The scoreless forward

THE SCORELESS FORWARD

 

Javier Arizmendi as a Valencia player

In the middle of the conflict between Quique and Carboni, Valencia started working on the roster for the 2007-2008 season without a clear idea of who was the decision-maker when it came to signings, sales and contract extensions and, to cap it all, president Juan Soler had neither the personality nor the ability to manage the sports area, apart from the economic area, as it was shown a few years later.

Even so, Valencia started signing new players. One of the first to come was central defender Alexis Ruano, coming from Getafe, who was expected to be a great addition. But the most surprising signing that summer was that of a forward who had just played his best season in the top flight playing for Deportivo A Coruña, also receiving a call to play for the Spanish national team thanks to Luis Aragonés in a game at Old Trafford against England, despite having scored only five goals in the whole season. It’s also worth to mention that he used to play as a right wing at Riazor, which meant that he didn’t have much importance in the forward area. That striker was Javier Arizmendi.

He was a tall forward (6 f. 3 inch.), who had good movements despite his height, but whose ability to score goals was limited, taking into the account his position in the pitch. That’s the reason why many coaches preferred to place him in the right wing where he could exploit his speed and his fantastic work ethics.

The truth is that his beginnings were exciting. He was a product of the Atlético de Madrid youth system, but he needed playing time and he found it in Racing de Santander, loaned by Atlético. In 2005 he won the Mediterranean Games with the U-21 national team in Almería. It’s curious to mention that he celebrated that feat with a Francoist flag although he later said that it was a flag that someone from the crowd had thrown. He signed for Deportivo that year, playing two good seasons before catching the attention of Valencia’s coach at that time, Quique Sánchez Flores, who had the same agent as Arizmendi. Atlético de Madrid recovered the player in order to sell him to Valencia in exchange for 7 million Euros.

He was one of the most used players by Quique first and Koeman later, but his season was disappointing. It’s true that he had two important moments during the year. The first of them was at the Santiago Bernabeu, in a game tied 2-2, in which Arizmendi ran the right wing with great speed, getting rid of Cannavaro and lying Casillas intentionally, scoring the goal finding a gap in the goalkeeper’s post. That goal gave the win to Valencia, who had been wandering in the standings and whose position in La Liga was starting to be in question. The other moment was when Ronald Koeman, in a last-minute decision, chose Arizmendi in his starting XI in the Copa del Rey final over Joaquín, who would see the game from the bench. Arizmendi played a good game and was close to scoring the first goal, but Mata was quicker and headed the ball into the net to give the lead to the team.  

 

After Koeman’s sacking, the man who had given many opportunities to him, perhaps due to the bad relationship between the Dutchman and Joaquín, Arizmendi lost his importance in the team and in the 2008 preseason, he was transferred to Real Zaragoza, in Segunda División at that time, recovering part of the investment made by Valencia the previous year, being paid 4 million Euros. Even so, Valencia couldn’t receive all that money since Zaragoza declared his insolvency the very next year.

He played a fantastic season for Zaragoza in the second category of Spanish football (9 goals) and achieving promotion but, in his return to the top flight, Arizmendi had a poor year and in 2010 he signed for Getafe that, after a bad season, decided to loan him to Swiss Neuchatel and Mallorca, respectively. In 2013 he went back to Deportivo, this time in Segunda División, but his second experience at Riazor was frustrating. After leaving A Coruña, Arizmendi has been training on his own trying to find a club but he hasn’t received any interesting offer and, aged only 31, it seems that his retirement is not very far.

When the pupil became the boss

WHEN THE PUPIL BECAME THE BOSS

 

Quique Sánchez Flores and Amedeo Carboni

 

It was the summer of 2005 and Valencia had just displayed a horrible season after the double achieved the previous year. The team hadn’t been capable of qualifying for the UEFA Cup and needed a drastic change. The first of all would take place in the bench. After Claudio Ranieri’s failed return and Antonio López’s unsuccessful experiment, president Juan Soler decided to hire a club’s old legend, Quique Sánchez Flores, one of the best right-backs in the history of Valencia CF. He had just completed a fantastic season at Getafe in his first year in the top flight, saving them from relegation several weeks before the end of the season.  The fans hoped that his characteristics as a coach would be comparable to those of Rafa Benítez, since Quique had a similar profile: young, hungry for success and a clear game style.

Simultaneously, another club’s legend, Amedeo Carboni, a left-back, was about to play his last season as a professional footballer. The Italian player had just signed a contract extension in 2004, signing for two seasons, getting paid in two seasons the same amount of money that he could have earned in one, that is, dividing his wage. But, aged 40, he knew that his retirement was close.

2005/2006 season was pretty positive for the team, since it qualified for the Champions League with two games to go, but it was also the origin of a rift that would immediately affect the club and the fans, too. From the very first moment Quique and Carboni, two strong personalities, clashed. Besides, Quique gave playing time to Moretti and Fabio Aurelio, leaving Carboni as the third choice in the rotation. He only played 5 games in La Liga, a very limited amount of minutes for a player who was used to playing almost every single game. After seeing that he was having no playing opportunities, Carboni took advantage of the situation and obtained a degree in sports direction, travelling sporadically to Madrid to go to classes. As expected, Carboni retired at the end of the season and received an outstanding ovation from the crowd, although he wasn’t given a sweet farewell by his teammates who, except for a few players, left the Italian alone in the pitch saying goodbye to the supporters. 

Carboni saying goodbye to the fans at Mestalla

 

Even so, Juan Soler, surprisingly, decided to fire Javier Subirats as a sports director (who had just returned to Valencia two years after departing) and hired inexperienced Carboni, who had finally obtained the degree in sports direction.

Carboni never had an agent when he was a Valencia player, so his work was characterized by the fact that he didn’t give agents more than was legally stipulated. That brought some problems, mainly when he had to negotiate Ayala’s contract extension, apart from having a bad relationship with him from the time they both played together. Quique didn’t like Soler’s decision, either, since his relationship with Carboni wasn’t good and saw that his pupil had become his boss overnight. Besides, the coach realized that the Italian had also become the apple of the president’s eye.

As a result, the club was harmed by this confrontation. The decision-taking in signings was the first conflict they experienced. The first one occurred when the club was looking for a right-wing. The Italian began negotiations to sign Brazilian’s Mancini, from AS Roma, who had just played a preseason game at Mestalla, the Trofeo Naranja. In the post-game press conference, Quique ruined the negotiations after stating that Mancini was not the kind of player he needed. Meanwhile, president Juan Soler had tried to sign Cristiano Ronaldo but, given its impossibility, Carboni kept searching for the best option and laid on the table the names of his compatriots Franco Semioli (Chievo Verona) and Marco Marchionni (Parma), both immediately rejected by the coaching staff. They finally agreed to sign former FC Barcelona player, Portuguese Simao Sabrosa, from Benfica. But when the deal was close and the player was waiting in a hotel room, expected to be presented the following day in the presentation game, his agent went to the roof and demanded more money. Carboni, reluctant to accept agents’ pressures, suspended the negotiations. After seeing the difficulty the club was having to sign a right-winger and with the need to sign a star, Juan Soler decided to call the shots and, after Manchester United’s refusal on Cristiano Ronaldo, he signed Joaquín, from Real Betis, paying 25 million Euros, with the president himself acting as a financial guarantor.

The final conflict was produced when the club was searching for a forward. The club was looking for a player who could complement the duo Villa-Morientes. Quique had a clear idea of what he wanted: Espanyol’s Luis García, but Carboni had different plans. The Italian didn’t like this player and his asking price was prohibitive (more than 15 million Euros according to the media). So, in his determination to sign a compatriot and despite the coaching staff’s disagreement, Carboni signed Francesco Tavano, paying about 10 million Euros. The Italian forward had just scored 19 goals playing for modest Empoli the previous season.

Quique, logically, rarely used the Italian player in his team rotation despite the many injuries the squad was suffering. Besides, he took the excuse that Tavano was not in a good shape at all and even had a slight overweight. His introverted personality didn’t help, either, since he had no connection with the rest of his teammates. He only played 221 minutes divided in 6 games (no goals) before packing his baggage back to Italy, loaned to AS Roma.

Francesco Tavano in one of his very few games he played for Valencia

 

Despite the efforts by Juan Soler to improve the situation, the distance between Quique and Carboni was already too big. It even affected the fans, who created two different sides, one of them defending Quique and the other one supporting Carboni.

The team ended the season achieving its main goal, the Champions League qualification, and the president came to the conclusion that he had to choose one of them and fire the other, for the club’s stability and future. When everybody expected that the victim would be Quique, Soler decided to keep the coach, although he would fire him a few months later.

But there was a last consequence of this clash after the Italian’s departure. After an intelligent strategy, Carboni had signed a young talent from the Real Madrid academy: Juan Mata. The player had refused all the extension offers made by Real and Carboni offered him the possibility of having top flight minutes in one of the best teams of La Liga. He signed the player in a free transfer, since his contract expired that year, and against the opinion of the coaching staff. Rumors say that Quique didn’t give him playing time because he was signed by Carboni and other people also dared to state that, since Mata had denied to continue at Real Madrid, Míchel, who was the player’s coach the previous season and good friends with Quique, had recommended the Valencia coach not to include the player in his line-up. But they were speculations. At the end, history says that Quique didn’t include him in his rotation and it was Dutchman Ronald Koeman the man who took the wonderkid out of his ostracism and helped him to develop his potential.

Juan Mata celebrating a goal in his first season at Valencia

At the end, this Quique vs. Carboni confrontation was just a warm-up for bigger conflicts that happened a few months later and that led Valencia CF to dangerous spots in the standings, being too close to relegation.

The weirdest season

THE WEIRDEST SEASON

 

Valencia CF players celebrating the Copa del Rey conquest

 

Everybody knows that Valencia CF has never been a millpond, either at a sports level or socially. Fans have always witnessed problems regarding the ownership of the club, multiple financial problems and conflicts at a sports level that have led to institutional crises. But there was a year, a season, in which several elements were gathered in order to see the club crumble affecting the institution itself, and most importantly, the team. And even so, the club moved on with a success that fans will always remember.

It was June 2007 and the struggle for the control of the team was already bitter. The coach was Quique Sánchez Flores and he had declared a war with the then director of football Amedeo Carboni. Both had been Valencia CF legends in their past as players of the club. The main conflict, as usual in these situations, lied in who had the last say to sign new players as well as in the relationship they both had with the heavyweights of the team. All that led to the creation of two sides by the players and the fans themselves.

The situation was unsustainable and the man who was in charge of the club in that moment, president Juan Soler, didn’t help to solve the problem. Quique had one year left until the end of his contract and the end of the season had not been brilliant. Real Madrid and FC Barcelona hadn’t shone and many fans and people from the board had the thought that, once the team achieved the Champions League spot, they had relaxed and settled with the fourth position in La Liga. Besides, the team had been defeated in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in a painful way, against Chelsea FC in extra-time. Many fans wanted the coach to be fired. On the other hand, Carboni had devised hard strategies when it came to negotiations and signings. He couldn’t stand that the coach would intrude in his decisions and didn’t have the best of relationships with football agents (he never had one when he was a player), which caused, for example, Fabián Ayala’s departure after the Italian changed the conditions of his contract extension. 

Quique in his days as Valencia CF coach

 

Juan Soler said that at the end of June he would decide which one of the two would stay and, when fans and journalists expected that the chosen man to stay would be Carboni (he was the president’s right-hand man), he finally opted to choose Quique. He fired the Italian in order to make the coach happy. The club signed former Atlético Madrid director of football Miguel Ángel Ruiz, who had a better relationship with Quique, and both had similar ideas and more consensus. New players were bought with the consent of the coach, mostly players whose agent was the same as Quique’s by that time, like Arizmendi or Alexis, although he had to make room for players signed by Carboni before he got fired, like Mata, Sunny or Hildebrand, but he didn’t give them much importance in the team, though. Valencia CF also signed Helguera from Real Madrid and Caneira, who was back from his loan at Sporting de Portugal.

But the main problems were found when the club was looking for a midfielder. Valencia CF needed a replacement for Baraja, who had had many injuries during the previous season. The sports direction probed many options but there didn’t seem to be a clear idea of what they were looking for, since all of them were different kind of players. There were rumors that Carboni had an agreement with Ajax’s Wesley Sneijder but rumors also said that Quique prevented that from happening, saying the famous sentence: “he doesn’t fit in this team”. Afterwards, the club tried to sign Lucho González and Kim Kallström, but neither FC Porto nor Olympique Lyonnais lowered their asking prices. The director of football also considered signing Seydou Keita, from Racing Lens, who would later sign for Sevilla FC and that would also play for Valencia CF in 2014, but he was discarded since, according to Miguel Ángel Ruiz, “with all the names that are being mentioned in the media, if I bring this unknown player, they will run me out of town”. A few days later, Rafael Van der Vaart’s name came to light, and even a newspaper dressed him with a Valencia CF shirt, but his team, Hamburger refused to negotiate. Curious to mention that both Dutchmen, Sneijder and Van der Vaart, joined Real Madrid a few weeks later. The club finally reached to an agreement to sign Benfica’s player Manuel Fernandes; he had played on loan for Everton FC the previous season. He was more unknown than the others, with a tremendous quality but also unfocused and lazy. They paid 18 million Euros for a player who ended up being a failure and who cost a fortune to the club. During those days, Valencia CF also signed Serbian giant Nikola Zigic, who had succeeded at Racing Santander with his 2’02 tall (6 ft. 8 in.). They also paid 18 million Euros for him and he was also unsuccessful.
 

Rafael Van der Vaart posing with the Valencia CF shirt

 

The team progressed from the Champions League playoff in August, beating weak Swedish team Elfsborg, but in La Liga, the team had an awful start, with a huge defeat against emergent neighbors Villarreal CF, managed by Manuel Pellegrini. The style the team was using was inconsistent and the fans showed their discontent with the coach, whose relationship with the supporters had been weakened by leaps and bounds. Even so, the team started winning games with great difficulty but the sensations weren’t the best. In the Champions League, the situation was not better; the team won at Gelsenkirchen against Schalke 04 but was defeated by Chelsea FC at Mestalla and, to make things worse, they lost at Trondheim against weak Norwegians Rosenborg. The final blow was given by Sevilla FC, who authoritatively beat Valencia CF at Sánchez Pizjuán and provoked one of the most surreal episodes of the last years, when the communications director, at the wee hours of the morning and wearing a hoodie, announced that Quique had been fired.

Fans showing their displeasure with Quique

The media brought rumors about a possible interest to sign Marcello Lippi (World Champion in 2006 coaching Italy) and José Mourinho (recently fired at Chelsea FC). But the president Juan Soler had a clear idea on who Quique’s replacement should be: Ronald Koeman. At the Champions League draw in August, the Dutch coach told the president that the team would never win anything with Quique in the bench and that he himself was the most suitable option. As unstable and faint-hearted as he was, Soler named him as Valencia CF coach, despite having to pay PSV Eindhoven, the club Koeman belonged to, 3 million Euros. He signed a long, expensive contract, which doubled what Quique was earning. Óscar Fernández, the reserves coach, took charge of the team for two games before the Dutchman arrived. In those games, the team was humiliated by Real Madrid at Mestalla (1-5) and also got a balsamic win at Mallorca (0-2).

Ronald Koeman in his days as Valencia CF coach

But the Dutchman’s arrival didn’t solve the football problems the team suffered, and he couldn’t solve the psychological problems of the players, but rather it was like adding more fuel to the fire. Valencia CF got knocked out of the Champions League in December and the team was going downhill in La Liga. And then, in December 18, the situation finally exploded.

Ronald Koeman, all of a sudden, on his own initiative and also with Juan Soler’s support, decided to marginalize three legends of the roster: David Albelda, Santi Cañizares and Miguel Ángel Angulo. Many people think that Joaquín and Vicente were the next due to their bad relationship with the Dutchman but that would have been too much. That led to a bigger division among fans and players themselves. The Dutch coach named Rubén Baraja, Carlos Marchena and Marco Caneira as new captains.

The following days, all the fans could see were press conferences, tears and shame. All this led to the thought that those three players would leave in the winter transfer window. In fact, Albelda had offers from Chelsea FC and Villarreal CF, but he wanted Valencia CF to pay him what was remaining of his contract. Valencia CF denied to do so and the player sued the club. Finally, the three players stayed and had to practise on their own for three months, far from his teammates; they never received a call to join the rest of their teammates for a game or a practise. That meant that Albelda, a Spanish international who had been a key member of the squad during those years, lost his spot and missed Euro 2008, that Spain eventually won led by Luis Aragonés.

David Albelda crying after being marginalized by Koeman

 

The club decided to sign two new players demanded by Koeman: his countryman Hedwiges Maduro, a defensive midfielder from Ajax who had been bought to replace Albelda and for whom Valencia CF paid 3 million Euros, and a young, gifted offensive midfielder Ever Banega, from Boca Juniors, in exchange for 14 million Euros, who would replace Manuel Fernandes, who had to leave the club in January after a night scandal in which he ended up in jail. Both didn’t contribute very much in the remainder of the season even though Banega, aged only 19, in dribs and drabs, showed he could be a football star in the future. 

The day after the conflict of Albelda Cañizares and Angulo, the team traveled to Irún to start its participation in Copa del Rey, to face Real Unión. Koeman saw that the team was underachieving in La Liga, so he said that the main objective of the club was to win the Copa del Rey, since it was the shortest path to win a trophy. Valencia CF won Real Unión and Betis in the following round, with great performances by Joaquín and Zigic. The following opponent would be Atlético Madrid; after a tightened win at Mestalla with a goal by Silva, the team suffered beyond words at Vicente Calderón, losing 3-2 but getting to the following round thanks to the double value of away goals; Timo Hildebrand played an outstanding game and also did Juan Mata, who was one of the few who benefited from Koeman’s arrival, since he hadn’t played very much under Quique’s orders.

It was in that moment when the team believed that Copa del Rey could be the last hope for the team after a bad season and, in the semifinals, they had to face FC Barcelona, with Frank Rijkaard in his last months as the blaugrana coach. Valencia CF miraculously got a draw at Camp Nou, even though it was Barça the one who had been behind the score most of the game; Xavi tied the game in the 93th minute (David Villa had scored for Valencia CF in the first minutes of the game). Hildebrand was the hero of the team; the German goalkeeper compensated his awful performances in La Liga with fantastic games in Copa del Rey; he saved more than twenty shots at Camp Nou, a record. The game at Mestalla was exciting and fans witnessed an extraordinary evening. The team suffered but won 3-2 and Valencia CF got a spot for the final. Getafe CF, the reigning runners-up of the competition at that moment, would be the opponent to play the big game. 

The final took place at Vicente Calderón, which was controversial due to the obvious proximity between Madrid and Getafe. Even so, Valencia CF players mentally prepared to win the title. In the 10th minute, Valencia CF was already leading the score 2-0, after the goals scored by Mata and Alexis. Getafe CF frightened Valencia CF fans with a penalty goal scored by Granero just before half-time but in the last minutes of the game, when Getafe CF was pushing to try to tie the game, a masterful foul shot by Baraja was not well saved by Getafe CF’s goalkeeper and Morientes scored with a header; the final score was 3-1. In one of the weirdest seasons in its history, Valencia CF had won a title, which gave them access to the following year’s UEFA Cup, and even so, the team was just a few points away from relegation, curious since it was a team built to get a Champions League spot and, why not, compete to win La Liga.

 

In that moment of the season, Valencia CF had a shocking moment, beating the La Liga winner-to-be Real Madrid, at Santiago Bernabeu, 2-3, with a goal scored by Arizmendi in the 89th minute, and a superb performance by Timo Hildebrand. It was another landmark in a season that has always been considered the weirdest season.

It is also important to mention Juan Soler’s resignation. Tired of seeing that people thought that he was to blame for the club’s situation, he decided to stop going to Mestalla to attend the games, and a few months later he quit. His advisor, Agustín Morera, took charge of the team until the end of the season.

Koeman got fired five days after Valencia CF had won the Copa del Rey final, following a loss 5-1 to Athletic at San Mamés. The situation in La Liga was more than dangerous and the players needed a change. The delegate of the team, Voro González, took control for the last five games of the season, with four wins, one of them being dramatic, beating Real Zaragoza who was a direct opponent to avoid relegation. So, Voro became the coach with the best percentage of wins in the history of the club. Besides, he gave playing time to Albelda, Cañizares and Angulo. The goalkeeper decided to retire at the end of the season, Angulo left the following year, in 2009, when he signed for Sporting de Portugal, retiring in 2010, and Albelda continued in Valencia CF until 2013, when he retired.

Valencia CF finally avoided relegation thanks to those games won by Voro’s players in a strange season, in which the team was misdirected from the very beginning at all levels, and that would have serious consequences for the team’s economy and also for its performances in the pitch.

Rafa Benítez, the bullfighter

RAFA BENÍTEZ: THE BULLFIGHTER



Rafa Benítez in his first season as Valencia CF coach

May 23, 2001: San Siro stadium, Milan; Champions League final. Valencia CF achieved the feat of playing the big final of the most important competition of the world again. But they were left wanting more once again. They were closer than the previous year but the penalty shootout’s lottery was cruel once more with Valencia CF; Pellegrino missed the decisive shot and Valencia lost the shootout to Bayern Munich.

Perhaps, the start of the summer holidays would have been the best that could have happened in order to start the following season from square one but, unfortunately, there was still one month left until the end of La Liga. The team was still meeting their main target, none other than a Champions League spot for the following season but, behind them, FC Barcelona was showing great performances despite having played a poor season, with a troublesome atmosphere, with an unhappy star (Rivaldo), and a captain who announced his departure at only 29 (Guardiola). Curiously, the last game of the season offered a dramatic match between FC Barcelona and Valencia CF at Camp Nou. A draw would have been enough for Valencia CF to get the spot, and they tied the game twice during the game; but in the 89 minute, Rivaldo showed his genius and with a bicycle kick from outside the penalty area, he scored a superb goal. In just one month, Valencia CF had lost the Champions League final and missed a spot to play the following edition. A tragedy.

Rivaldo scoring an extraordinary goal that meant Valencia CF wouldn't play the following edition of the Champions League

 

To make things worse, the social background was convulsed, as usual, and it eventually had an effect on the team. Everyone already knew that the Argentinean Héctor Cúper would not continue as the coach; despite having a love-hate relationship with Mestalla, the man who took Valencia CF to two Champions League finals in a row and who had won a Spanish Supercup was leaving the club to join Italian giants Internazionale. And Gaizka Mendieta, the captain, the symbol, and the best player of the squad, stated that he wanted to lift trophies. The “bat of the badge”, as president Pedro Cortés had named him. Real Madrid wanted to sign him but Valencia CF refused to negotiate and sell the player to that team, so he ended up being transferred to Lazio for 48 million euros, wearing a long face in his introduction as a new player of the Italian side, since he wanted to sign for Real; his checking account was happy for that move but he won no titles in Rome. Due to Mendieta’s departure, president Pedro Cortés, who had sworn that he would never sell the player, had to resign because he had broken his promise. Jaume Ortí would be his replacement. In a few weeks, the club had lost its captain, its coach and its president.

Given that situation, the director of sports, Javier Subirats, started working to find a new coach who could be a good replacement for Héctor Cúper. The coaches that could be found in the market knew about the demands of Valencia CF supporters and how they treated the Argentinean coach, and that made them doubt about accepting the job. Mané, who had led modest Alavés to the UEFA Cup final, said no. Luis Aragonés, who had taken RCD Mallorca to the Champions League, said he wanted to help Atlético Madrid go back to the top flight from the second category of Spanish football. Javier Irureta, who had made a great job with Deportivo A Coruña, also said no. Carlos Bianchi, Boca Juniors’ coach, declined, too. So, the club had serious difficulties to find a renowned manager.

Javier Subitats, Valencia CF sports director at the time

 

Subirats had been, during this time, thinking about a young Spanish coach, inexperienced at training elite clubs but, in his opinion, very valid: Rafa Benítez. When he suggested his name to the board, some of them said, mockingly, if he was talking about the bullfighter (referring to Manuel Benítez, “El Cordobés”, a well-known bullfighter in Spain). But the sports director put his job at stake and hired the Madrid-born coach. Two promotions to La Liga with Extremadura in 1998 and Tenerife in that same year, and a relegation with Extremadura were the only remarkable experiences of his career. He had also been fired by Valladolid and Osasuna in previous seasons. It wasn’t an ample résumé to coach the two-time Champions League runners-up. He landed with certain reluctance, and the doubts increased when fans saw the level of new signings, inconspicuous compared to those who had left: Rufete, Mista, Marchena and the high amount of money paid to sign De los Santos and Salva Ballesta.   

Eventually, time proved that Subirats had made the right decision and hit the mark with Benítez; but history could have been different had the team lost their game at Montjïc against RCD Espanyol in December; Benítez, after a series of bad results, was put in doubt and the score was 2-0 at half-time but the team reacted in the second half and won 2-3. He exploited Héctor Cúper’s defensive style and took it to a different level. The rest of the story is well known and that win against RCD Espanyol was the turning point that boosted the team to win the 2001/2002 La Liga title and, two years later, the 2003/2004 La Liga and the 2004 UEFA Cup.

Rufete, scoring one of the goals of the comeback win at Montjuïc

 

1998/99.- Atlético Madrid 0 Vs Valencia CF 3 (Final Copa del Rey)

The longest season

THE LONGEST SEASON

Valencia squad celebrating the Copa del Rey

1998-99 season will always be remembered by Valencia CF fans due to several facts: during the season, the stadium fences were removed, it was the last season that the players wore black socks and, of course, it was the season in which the team won the first trophy since the European Supercup in 1981: the Copa del Rey. For many fans, it meant the first title that they witnessed in their lives. But the season was hard and, above all, very long. 64 games divided among La Liga, Copa del Rey, UEFA Cup, Intertoto Cup and several friendlies.

The season began sooner than expected, in the beginning of July 1998, because Valencia CF had to qualify for the UEFA Cup via Intertoto Cup, the last chance that UEFA gave the clubs to get a spot in that competition if they hadn’t taken care of business in the previous season in their leagues.

The previous season had been a little tumultuous. Jorge Valdano got fired in game 3 after three losses and also due to a stupid mistake in Santander, when he introduced four non-EU men in the pitch, when only three were allowed. There also was a radical style change with his substitute, the Italian Claudio Ranieri, from a more creative one that Valdano displayed to the defensive and intense one that Ranieri used. Most of the players that had been signed in the summer had ended up being a terrible fiasco, as was the case of Moussa Saïb, Marcelinho Carioca, Morigi, Campagnuolo or Del Solar; apart from that, the club failed in rehabbing Romário for the second time. And last, but not least, the president Paco Roig resigned from his position, being replaced by his advisor Pedro Cortés.

The team ended the season 9th in the standings, four points shy from a UEFA Cup spot. Still, the team showed some good performances in the second half of the season: the team won at the Bernabeu and Camp Nou (this one was epic), there was a newcomer player who performed at a world class level, the Romanian Adrian Ilie, the Argentinean Claudio López had an exciting progression and a box-to-box player who had spent the previous five years unnoticed finally exploded: Gaizka Mendieta. Apart from that, there was a veteran core that sustained the team, such as Carboni, Angloma, Djukic and Milla.

Ilie after scoring a goal against Steaua Bucharest

Therefore, Valencia CF had to do their homework in July and signed a bunch of players to achieve their goal. The club acquired an Italian classic forward, Cristiano Lucarelli, from Atalanta, who didn’t succeed at Mestalla despite being the top scorer of Serie A with Livorno a few years later. They also signed a central defender from PSG, who played outstandingly, the former French international Alain Roche. A couple of Romanian players were signed, too, one of them having played a fantastic season for UD Salamanca the previous year and who also participated in the 1998 FIFA World Cup held in France: Gabi Popescu; the other Romanian player was a strange signing since, from the very moment he was presented as a new Valencia CF player, he showed no talent at all, unable to do three douches in a row with the ball in his feet, but he was the brother of one of the stars of the team: Sabin Ilie, Adrian’s brother, who was told he was the better of the both; he spent a few months and didn’t play a single minute for the club. Two Swedish players landed in Valencia in that summer, who had optimal performances: the long range shooting specialist Stefan Schwarz and the sober-minded central defender Joachim Björklund, the latter being an important asset for the team in the following three years. Téllez was also another new signing, a robust defender from Alavés, who only played one game for Valencia CF. More onwards, in the winter transfer window, Valencia CF signed another Romanian, Dennis Serban, who was unsuccessful at Mestalla. But the best signing of the season was that of goalkeeper Santiago Cañizares, who replaced retired Andoni Zubizarreta; he came as a free agent from Real Madrid and his story with Valencia CF is well known in his ten year spell at the club.

Even so, as some of the new signings hadn’t lived up to the expectations, most of the players who already were in the roster had to step up and progress the way they were expected to. There was a lot of excitement among fans, so much that president Pedro Cortés, in the team’s presentation before the supporters, asserted that the Geperudeta  (the Virgin of Desamparados, the patron saint of the city) had told him that the team would win a trophy that season.

The team had a good start in the Intertoto Cup. Fortunately, as he had a long ban in La Liga which meant that he couldn’t play the first five games of the competition, Claudio López didn’t go on holidays after finishing his participation with the Argentinean national team in the World Cup; he went straight to practise to help the team qualify for the UEFA Cup. Valencia CF knocked out Shinnik Yaroslavl, a weak Russian team, playing their away game at a stadium that was more like a swimming pool, with Mendieta requiring help from a teammate to be able to kick a corner, a funny image. They also won Marcelo Bielsa’s RCD Espanyol, full of youngsters from their youth system, among which future stars could be found: Capdevila, Tamudo or Sergio González. Valencia CF finally won the final against Casino Salzburg (currently known as Red Bull Salzburg).

Valencia CF seemed to be working well and was fully fit to start La Liga season solidly. Besides, there was an extra motivation that year: that was the first season in which the top 4 of La Liga would get a spot for the following Champions League and the team looked a good contender and one of the favorites.

Ranieri’s playing style was pretty simple and Italian-like: strong defense, playing with three central defenders and two wings in some games and a powerful counterattack, exploiting Claudio López’s speed and Ilie’s talent. It was a style the team felt comfortable with when they played against big clubs who had to control the games, but the team suffered against weaker teams who used a more defensive style.

Valencia CF started the season at home against a difficult team, who had spent a lot of money in new signings, Arrigo Sacchi’s Atlético Madrid. The team won thanks to a single goal by Miguel Ángel Angulo, which certified the ambition of the team to be in the top positions. But in away games the team seemed to be weak and found it difficult to play well and get results. Claudio López came back from his ban in October, and he did it against his favorite opponent, Louis Van Gaal’s FC Barcelona, at Mestalla, in a game in which a wonderkid made his debut in La Liga for the Catalans: none other than Xavi Hernández. Barça won 1-3, showing that Valencia CF was still a little immature to compete against the previous year’s La Liga champion. But from that game on, the team started to win home and away games, eventually reaching the top 4, which gave a spot for the Champions League.

The team also started the UEFA Cup, thanks to their performance in the Intertoto Cup in July. Their first opponent was Romanian Steaua Bucharest, where the before mentioned Dennis Serban played for. Valencia CF won the tie easily and, in the next round, they would have to play against one of the big clubs in Europe, Liverpool FC. It was a fantastic opportunity to be measured against one of the most attractive and historical teams in Europe. Liverpool FC had very talented players, such as McManaman, Fowler, Ince and the English wonderkid of the time, Michael Owen. The double value of away goals was the only thing that gave Liverpool FC the qualification; Valencia CF was a great competitor but was knocked out without losing any of both legs. The team had to focus on La Liga. 

The progress of the team was so good that, at the end of the first half of the competition and after two wins at RCD Mallorca’s Lluis Sitjar and Atlético Madrid’s Vicente Calderón, Valencia CF could be considered as a solid contender for the lead of La Liga. But a series of unexpected losses moved the team away from the title fight.

In these days, the team started their participation in Copa del Rey. To begin with, there was a regional derby against Levante UD, that was in the third category of Spanish football at those times; Valencia CF had no problems in defeating them. February offered three duels in only ten days against FC Barcelona, since they would be the following opponents in the quarter-finals of Copa del Rey. That time, Valencia CF did compete. And how! A 2-3 win at Camp Nou in the first leg (with a memorable goal by Mendieta after a corner); at Mestalla, Valencia CF certified its qualification by winning 4-3; and a few days later, in their La Liga game, Valencia CF won at Camp Nou again, 2-4 this time. And these results had a common denominator: Claudio López, “el Piojo” (the louse):  six goals in three games. He had taken the measure to Van Gaal who, thanks to his stubbornness, using the same system over and over again, let the Argentinean feel comfortable, and Claudio took advantage from it, destroying Frank de Boer, Abelardo, Sergi and Pellegrino.

Claudio López celebrating a goal against Barcelona

In La Liga, Valencia CF continued its path regularly, with big wins at the previously mentioned Camp Nou, and also at San Mamés in Bilbao, combined with surprising point losses against weaker opponents like Rafa Benítez’s Extremadura.

In June, the team was battling for a Champions League spot and their opponents were RCD Mallorca and Celta Vigo and, in the Copa del Rey semifinals, Valencia CF had to face Real Madrid. The result of that tie is well known, one of the club’s biggest wins against “los merengues”. The final score in the first leg at Mestalla was 6-0 and supporters ended the game comparing Real Madrid with the weak San Marino national team, who had just conceded the same amount of goals in their game against Spain a few days before. The second leg was perfunctory. Atlético Madrid awaited in the final.

Mestalla's scoreboard with the final result of the Copa del Rey game against Real Madrid

Meanwhile, Valencia CF’s qualification for the following season’s Champions League was in jeopardy; the team lost against relegated Tenerife in the penultimate game, so Valencia CF had to depend on others to achieve their purpose. The opponent for that spot was Celta Vigo and Valencia CF had a home game against Héctor Cúper’s astounding RCD Mallorca, who had mathematically qualified for the Champions League. Valencia CF had to win and hope that Celta would lose their home game against Atlético Madrid. And that’s what happened. Valencia CF won their game and Atlético defeated Celta at Balaídos, which gave the “colchoneros” a spot for the following season’s UEFA Cup because, as Valencia CF had qualified for the Champions League, the Copa del Rey runner-up would play the European second most important competition; and, if Valencia CF had failed, the qualified team for the UEFA Cup would have been the 7th in La Liga. Hence, a big party started at Mestalla, with Claudio López running around the stadium with a “senyera” (the Valencian flag) on his shoulders. People thought he was saying goodbye. A lot of big clubs had a serious interest in signing him and Valencia CF had to do their best to keep him. But they did and he stayed for one more season. It was Claudio Ranieri’s farewell, who had decided to leave and sign for Atlético Madrid; the Italian would be replaced, curiously, by Héctor Cúper.

Claudio López, with the "Senyera" on his shoulders

June 26, 1999 was the big day. Valencia CF reached the Copa del Rey final, that would take place at La Cartuja stadium, in Seville. The team arrived stronger than ever and Atlético had serious doubts about their possibilities. Their path in La Liga had been inconsistent. Sacchi had been fired in the middle of the season and had been replaced by Serbian Radomir Antic, and they had finished 13th. Valencia CF showed an amazing superiority from the first to the last minute of the game. Claudio López showed a fantastic form, scoring two wonderful goals, but the star of the game was Gaizka Mendieta. His goal was extraordinary; it can’t be explained with words, considered one of the most beautiful in history. Valencia CF won the game 3-0; twenty years later, the team took the trophy home, and it also had been eighteen years without a title in Valencia. The city of Valencia received their players the way champions deserve. And all that happened a few days shy from the first anniversary of the start of the preseason. A very long, intense season, that allowed Valencia CF to compete against the best and, best of all, it was just a warm-up for all that would happen in the following years.

All he could have been and never was

ALL HE COULD HAVE BEEN AND NEVER WAS

Zahovic celebrating a goal with Juan Sánchez

This story goes back to the spring of 1999. In La Liga, Valencia CF had a great chance to get a Champions League spot and, in Copa del Rey, they had to face a thrilling tie against John Benjamin Toshack’s Real Madrid in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Javier Subirats, the then director of football, started working for the following season’s squad and one of the first names made public was that of the Slovenian Zlatko Zahovic. He was a skillful attacking midfielder, with an obvious goalscoring ability and, aged 28, he was in the prime of his career.

But there was a major problem to deal with the negotiation. The footballer belonged to FC Porto and its president was, and still is, a hard nut to crack: none other than Pinto da Costa. Valencia CF had already suffered in their own flesh previous negotiations in the past with him, mainly when they tried to sign FC Porto star Jardel. FC Porto’s president demanded an exorbitant amount of money to let Zahovic go to Valencia CF but everything changed when the Slovenian tried to pressure his club to go to Spain. At that moment, Pinto da Costa, with a remarkable anger, said that Zahovic would never play for Valencia and, afterwards, transferred the player to Greek giants Olympiakos.

The player experienced a tough year in Greece. His irregularity and his wayward personality didn’t help very much. In June, 2000, he played a remarkable UEFA Euro, co-hosted by Belgium and Netherlands, as part of the Slovenian squad. Valencia CF never lost its interest and, in the summer of that year, they managed to sign him in exchange of 6 million euros (about 1.000 millions pesetas at the time).

He was one of the most exciting additions for the European runners-up alongside Carew, Baraja, Ayala, Diego Alonso or Deschamps. But his nature soon clashed to that of the coach, the Argentine Héctor Cúper. The Chabás-born trainer didn’t give many minutes to the Slovenian and didn’t have much confidence in him in the first months of the season. Zahovic eventually lost his patience when Valencia decided to sign, in the winter transfer window, River Plate wonderkid Pablo Aimar, for whom the club paid more than 20 million euros. His minutes decreased even more but he was still part of Cúper’s plans and an example of that was the evening of May 23, 2001.

Valencia CF reached the Champions League final for the second time in a row. This time the game would take place at San Siro Stadium, in Milan, and the opponent would be Bayern Munich. In the 66 minute, Héctor Cúper decided to introduce the Slovenian into the game, replacing Juan Sánchez. That was the moment when Zahovic had the chance to become the most important player in the history of Valencia CF. It happened during the extra time, 1-1 on the scoreboard, and with the golden ball rule (whoever scored, would win the game); in a jumbled play in Kahn’s penalty area, the ball came to him from a teammate and he had the opportunity to introduce the ball into the empty net, which would have brought the big Cup to Valencia. But he failed. He stumbled on the ball and Kahn eventually grabbed it. Later, he had another chance in the penalty shootout. With Valencia CF leading the series, Zahovic decided to shoot the team’s third attempt. If he had scored, Valencia would have cherished the Cup. But he failed again. He took a short run-up and Kahn saved the shot.

 

Zahovic missing his penalty in the 2001 Champions League final shootout

 The rest of the story is quite well-known. Bayern took the trophy home and Europe still owes one to Valencia CF. After all that happened, in a smart move by Javier Subirats, Zahovic returned to Portugal and went to Benfica in a trade involving Carlos Marchena, who signed for Valencia CF. Zahovic went unnoticed and, curiously, he could have been the player that would have given the world’s most important trophy to Valencia CF.

He spent the rest of his career in Benfica, with unnoticed performances. He took part in the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, where he was expelled from the player’s meeting by his national team coach, Srecko Katanec, after insulting him due to being substituted in the opening game for Slovenia. He retired in 2005 and he’s currently working as a director of football at NK Maribor, in his home country.

Zahovic in the present