RCD Espanyol

Barcelona's other La Liga club: founded in 1900, four-time Copa del Rey winners in blue and white.

RCD Espanyol, formally Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona, is a Spanish professional club from the province of Barcelona in Catalonia that plays in La Liga. Founded in 1900, it now plays just outside the city at the RCDE Stadium, which holds up to 40,000 fans. Espanyol has lifted the Copa del Rey four times, most recently in 2006, and reached the UEFA Cup final in 1988 and 2007. It was the first club in Spain formed purely by Spanish fans of the game, and it carries a long local rivalry with FC Barcelona.

Quick Facts

Club: Espanyol
Full name: Reial Club Deportiu; Espanyol de Barcelona, S.A.D.
Short name: RCDE
Nickname: Periquitos (Parakeets) Blanc-i-blaus (White and Blue)
Founded: 28 October 1900 (as Sociedad Española de Football)
Stadium: RCDE Stadium
Capacity: 40,000
Owner: Velocity Sport Limited (Alan Pace and JJ Watt)

Facts from the source article.

Background

Engineering student Ángel Rodríguez Ruiz founded the club on 28 October 1900 in the district of Sarrià, first as the Sociedad Española de Football. It won the first Campionat de Catalunya in 1903 and played in the first Copa del Rey. After folding in 1906, its players joined X Sporting Club, which merged with the Spanish Jiu-Jitsu Club and relaunched the side as Club Deportivo Español. The blue and white stripes, adopted in 1910 at Eduardo Corrons' suggestion, honour Admiral Roger de Lluria. Alfonso XIII granted royal patronage in 1912; the royal name was dropped under the Second Spanish Republic, restored after the Spanish Civil War, and given its Catalan spelling in February 1995.

Did You Know?

The name keeps "Deportiu" rather than the Catalan "Esportiu" so the initials stay RCD.
Its Catalan titles of the 1910s owed much to a defence led by Ricardo Zamora.
Mauricio Pochettino got his first senior managerial job at Espanyol in January 2009.