Oriol Ribas led Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu to survival in Spain’s third tier, relying on young players to avoid the bookies’ prediction of a surefire relegation. But Ribas’ job wasn’t getting any easier ahead of his third season in charge of the Catalan club.
In their infinite wisdom, the Sant Andreu board decided to expand Narcís Sala by 1,607 seats, taking it to a new capacity of 8,170, at the cost of £2m they didn’t have. £1m was secured through a council grant, while the rest plunged the club into a further £1m of debt, taking it to £1.2m in total. As a result, the club came into the 2027/28 campaign £423k in the red, but the board did hand Ribas a £109k transfer budget while reducing his wage budget to £33k, of which he was spending £16k. Ribas also opted to form a Sant Andreu B side, which should, in theory, allow youngsters to play matches, given the U19s don’t play any.
The financial issues were eased as senior players Carlos Blanco, Emilio Lucas Vina and Sergi Garcia departed at the end of their contracts, freeing up £4k from the wage budget. Ribas bolstered the squad with another FC Barcelona graduate defender Madou Murcia, along with midfielder Simao Soares, who’ll retrain as a centre back. He also promoted young attackers Razvan Gogu, Óscar Fosch, Óscar Reyes and Milan Rodic.
Ribas stuck with his 4-2-3-1 approach, although he did later drop the left winger back into a left midfield role. Murcia or Galde fill in at left back, with centre back Leo Saca still facing another 7 months out with a brutal injury, 18-year-old captain Jesús comes in alongside Dani Ávila, Raul Oaie and Gogu are on the wings with Antonio Vazquez playing in behind last season’s top scorer Héctor Tejada.
Second Season in Primera Federación
The bookies still didn’t fancy Sant Andreu’s chances, predicting them to finish 17th with title odds of 200/1. Villarreal B are 4/5 favourites, along with Huesca (5/4), relegated Andorra (9/4), Cartagena (6/1), promoted Betis B (8/1) and Sociedad B (10/1).
Sant Andreu began the campaign poorly as Betis B scored their first shot. But they responded in style as Tejada’s hat trick inspired a 3-2 victory. Gogu’s first senior goal nicked a 1-1 at Sanluqueno and Ávila’s 25-yard stunner earned a 1-0 win over Valencia B. The ground expansion was completed in late September and a new club record 8,057 people turned up to see Tejada’s strike earn a 1-1 with former LaLiga side Huelva.
That was part of a solid start inspired by Tejeda, who scored 11 as Sant Andreu only lost once in the first 10 games, including midfielder Jesús scoring his first two goals for the club in a 4-0 domination of Andorra. And Tejada’s brace at Villarreal saw Sant Andreu go top of Primera Federación for the first time, which earned Ribas his first manager of the month award in October 2027.
Unsurprisingly, that strong form didn’t last as they failed to win in November, including a 2-1 defeat at leaders Huesca. But Sant Andreu went into a winter break sitting 4th, just 5 points behind Huesca but 10 points ahead of Valencia Mestalla in 6th.
Chasing A Playoff Place
Sant Andreu lost star academy graduate Vazquez to Udinese for a club record £250k in January, which saw fellow academy star Reyes recalled from a loan. They also had an iffy start to 2028, losing at Betis B and Valencia B and then drawing five in a row.
That left Sant Andreu in the thick of an exciting playoff race, with 2nd-place Eldense and 7th-place Sociedad separated by just 5 points, with 2nd to 5th going into the playoffs. Saca headed a crucial goal at Sociedad B in his third game back from injury, which lifted Sant Andreu to 3rd with six games remaining. Tejada’s 20th goal of the season secured a 3-1 victory at home to Sevilla B and Gogu scored twice in an impressive 4-1 win at Cartagena.
Those wins dragged Sant Andreu back to just 4 points behind Huesca as they entertained the leaders at the end of April. But an attacking injury crisis hit at the wrong time, and the leaders won 2-0 to wrap up the title, leaving a thrilling race behind them with 2nd to 6th split by just 2 points with three games remaining. An exciting new starlet (see below) nicked a 1-0 win at Algeciras before Raúl laid on both goals for makeshift striker Reyes at home to Ibiza to secure Sant Andreu’s playoff place. But a 1-1 at home to Espanyol B on the final day saw Sant Andreu drop two places.
They finished 4th on 69 points (20 more than last season) after 19 wins (7 more), 12 draws and a joint league-low 7 defeats, scoring 54 and conceding a league-low 34 (20 fewer). Tejada was again the 3rd top scorer with 21 in 34, 10 fewer than Valencia B’s Mario Domínguez, who looks far too good for this level, and Raúl got the 11th-most assists with 9. Raúl also led the league with 124 key passes and created the 3rd-most chances (28), while Kravets led the way with 15 clean sheets.
That sent Sant Andreu into the two-legged Primera Federación playoffs, which began against Barakaldo, who finished 3rd in Grupo I. They started well as Tejada returned from five weeks out with a brace to win 3-1 away, but were even better four days later as Reyes’ hat trick inspired a superb 5-1 win. Lugo, who finished 2nd in Grupo I, were up next and the exciting new youngster scored the only goal in the home leg. A week later, an entertaining game saw Sant Andreu twice go in front through Murcia and Gogu, despite a late equaliser, a 2-2 draw was enough for a narrow victory. Ribas presumed that would send them into the final, but no, as both teams that won the two playoff games were promoted.
So Sant Andreu were promoted to LaLiga 2 for the first time in club history!
Celebrating An Unexpected Promotion
To say this promotion wasn’t on the cards was a massive understatement, as Sant Andreu’s exciting youngsters snuck through the Primera Federación playoffs. Tejada again led the way with 23 goals in 37 games, followed by homegrown stars Gogu (10), Reyes (7) and Raúl (6), who led the assists with 13, followed by right back Pablo Santiago (8), Tejada, Murcia and Fosch (7) and Gogu and Jesús (6). Furthermore, this remarkable young squad had achieved promotion with a wage spend of just £17,870 per week.
Sant Andreu had another strong youth intake led by exciting Cataluña-born attacker Luis Marín, who looks like a potential homegrown superstar. He got an assist 16 minutes into his debut as he became the club’s youngest-ever player in the win at Cartagena, aged 15 years 335 days, then the youngest scorer two weeks later at Algeciras and the only goal in the Lugo playoff home leg. It also included winger Genar Iglesias and right back Adrian Zaharia, along with wingers Óscar Nunez and Moussa Karamoko, full back Narcís Aspar, centre backs Joan Ramón Herráiz, Baye Kanté and Eugeni Roca.
These were truly exciting times for the Sant Andreu support, who saw their club move within just one league of local rivals FC Barcelona for the first time. There was no doubt they faced a massive test to stay in Spain’s second tier, but Ribas had full faith in his exciting youngsters to make the step up. And, as usual, here is our comparison with FC Barcelona, who won a cup double of Copa del Rey and Supercopa but only finished 3rd in LaLiga, which Real Madrid won for a third successive season.
Could Ribas strengthen the Sant Andreu squad to try and survive in the club’s first ever season in LaLiga 2 next season? Join us next Monday to find out!
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