFFF|socks2=0000FF

Real Sociedad de Fútbol (more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad) is a Spanish football club from the Basque city of San Sebastián/Donostia in Guipúzcoa/Gipuzkoa. Founded on September 17 1909, it was relegated to Segunda División at the end of the 2006-2007 season. The home stadium is the "Estadio Anoeta", which seats 32,000 spectators.

Name

The club is known in Basque as "Erreala" or the "txuri-urdin" (meaning "white-blue" in Basque), from their colours: blue with white vertical stripes and white shorts. The club name means "Royal Society of Football". A blue quarter on white also appears in the flag of their home town.

History

Football was introduced to San Sebastián in the early 1900s by students and workers returning from Britain. In 1904 they formed the "San Sebastian Recreation Club" and in 1905 they competed in the Copa del Rey. In May 1905 the "San Sebastian Football Club" was formed as a separate branch of the club. In 1909 they applied to enter the Copa del Rey but complications over registration permits saw them compete as "Club Ciclista de San Sebastian". This team beat Club Español de Madrid 3-1 in the final. Out of the confusion the "Sociedad de Futbol" was formed on September 7th, 1909. In 1910 Spanish clubs played in two rival cup competitions and Sociedad de Futbol entered the "Copa UECF" as "Vasconia de San Sebastian". In the same year Alfonso XIII, who used San Sebastián as his summer capital, gave the club his patronage. They subsequently became known as "Real Sociedad de Fútbol". Real Sociedad were founder members of La Liga in 1928. The team came fourth with Francisco "Cuqui" Bienzobas finishing as top scorer. The team's name was changed to "Donostia Club de Futbol" in 1931, with the advent of the Second Spanish Republic, but changed back to Real Sociedad after the Spanish Civil War in 1939.

The team has generally fluctuated between the "Primera" and "Segunda" divisions, in one period (during the 1940s) managing to be relegated and promoted seven times. Around that time the sculptor Eduardo Chillida was the team's goalkeeper until injury put a stop to his football career. The best period of the team's history must be the early 1980s where they won the "Primera" two seasons running.

For many years, Real Sociedad followed the practice of their Basque rivals Athletic Bilbao of signing only Basque players. They abandoned the policy in 1989 when they signed Irish international John Aldridge from Liverpool. Real Sociedad's best league performance in recent years is their 2nd place finish in "La Liga" in 2002-03. Key contributors to that side included a Serb (Darko Kovacevic), a Turk (Nihat Kahveci), a Russian (Valeri Karpin), and a Dutch goalkeeper (Sander Westerveld). While they still attempt to keep a core of Basque players, whether coming from their own teams or signed from other clubs, they will also employ non-Basque Spanish players, as well as foreigners. They were relegated from La Liga in 2006–2007, finishing 19th.

On 9 July 2007, former Welsh international and Fulham manager Chris Coleman was appointed as the new club coach, on the recommendation of former Real Sociedad (and current Welsh National team) manager John Toshack, who remains a respected and influential figure at the club. Coleman resigned on January 16 2008.

Honours

*"Copa del Rey": 2
**"1909 and 1987".
*"Primera División": 2
**"1981 and 1982".
*"Spanish Super Cup": 1
**"1982".
*"European Champions Cup"
**"Semi-Finalists 1982-83".

Current squad

The numbers are established according to the official website: [http://www.realsociedad.com www.realsociedad.com] and [http://www.lfp.es www.lfp.es] . The EU flags indicate players who, although foreign, are still members of the European Economic Community, thus the club is not restricted in player such foreigners.

"As of 30 August 2008"

Recent history

:

Famous players

"see also cl|Real Sociedad footballers"

Famous coaches

* Benito Díaz
* Rafael Iriondo
* Alberto Ormaechea
* John Toshack
* Javier Irureta
* Perico Alonso
* Javier Clemente
* José Mari Bakero
* Raynald Denoueix
* Chris Coleman

"see also cl|Real Sociedad managers"

External links

* [http://www.realsociedad.com Official website]