From Solares, Cantabria, to Palencia, empty Spain. Espanyol’s journey through the Copa del Rey runs along the northern route of the country and discovers new clubs, modest, with few resources, who applaud the parakeet visit as does the April rain for their agricultural economy. The Palencia Cristo Atlético, who is a member of the Second RFEF, and that this course has become professional, It is a sample of the operation of an entity with history in one of the provinces that has never had a team in the First Division.
The club was founded in 1985 by the neighborhood association of a “very working-class” neighborhood, as its president, David Nieto, explains. “The Olympic Christ merged with Palencia CF, which had disappeared that year. We were playing on a dirt field. Later, we began to grow, children were created (they have an agreement with the La Salle school) and women, we went from the land to the lawn and the City Council already absorbs the management, “explains who is the main sponsor and the head of the company since 2012. Before, Nieto was a person linked to cycling.
In 1982, his appliance company, Danisa, bet on the sport of two wheels. He was so enthusiastic that he took the coaching course and became one of the coaches of the lower categories of Castilla y León. Illustrious such as Santi Blanco, Carlos Sastre or Chava Jiménez. “He is one of the ones I have the most in my head. It was a super class inside and out. I remember that I would stop training to come to greet you or even left late in a stage of the Vuelta España to come to say goodbye to me“, he recalls.
The budget since Nieto’s arrival has grown from 80,000 to 420,000 euros and they have managed to ascend from regional to Second RFEF. “At the beginning no one wanted to take office because he had debts, and I endorsed the management,” explains the president, who expects temperatures between “four and five degrees“For the time of the match, which will be played at the Nueva Balastera stadium, where the city’s rugby team also competes and which has a capacity for 8,040 spectators.
12 people from Palencia on the squad and the relationship with Mariano Haro
“We are the Palencia team that competes in a higher category, so we requested the stadium and they granted it to us“, explains the president, who recognizes that the tickets are sold” in shops and bars in the area. Members enter free (about 550) and the first 1,000 seats (ranging between five and 20 euros) are exchanged by them “.
The team has professionalized this season due to promotion. Although some combine work with training, the sessions are already carried out in the morning, which caused, for example, that Coach Rubén Gala, a former player, will leave his profession and focus on soccer. The team has 12 from Palencia, Basques, Salamanca and Valladolid. “And we have five floors for outsiders. We are a young team, almost all of them study,” explains Nieto.
They all know each other in Palencia, so much so that even the nephew of Mariano Haro, athlete who was fourth in the Munich Games 1972 and a benchmark of the cross, is the one who is in charge of the clothing of the entity with his company Discobolo Sport. A club that has grown on wheels and that will now have a great afternoon for a Palencia used to not receiving visits from First Division clubs.