The city of Valencia partied for what felt like months non-stop as Roberto Lazaró and his team of homegrown heroes became European champions for the first time in club history. The Champions League success was also Valencia’s first trophy of any kind since it won Copa del Rey 12 years ago in 2019, so the fans, players and backroom staff made up for it in style with an endless flow of beer, wine and Sangria.
That success saw Valencia fly up the world club rankings, despite having won nothing other than that. Indeed, they were now considered reputable than Real Madrid and only just trailed Barcelona to be the 5th most reputable club in the world.
Lazaró joined in the celebrations for a few days before retiring to his home up in the mountains surrounding the city to get some much-needed relaxation. But he returned to work quickly to start plotting how to close the gap to the mighty Real Madrid and Barcelona, who’d shared the last 7 Spanish titles.
Valencia bid farewell to academy product full back Jesús Vázquez who, after 14 years and 290 league appearances, announced he wanted a new challenge and moved to Newcastle for £36m. Lazaró also cashed in on inconsistent midfielder Adriano’s handful of good games to sell him for a ridiculous new club record £98m to Leverkusen. Another stalwart departed in January as 32-year-old Hugo Guillamón left the club after 16 years and 384 league games, going to Saudi for £8.5m before his contract expired.
Having made no signings last season, Lazaró started putting his hard-earned £600m wealth to use. His main priority was a right back, considering Daniel Vargas filled in there last season and his 5 tackling miraculously dropped to 4. So Lazaró signed an exciting natural right back in Pedro Moreira for a new club record £36m from Vitória Guimaraes. He replaced Adriano by beating all the biggest teams in the world to Juan José Ortíz for £1.7m from Junior and promising midfielder Célio for up to £7.5m from Palmeiras. He also promoted wonderkid Matías Romero to replace Vázquez.
Lazaró had slightly tweaked his 4-3-3 approach last season, pushing Alberto Kilamba forward to a right winger to give star man Javi Guerra more space in midfield. And he stuck with that as the primary tactic this season, with the more conservative tactic in reserve.
Keeping Pace With Real’s Majestic LaLiga Start
Valencia began the new season with Lazaró’s second piece of silverware. He fully rotated for the UEFA Super Cup, but Man UFC had Hojlund sent off after 8 minutes, and Vargas earned a 2-1 win after extra time. They remained 3rd favourites for the title at 17/2, behind holders Real (6/4) and Barcelona (13/8).
Valencia had a slow start at Cádiz but eventually nicked a win through false nine Fabián Salsano before conceding a late goal to draw 1-1 at home to Atlético. That formed a tricky start to the season as striker Marco nicked a 1-0 at rivals Villarreal before Kilamba and Salsano’s first-half goals edged a 2-1 win at home to Barca. But they went on a great run that included thrashing Celta 6-2 before a ridiculous penalty, which hit the post then Márcio Antonio’s back, handed them a 1-0 defeat at Real, who’d won their first 10 games conceding only 1 goal! Long-term injuries hit both Marco and Salsano, who broke his ankle in late November, but young attacker Marcelo Machado scored his first senior goal in a 1-0 win over Valladolid. Real were dominating the league and had still conceded once in 17 games going into the winter break, but Valencia only trailed them by 5 points.
Champions League Defence
Valencia began their Champions League defence with strikers Marco and Salsano bagging braces in a 5-3 thriller at home to Feyenoord. Their first away day saw an immediate reunion with Adriano as a rotated side lost 2-0 at Leverkusen before Machado edged a 1-1 at home to Benfica. Marco’s brace downed debutants Alavés 3-0 and Salsano followed suit to earn a 2-2 at Dortmund, but an injury-hit side lost 3-0 at home to Arsenal. It didn’t get much easier in the new year with a trip to Galatasaray, but Guerra and Marco goals earned a 3-0 win before a rotated side lost 3-2 at Bodo-Glimt to finish 20th.
Valencia got a nightmare playoff round against Man City, who lost Haaland on a free to Saudi in the summer and it showed. City missed chances before the academy product strikeforce of Marco and Carlos Seligrat put them to the sword for a 2-0 home leg victory. And Seligrat and Guerra earned a 2-1 away win to ease through surprisingly comfortably.
Napoli were up next and Valencia struggled to a 1-1 at home, but giant centre back Sabato Luisi powered in second-half headers for a 2-1 away. Valencia again faced Spurs in the quarters but conceded Spurs’ first shot in the home leg before growing into the game, levelling through Guerra’s penalty and gifting a late winner. Lazaró rotated for the return leg and lost 3-1 to exit the competition. Spurs went on to reach the Final but lost 3-0 to Real Madrid, who surprisingly won it for the first time in this save.
Capitalising On A Glimpse Of Hope
After 21 successive wins, Real lost back-to-back games at Athletic and Las Palmas before losing 2-1 at home to Valladolid. That opened the door for Valencia, who smashed Villarreal 6-0 and Celta led by Kilamba and Marcos hat tricks, but dropped points with draws at Atlético and Alavés. That moved them 6 points behind Real with 2 games in hand as an exhausted side welcomed the leaders to Nuevo Mestalla in early March. The first half was awful, but a halftime telling-off worked as Romero’s wonderful cross was headed home by Marco. And for the 4th time in 2 seasons, Valencia beat Real 1-0 to move themselves right into the title mix, just 3 points behind with 12 games to go and 2 games in hand.
Valencia eased to wins over Betis and Athletic before a disappointing 2-1 defeat at Girona. They got back on track by defeating Las Palmas 3-1, while Real lost the Madrid derby 2-1 at Atlético, and beat struggling Almería 2-0. That moved them level on points with Real with a game in hand heading into a two-horse title race, in which both teams had to travel to Barca and Valencia had 4 away days.
Game 1 – Real Zaragoza (17th, home): Valencia laid down a marker as Marco and centre back Cristhian Mosquera scored two in a 7-0 thrashing of Zaragoza. That sent them top ahead the day before El Clásico, which Barca won 3-2 thanks to winger Alfred’s 91st-minute winner. So Valencia led by 3 points with a game in hand, but they lost Marco for 3 weeks with a twisted ankle.
Game 2 – Real Valladolid (6th, away): His absence was heavily felt as Valencia immediately handed back the momentum with a wasteful performance to lose 1-0 at high-flying Valladolid. And Madrid took advantage by thrashing Almería 4-0 to go top on goal difference.
Game 3 – Osasuna (16th, away): Valencia now faced three huge games in one massive week. Madrid played first and won 1-0 at Alavés, but Valencia responded in style as Moreira scored his first two goals for the club in a 6-0 hammering of Osasuna.
Game 4 – Barcelona (3rd, away): Valencia’s game in hand took them to Camp Nou knowing a point would take them top. Barca started the better but Valencia stemmed the tide and landed the first punch as Guerra hit a stunner from 30 yards. The hosts continued to dominate and Valencia held them off until injury time, when they again conceded a late goal – but went top by a point with 2 games remaining.
Game 5 – Sevilla (14th, home): Three days later, Valencia played their final home game of the season the day before Real. They went straight on the attack and scored after 17 seconds through Salsano’s brilliant volley. The striker then teed up Guerra to double the lead, it was all over when Guerra scored a penalty and Ortíz and Seligrat wrapped up a thumping victory. The next day, Real hammered bottom-side Tenerife 8-0 to take the battle to the final day.
Game 6 – Real Sociedad (5th, away): A first Spanish title in 28 years was on the line as Valencia went to 5th place Sociedad with a 1-point lead over Real, who visited 13th-place Celta. The big game started slowly with the only highlight being Marco hitting the post, but Real were winning 2-1 so topped the league at the break. Lazaró fired the team up and got his reward as Salsano’s shot rebounded to Ortíz to slam his side in front. Real raced into a 4-1 lead so Valencia had to hold on and, despite dominating the game, they did to win 1-0.
Valencia won LaLiga and were Champions of Spain for the first time since 2004!
Valencia won LaLiga by 1 point from Real, finishing on 97 points with a new club record 21 wins, 4 draws and 3 defeats, scoring 102 and conceding just 21. Real didn’t draw a single game all season, but lost 6 of their last 17. Marco was the 3rd-top scorer with 21 in 29, 5 fewer than Bellingham, and Guerra was the 3rd-best player with a 7.53 average rating behind Bellingham and Yamal (7.65 and 7.57). Lazaró won Mánager del ano for the first time and Marco again won top Spanish goalscorer.
Celebrating A Famous Valencia Season
Lazaró brought more success to Valencia, winning the Spanish title in his 9th season at the club. Marco led the way with 27 goals in 40 games but Guerra arguably had his best season yet, scoring 23 with 14 assists. Also impressive were Salsano (13 goals and 14 assists), Selograt (11 goals and 8 assists), Machado (11 goals and 4 assists), Ortíz (9 goals and 7 assists), Kilamba (8 goals and 14 assists) and Romero (11 assists).
Valencia had fewer homegrown players this season, but they contributed to a shared 374 league games and 85 goals, as well as 169 cup games and 23 goals. Click below for the full stats:
Romero was a surprise winner of European Golden Boy, becoming the second Valencia player to win it after Salsano, who came 2nd in Kopa Trophy. And two of this season’s signings were in the top 3 of NxGn 2032, which was won by Ortíz with Moreira 3rd.
Valencia Mestalla survived in LaLiga 2 again, finishing 14th with 54 points while Barca’s B team got relegated. The U19s again won their league group and beat Atlético in the Final, winning the competition for the second time and the first since 2026 on the same night as the senior team lifted the LaLiga title. They also reached consecutive UEFA Youth League Finals, only to again lose on penalties to Crvena Zvezda. The U19 stars were striker Amador with 34 goals and 17 assists and midfielder Hugo Moreno with 37 goals and 10 assists from just 25 starts. Click the chart below for all the youth player stats:
Lazaró’s homegrown focus had really flourished in the last two seasons, as his hard work was rewarded by lifting the big two prizes he’d been targeting with a fully homegrown team. As a result, this season marks the end of Lazaró’s time at Valencia.
Rather than staying to defend LaLiga, Lazaró decided to go in search of a new club that was struggling and aim to rebuild them using the club’s homegrown talents. This search will take us outside of Spain, so no more Ibero-American signings.
But where would Lazaró move in his attempts to establish a second Wonderkid Factory? Join us next Friday to find out!
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