Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu recorded yet another highest-ever finish as they came 3rd behind Turf Wars rivals FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in 2036. And Ultras leader-turned-manager Oriol Ribas was excited about the massive potential at the club.
The club yet again paid off its debts, this time £33m incurred by the Sant Andreu Stadium unveiled at the start of the previous campaign, in the summer. A 38% increase in sponsorship revenue – taking them to £7.3m, well below Barcelona’s ludicrous £310m – 106% increase in corporate revenue and 67% increase in match day and retail revenue saw the club come into Ribas’ 12th season at the helm with £96m in the bank and a still relatively low transfer budget of £24m. Ribas boosted that with a clearout of backup players, including attackers Souleymane Kouadio and Armel Dikwa going to Lens and Liverpool for £5m and £8.5m. However, they also finally lost centre back Oscar Rojas, who’d constantly been complaining and refused to sign a new deal, for a club record £30m to Chelsea. And that saw the bank balance surge to £140m.
Rather than reinvest that, Ribas put his money where his mouth was with the club’s hot prospects. José Samper will get a chance to replace Rojas, while attacker Nikolaj Hansen Pihl, midfielder Rabah Bensalem and 16-year-old centre back Aran Herrera were all promoted to the first team. However, the big positive of the summer was captain and talisman Luis Marín finally putting his litter of annoyances behind him to sign a new five-year deal on a club record £230k per week (a £100k increase).
Ribas stuck with his tried and tested 4-3-3 approach, with Samper coming in at the back and Yílson Cuenca competing with Endrit Curri to start on the right wing.
Heightened Expectations in LaLiga
The bookies boosted Sant Andreu’s chances this season, predicting them to finish 7th with title odds of 50/1, alongside Real Betis, Athletic Club, Real Sociedad and Osasuna. Turf Wars rivals FC Barcelona are 4/5 favourites to win three in a row, along with Real Madrid (15/8), Atlético (25/1) and Sevilla and Villarreal (33/1).
Sant Andreu began their sixth season in LaLiga with an impressive performance, racking up 22 shots and winning 4-2, with Cuenca opening the scoring before goals by the homegrown trio of Norbert, Genar Iglesias and Marín. That was backed up by dominating Alavés 3-0 with goals by Razvan Gogu, Iglesias and Marín, before fellow homegrown star Óscar Reyes scored twice to nick a 4-3 thriller at Sociedad and Gogu scored a brilliant hat trick to down Celta 4-0.
The good start ended with a 1-0 defeat at home to Real and results began to drop off, culminating in an embarrassing 5-0 thumping at FC Barcelona, but Sant Andreu clung on to 3rd place heading into the new year. Their form was epitomised by Reyes’ decline, as he endured a 13-hour goal drought. So, in January, after selling left back Jajá to Rennes for £14.5m from Rennes, Ribas spent a new club record £16m on 6ft 5in Scottish attacker Sam Docherty from Ross County.
Docherty scored a debut winner in a 4-3 thriller at Celta before claiming an assist hat trick on his home debut in a 5-1 win over Valladolid. A big game took them to the Bernabéu in late February, and they were unlucky to go behind to a penalty but equalised through centre back Peter Digha, only to immediately concede. A brilliant Curri run set up Pedro Rodríguez to score a screamer and, straight from the kickoff, Gogu sent Docherty through to make it 2-3. The big striker then took a free kick, which Gogu won in the air for left back Kelechi Suleiman to score a fourth. But Vini Jr got one back and the hosts went on to make it 4-4 to earn a point from an extremely entertaining match.
Sant Andreu took the positives from that thriller by scoring goals galore, with 15 in the next four games, including Marín’s brace inspiring a dominant 3-1 win over Levante and Norbert pulling the strings in another 3-0 win over Almería. And that, to the surprise of everyone in Spain, saw them technically in a title battle, trailing Barcelona, who had 3 games in hand, by 5 points. However, any distant hopes were dashed by a 3-0 defeat at Atlético, and they suffered the ignominy of Barcelona lifting the title with a 3-2 win at Sant Andreu Stadium. But Docherty and Marín secured a 2-0 win at Girona on the final day, to secure a superb 2nd place finish. They got 1 more point than last season to finish on 79 points after 25 wins, 4 draws and 9 defeats, scoring 84 and conceding 51 (15 and 21 more than last season).
NxGn Winner Leads Even More Exciting Youth Prospects
The big news off the field was yet another prolonged takeover process, which lasted for more than three months before finally ending in a consortium backed by Valencia-based investor Óscar Rojas taking control of the club in early May. The new board’s first move was to extend Sant Andreu Stadium by 12,867 seats, which will force the club to move to the 56,000-capacity Estadi Olímpoc Lluís Companys for the 2037/38 campaign, and agreed to improve the youth facilities.
The summer of 2037 saw record goalscorer Óscar Reyes, now 27, join Atlético for £6m after 164 goals in 322 league games. Curri’s form had also been dropping off and, also 27, he went to Saudi for £10m. Ribas also sold winger Antonio Cunha and defender Reuben Gyesi to Leverkusen for £10m and £17m, Cuenca to Monaco for £14m, defender Bojan Iliovski and failed attacker Henrique Mira to Saudi for £14m and £7m.
Ribas allowed Reyes to move on because he’d already brought in Docherty and had another superstar joining. NxGn 2037 winner Quentin Jansen signed for £12.5m from Westerlo and his value immediately jumped to £160m. Ribas also brought in promising goalkeeper Nuno Rianco for £12.5m from Tondela, midfielder Freddy Skogfoss, who’ll retrain as a centre back, for £2.9m from Universidad de Chile and dubiously named midfielder Tomislav Adolf Bonacic for £6.5m from Hajduk. He also promoted attackers Wojciech Dudzinski and Daniel Folleco.
Ribas considered switching to a two-striker formation, before realising Jansen was ideal as a second striker in behind Docherty. He also had to bring homegrown starlet Norbert into the first team, so he filled the vacant role on the right wing.
Season eight in LaLiga began with a slightly unlucky 1-0 defeat at Atlético. Jansen settled in by creating the equaliser for Docherty and a wonderful Iglesias goal in a 4-3 win at home to Sevilla, who scored twice in injury time, then got his first goal in a 3-0 win at Betis. That was followed by a ridiculous derby day at home to Barcelona, in which a sellout set a new club record attendance. The visitors twice cancelled out Docherty goals from kickoff, then went ahead only for Suleiman to head in a corner just before halftime. Marín somehow beat their massive centre back in the air to make it 4-3 just after the hour mark, only for Barca to get yet another equaliser for another 4-4 draw.
A tricky start to the year, including a 2-1 defeat at Barca and defeats to Atlético and Sevilla, saw them drop off the pace. But Jansen hit top form to inspire a 4-0 win at struggling Espanyol and a 2-1 win over Athletic, and they hit form through March and April to move into contention, albeit 7 points off top spot with five games remaining. And a sticky end to the season saw them finish 5th on 75 points (4 fewer than last season) after 23 wins, 6 draws and 9 defeats. Iglesias and Docherty were the 2nd and 5th best players in the league with 7.56 and 7.47 average ratings, and Docherty was the 5th top scorer with 21 in 26 (only 3 fewer than Alaves’ Unanua, who played 9 more games) and won the league’s Young Player of the Year award. Only Nico Paz had more than Iglesias’ 16 assists and he led the way with 119 key passes.
Sant Andreu Return to the Champions League
Overperformance in 2034/35 saw Sant Andreu earn Champions League through their league position for the first time. Their return to Europe’s elite began with a tough test, welcoming Man City to Sant Andreu Stadium, but they played fairly well, with Marín equalising before Haaland (boring) scored the winner. They edged a 2-1 win at home to Roma and Hansen Pihl’s first two goals for the club earned a 3-1 win at Dinamo Zagreb. Marín’s late goal decided a poor game at Galatasaray before only losing 1-0 to a penalty at PSG and earning an impressive 0-0 at AC Milan. A 3-0 at home to Basel and a Norbert double downed FC Annecy 4-1 to secure an 8th-place finish.
Annoyingly, they drew Real in the last 16, and lost 2-0 away. But they put up a fight at home as, after conceding to Real’s first effort from a corner, went 2-1 up with Docherty and Gpgu goals either side of halftime. But, despite complete domination, it wasn’t to be, and they exited 3-2 on aggregate.
In the 2037/38 season, another tough start was handled well as Rianco kept a clean sheet on debut to earn a point at Newcastle. Gogu’s brace led a 4-1 domination of Porto before an unlucky 2-1 defeat at home to Chelsea, but Marín’s consecutive braces earned a 3-1 win at Brighton, who won the Premier League in 2036, and a 3-0 win at home to AZ. And Ribas celebrated 600 games at Sant Andreu with a 4-0 win over Feyenoord to qualify in 3rd, only behind Barcelona and Real. A friendlier last-16 draw saw them take on Olympiacos and, after a disappointing 2-1 loss in Greece, a strong home performance saw Marín and Ricardo Espínola braces inspire a 5-2 victory. That teed up a quarter-final clash with Frankfurt, and a Suleiman header edged a 1-1 in Germany, before Norbert ran the show in a comfortable 4-1 home win.
That sent them into a semi final with FC Bayern, while Napoli faced PSG, who beat Brighton 6-2 after a 4-1 away loss. Another trip to Germany was up first, and Sant Andreu started well with Docherty seeing a freekick well saved before scoring a delicious low 20-yarder on 22 minutes. They completely dominated the first half, having 10 shots inside 35 minutes, and took advantage as Norbert’s flighted ball picked out Jansen to control on his chest and slam into the top corner. Bayern undeservedly got a goal back with one of their first attacks, and Pedro and Jansen both hit the bar in the second half before Álvarez pulled off a superb late save to secure a 2-1 win. Their advantage was gone within 5 minutes of the second leg, but restored as an excellent team move ended with Pedro converting a low shot from 25 yards. Bayern kicked Marín out of the game, but Jansen stepped up with a wonderful solo goal, beating two men before curling into the far corner. The tie looked all over as Docherty leapt highest at a corner and his header deflected in off Suleiman’s back, and they went on to secure a 3-2 win and 5-3 aggregate success.
Sant Andreu headed into their second Champions League Final in four years which, for only the second time in 8 years, wouldn’t feature Barcelona. Instead, their city rivals flew the Catalan flag as they faced off against Napoli, who beat PSG 3-2 on aggregate to reach their first Champions League Final. And that meant there would be a first-time European champion in 2038. 77,000 fans from Spain and Italy headed east to the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Başakşehir, and Ribas had a clean bill of health, so he lined up:
Álvarez; Christoforou, Digha, Samper, Suleiman; Pedro; Norbert, Marín, Jansen, Iglesias; Docherty
Subs: Espínola, Rianco, Skogfoss, Bonacic, Gogu, Croes, Nilsen, Folleco, Guerrero, Radojicic, Dudzinski, Jacobsen
Sant Andreu began the game brightly, with 5 shots in the first 15 minutes, and eventually took advantage as Jansen’s long pass put Docherty through and the big Scot slammed into the top corner. But, straight from kickoff, Napoli equalised with their first shot. The Spaniards continued to dominate, and Docherty had two headers tipped over early in the second half. Marín had struggled in the game, so Ribas dropped him deeper in midfield, which worked nicely as, on 80 minutes, he picked up the ball and threaded Docherty in to calmly double his tally. Then, 2 minutes from time, he made a great run to latch onto Christforou’s pass and curled the ball past the keeper into the far corner to seal a deserved win.
Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu were Champions of Europe!
Sant Andreu’s Star Youngsters Recognised
Catalan pride was at an all-time high as regional hero Luis Marín inspired a Champions League success and lifted the famous trophy for Sant Andreu. And Ribas was speechless with the performances of his exciting team. The excellent Docherty led the way with 30 goals in 40 games, followed by Marín (28), Igelsias (13), Espínola (12) and Jansen and Norbert. And Iglesias was back to his best to lead the assists chart with 22, followed by Jansen (17), Marín (16) and Norbert (12).
Sant Andreu’s youngsters gained recognition as Jacobsen won the European Golden Boy in December 2036 and was succeeded by Docherty 12 months later. Norbert came 7th in NxGn 2037, which was won by Jansen, with Pihl 20th, Docherty 29th and attacker Wojciech Dudzinski 39th. Docherty doubled up as he won NxGn 2038, and Sant Andreu took a clean sweep with Jansen 2nd and Bonacic 3rd, along with Dudzinski 30th. While Norbert (full name Norbert Padrón), who was very much one of Ribas’ favourites, became only the second Sant Andreu academy product to play for Spain, when he made his debut in a 4-2 friendly win over Peru in March 2038. However, unlike Marín, who now has 8 goals in 32 caps, he missed out on the squad for the World Cup in South Africa. The club also had a couple of solid youth intakes, led by exciting Greek attacker Apostolos Nikolaidis and midfielder Wassim in the latest batch.
This was the first season in which Sant Andreu outperformed their Turf Wars rivals, as Barcelona only won a Supercopa while Sant Andreu won the Champions League. And, for some strange reason, Sant Andreu were charging extortionate amounts for season tickets.
Ribas was over the moon with his 13th season at the helm of his beloved Sant Andreu. But the next step now was to bridge the toughest gap of all and usurp Real and Barcelona to win the club’s first LaLiga title. Join us on Monday to see if they can move any closer!
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