Unió Esportiva Sant Andre came within a couple of penalty kicks of becoming shock European champions, only to lose out to Turf Wars rivals FC Barcelona in the Champions League Final in 2035. That marked an impressive decade at the helm for former Ultras leader Oriol Ribas, who was preparing to lead the club into a fifth season in LaLiga.
The club’s meteoric rise demanded off-field improvements, which arrived in the form of the imaginatively named Sant Andreu Stadium, which seats 25,375 supporters. Recent events had also seen rapid financial gain, racking up taxable profits of £60.95m in the last 12 months. That was aided by six new sponsorship deals worth £2.1m that took its total sponsorship income to £6.4m. As a result, the bank balance passed £100m for the first time. However, the Sant Andreu somehow only gave Ribas a £26m transfer budget, with £300k spare in the £966k weekly wage budget. That was added to by left back Nduduzo Banda moving to Saudi for £8m.
Ribas replaced Banda by spending half his budget on exciting Brazilian left back Jajá for £10.5m from Flamengo. He also signed attacker Daniel Folleco for £2.1m from Independiente del Valle, right back Jonny Nilsen for £5m from Bodo, goalkeeper Markus Jacobsen for £3m from Strum Graz and brought in potential superstar midfielder Estanis Recasens on loan from Barcelona, which shows how good their team is if they’re loaning out players worth £156m! Ribas also promoted 17-year-old homegrown hopeful Norbert, centre back José Samper and Portuguese winger António Cunha. Away from playing staff, Ribas brought a little Turf Wars rivalry to his staff as, after Rafael Duarte was appointed manager of Albacete, he appointed Rafael Márquez as his new assistant.
Ribas considered a change of formation, but couldn’t really come up with anything that better suited the players available. So he stuck with his 4-5-1 approach, with Jajá the only change to the lineup from last season, with the likes of midfielder Yilson Cuenca and centre back Blagoj Ilievski pushing for starting places.
5th Season in LaLiga
Sant Andreu come into Ribas’ 11th season predicted to finish 10th in LaLiga with title odds of 150/1. Barcelona are 10/11 favourites, followed by Real Madrid (13/8), Atlético (13/1), Villarreal (33/1) and Sevilla, Athletic Club and Real Betis (50/1).
A tough blow at the start of the season saw centre back Oscar Rojas ruled out for up to 3 months with a torn abdominal muscle. But they began in style as a new record 25,053 people flocked to see Luis Marín open the Sant Andreu Stadium with goals either side of halftime before fellow homegrown attacker and record appearances holder Razvan Gogu sealed a 3-0 win over Osasuna. Midfielder Pedro Rodriguez scored the opener and laid on the other for 6ft 7in right back Giorgios Christoforou at Cádiz, before homegrown striker and record goalscorer Óscar Reyes bagged a brace to down Sociedad 3-1 in the first sellout at Sant Andreu Stadium.
They lost 2-0 at Atlético before Cuenca’s late strike nicked a 4-3 win over Espanyol. Rojas’ absence saw a few defensive struggles, but it was telling that Sant Andreu nicked a 1-0 win over Athletic on his return. Another clean sheet followed as Christoforou scored a brilliant hat trick in a 3-0 win over Celta. But a huge win for the club saw them end a dire run against Real Madrid, with quickfire goals seeing Curri laying on the opener for Reyes before Pedro created a delicious second for Gogu. But a week later, they went to their Turf Wars rivals and got dominated 4-1.
Despite that result, Sant Andreu sat in an impressive 3rd place heading into the new year, albeit 14 points behind Barcelona, who’d only failed to win once in 16 matches. Ribas moved on winger Tormod Hundnes to Deportivo for £6.5m, and replaced him by beating Juventus to the £1.2m signing of Ricardo Espínola from Olimpía and Danish striker Nikolaj Hansen Pihl for £7.5m from Brondby (and yep, we just started using the Mr Tini skin).
2036 began with Cunha’s first league goal nicking a 2-1 win at home to Vallecano, before a 0-0 at Mallorca and Marín scored twice as they dominated Cádiz 3-0. Winger Genar Iglesias had an unsually slow start to the season, but came to life at home to Atlético, creating three goals as Sant Andreu cruised to an impressive 4-0 victory.
Big injuries followed to goalkeeper Roy Álvarez and Curri, yet Sant Andreu continued to impress through to a 3-0 defeat at Real. However, the next week, a massive Turf Wars moment saw the challengers pick up a first-ever win over their city rivals FC Barcelona, at the 11th time of asking. And, fittingly, two homegrown Sant Andreu heroes secured it, as Iglesias’ magnificent long pass sent Reyes through to slam home a 73rd-minute winner and send the locals into absolute pandemonium. And that win confirmed the club qualified for the Champions League through their league finish for the first time.
A few tricky fixtures followed, but a decent finish to the season saw Sant Andreu finish in a new record high of 3rd. They finished on 78 points after 24 wins, 6 draws and 8 defeats, scoring 68 and conceding a league-low 30. Marín was the 3rd-best player in LaLiga with a 7.29 average rating, only behind Barcelona’s Nico Paz and Iu Rey. He was also the 10th top scorer with 16 in 38, with Reyes 11th with 15 in 37, and made the 2nd most key passes (114), while Curri and Iglesias were the 8th top assisters with 10. And Ribas claimed his first LaLiga Manager of the Year award.
Dropping Back Into Europa League
Despite reaching last season’s Champions League Final, Sant Andreu’s league finish took them back into the Europa League, which they won in 2034. They began with a tough game at home to Marseille and, with necessary rotation, a calamitous Jacobsen debut cost them a 4-1 defeat. But Folleco’s first goal for the club led a 2-1 win at home to Slavia Prague, before wins at Molde and Panathinaikos and a 3-0 victory at Sporting led by goals for Cuenca and left back Tales. Folleco and Marín goals downed Crvena Zvezda in the new year to cruise into the knockouts, before finishing up with a 2-1 win over Nordsjaelland to finish 5th.
Sant Andreu took on Osijek in the last 16, and Cuenca earned a 2-1 win in Croatia before homegrown striker Ot Callau’s first senior goal edged a 1-0 at home. However, they got the toughest quarter-final against Man United – either side of games against Real and Barcelona – and, with Álvarez still injured, slipped to a 4-1 defeat in England and a rotated side pulled off an impressive 0-0 at home.
Sant Andreu Progress Continues
Sant Andreu not only recorded their best-ever league finish, they also celebrated their first win over their local rivals, as well as getting wins over Real and Atlético. For the first time in a long time, Reyes wasn’t the club’s top scorer, being usurped by the impressive Marín scoring 21 and a club-high 15 assists. Reyes scored 20, followed by Cuenca (9), Gogu and Iglesias (8) and Peter Digha and Pedro Rodríguez (6), while Curri got 13 assists, followed by Gogu and Iglesias (11), Cuenca (10) and Christoforou (6).
The future at Sant Andreu was very bright, as Folleco and Pihl came 3rd and 4th on NxGn 2036, with Norbert 8th, left back Kelechi Suleiman 31st and Nilsen 44th. They also had another stellar youth intake with 4 elite prospects and 2 top players, led by 5-star potential attackers Aran and Carlos Morer and midfielder Dimitrije Radojicic. That takes the club to 23 players with 5-star potential, 13 of which are in the under 19s, as well as six more with 4.5-star potential. The best of the lot, potentially, is winger Souleymane Kouadio, along with Folleco, Cunha, Espinola, Morar, Grima, Henrique Mira, Aran, and last year’s intake stars Pablo Guerrero and Aran Herrera.
Annoyingly, FC Barcelona didn’t only win LaLiga at a canter, they also won a sextuple, beating PSG 3-1 to add the Champions League to the UEFA Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup, Copa del Rey and Supercopa. So their domination of this Turf Wars battle shows no sign of abating.
Despite that continuing dominance, Ribas was choosing to remain positive. He was really excited about the some of the young talent they had coming through the ranks, compared to old man Barcelona, who had 11 players over 30 and 19 aged over 25.
Could Sant Andreu close the gap on their Turf Wars rivals? Join us next time to find out!
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