Supporters of Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu were in dreamland as, for the second summer in succession, they honoured their footballing heroes with an open-top bus celebration parading the European Cup trophy through the streets of Cataluña. The region was used to decking the streets out in red and yellow as their Catalan heroes Luis Marín, Genar Iglesias, Norbert, Dimitrije Radojicic and Pablo Guerrero led days of riotous celebration.
Ridiculously, a second consecutive Champions League success saw Sant Andreu, who’d been in the fourth tier of Spanish football 13 years ago, become officially the most reputable club in the world. However, the big objective looming over Ultras leader turned manager Oriol Ribas was to win the club’s maiden Spanish title.
To do that, he had plenty of financial backing. Annual profits of £186m were boosted by a few sales, including backup midfielder Wojciech Dudzinski joining Inter for £10.5m and centre back José Samper going to Celta for £4m. However, a sad day for the club saw Newcastle come in with a £30m bid for homegrown star and vice-captain Razvan Gogu, who wanted a new challenge. So Ribas negotiated them up to a club record sale of £40m for the Romanian, who scored 81 goals with 86 assists in 397 league games for the club since coming through the very first youth intake in 2026. And that boosted the bank balance to over £480m.
Ribas had a £207m transfer budget that he couldn’t dream of spending and was only using £1.6m of his £3.5m wage budget. He snapped up a few exciting prospects, who went into the youth team, but Ribas retained faith in his existing first teamers. He also promoted Uruguayan midfielder Emanuel de los Santos, another Catalan star in midfielder Aureli Granell and exciting Greek academy starlet Apostolos Nikolaidis. He also stuck with the exact same approach and first choice 11 as last season.
A Strong Start to LaLiga
Sant Andreu remained third favourites for LaLiga at 15/2, only behind holders FC Barcelona and Real Madrid (4/7 and 7/1). They kicked off with a dominant display as Norbert and 6ft 6in Scottish striker Sam Docherty secured a 2-0 win over Mallorca, before Norbert scored twice in a 4-3 thriller at Valencia and a 5-1 win over Espanyol either side of a draw at Atlético. The good start continued and Marín’s late winner at home to Alavés sent Sant Andreu top of LaLiga for the first time in late October. Nikolaidis scored his first senior goal in a 2-0 win at Betis, and they cemented their position with a brilliant Marín double inspiring a 3-2 win at home to Real before earning their first-ever point at Camp Nou. Barca went on to lose 4-2 at home to Gijón and an injury-hit Sant Andreu finally lost 1-0 at Athletic Club, and they took a 6-point lead into the winter break.
Sant Andreu began the 2040s with good news as star man Marín, now 27, signed a new 5-year deal on a new club record of £300k a week. They kicked off the new decade in style as Docherty’s brace led a 5-1 demolition of Valencia, befrore Docherty’s late goal edged a 2-1 at Mallorca on the same day as Barcelona lost 3-1 at home to Osasuna. Marín surpassed Gogu’s appearances record in a 2-0 win at Sevilla and rubber-stamped his legendary status by scoring the opener as he became the first player to make 400 league appearances for Sant Andreu in a 4-1 success at Espanyol. Iglesias quadrupled his league goal tally for the season with a wonderful hat trick firing his side to a 5-1 demolition of Atlético. And, in fact, the winger, now 28, was arguably having his career-best season, inspiring three victories through February to open up a 9-point lead.
Chasing Three Consecutive Champions Leagues
Sant Andreu began the season with a second UEFA Super Cup as Jansen inspired a 4-0 beating of RB Leipzig. And a few months later, they dominated Flamengo as a Docherty brace led a 5-2 victory to defend the Club Intercontinental Championship at Camp Nou.
Their second Champions League defence began with a rotated team losing 1-0 at home to Chelsea. But they dominated Ajax 4-0 and Granell’s first senior goal led a 2-1 win at Celtic, before defeats at Milan and Man City and a draw at Brighton. And, for the second time in a year, that left them at risk, sitting 19th before the final two games. But they eased past Genk 3-1 and dominated Bodo/Glimt 4-1 to finish 9th. Dinamo Zagreb followed in the playoff round, and were dismissed 5-3 on aggregate. A tougher task followed against Liverpool in the last 16 and, after a 3-3 thriller at home, a tired team lost 4-0 in England to bring the impressive continental run to an end. But, that allowed Ribas and his team to fully focus on LaLiga.
Sant Andreu Hunt Elusive LaLiga
Sant Andreu secured Champions League qualification in mid-March as Jansen’s brace downed Osasuna 4-1, having matched their record top-tier points last season. That was extended with Docherty and Marín doubles earning a 5-2 victory at Alavés before midfielder Tomislav Adolf Bonacic’s late goal nicked a 1-0 over Betis, while Barcelona lost 2-1 at Athletic and drew 1-1 at Atlético. That opened up a 15-point lead before games against the big two.
Game 33 – Real Madrid (3rd, away): A tough away day saw Sant Andreu slip to a 3-0 defeat despite dominating possession and having 18 shots. Barcelona, who had a game in hand, won 3-2 at home to Espanyol to cut the lead to 12 points.
Game 34 – Barcelona (2nd, home): Sant Andreu began the Turf Wars derby in style as Docherty robbed Cubarsi, played a one-two with Marín and smashed home the opener from 25 yards. Barca equalised with their first attack and their second to take an undeserved lead into halftime, then scored just after it. The hosts showed their resilience as Iglesias got one back and Marín had a goal disallowed, but fell short in a 3-2 defeat that was hard to take. Barcelona also won their game in hand to cut the lead to just 6 points with 4 games remaining.
Game 35 – Villarreal (14th, away): Iglesias gave them another flyer, scoring inside 2 minutes at Villarreal, in a first half they bossed by 10 shots to 2. And they finally made chances count after the break, as right back Giorgios Christoforou, Jansen and Docherty sealed a 4-0 win. Barca battered Valladolid 6-1 to keep the gap at 6 points.
Game 36 – Las Palmas (14th, home): That put Sant Andreu potentially one win away from the Spanish title with 3 games remaining. Big Christoforou headed them in front from a freekick at home to Las Palmas and, as usual, they missed a whole host of opportunities, racking up 26 shots. But in the end, one goal was enough. Barcelona won 2-0 at Gijón.
Game 37 – Leganés (16th, away): Sant Andreu just needed 1 point from the final 2 games to win the league. Unsurprisingly, the players started a little nervously and had Roy Álvarez to thank for a couple of decent early saves. But they grew into the game and a wonderful run by Christoforou teed up Docherty to slam in the opener. A familiar story followed as they rained in shots on the Leganés goal, before centre back Peter Digha turned in Norbert’s corner on the verge of halftime. The second half was controlled with ease as Ribas threw on some of his younger players and they won 2-0.
Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu won LaLiga to become Champions of Spain!
Sant Andreu celebrated the success in front of their jubilant supporters with a 3-1 win over Athletic, in which Docherty broke Óscar Reyes’ club record for most goals in a season. They went on to win the league by 9 points, finishing on 99 points after 32 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats, scoring an incredible 109 goals (2.87 per game) and conceding 37.
Iglesias was the best player in the league with a 7.44 average rating, followed by Docherty and Jansen (7.50 and 7.45). Docherty led the league with 32 goals in 37 games, with Marín 9th on 18 in 38, and Jansen was the top assister with 19 followed by Iglesias on 16. Iglesias created the most chances (47, 12 more than anyone else) and made the most key passes (104) and open play key passes (104, 15 more than anyone else), while Bonacic attempted the most passes (3,114, 195 more than anyone else). Sant Andreu’s dominance was proven by them having 97 shots more than any other team (756) and 49 more shots on target (369) with a league-high 14% conversion rate. They also had the most final third passes (7,296), created the most chances (195), the highest pass completion ratio (91%), the most high intensity sprints (5,263), the best cross completion (32%) and scored the most goals from corners (8). As a result, Iglesias deservedly won LaLiga Player of the Year, Docherty won Young Player of the Year and Ribas won his second Manager of the Year award.
Celebrant el Sant Andreu, Campió d’Espanya
The passionate Sant Andreu fans had become accustomed to success of late, but this was the one they all wanted. An almighty party erupted across the Catalan region as they celebrated their heroes becoming Spanish champions for the first time. Docherty led the way with a fantastic new club record 42 goals, 10 assists and a 7.58 rating in 47 games, but Jansen was again superb with 21 goals and 22 assists, Marín impressed as always with 21 goals and 13 assists and Iglesias scored 9 goals with 19 assists. Norbert delivered 14 goals with 12 assists, Ricardo got 11 goals and 11 assists and Christoforou chipped in with 4 goals and 8 assists.
Jansen succeeded Docherty as the winner of FIFA Best U21 Men’s Player in September 2039, Bonacic maintained Sant Andreu’s stranglehold on the European Golden Boy award and Docherty became the club’s first winner of the European Golden Shoe. A big coup for the club was being recognised as having the world’s greatest youth setup in October. And that setup delivered another good intake led by goalkeeper Norbert Duenas and Venezuelan right back Diego Urdaneta, along with Uruguayan right back Gonzalo Acuna and wingers Óscar Ferrés and Anselm Arola.
For only the third time in the 15 seasons of this save, Barcelona didn’t win a single trophy, while the club’s average age has increased to 30 compared to Sant Andreu’s falling to 21. The clubs’ ambition was proven by Ribas snapping up some of the best young talent in the world, while Barcelona’s only major signing was a washed-up 34-year-old Désiré Doué. Furthermore, Barcelona don’t have a single player aged under 23 in their first team and have 11 over 30, while Sant Andreu only have 6 players aged over 23 and have 16 first teamers aged under 21.
Could Sant Andreu build on their latest success to put the nail into FC Barcelona and fully claim Turf Wars bragging rights? Join us on Monday to find out!
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