Valencia CF - Definition and Overview

Valencia Club de Fútbol (also known as Valencia, CF or just Valencia or Los Ches) is a team in the first division of the Spanish Football League.

Founded in 1919, Valencia CF is based in the city of Valencia, Spain. The team's home stadium is the 53, 000 seater Mestalla, which was opened in 1923.

Valencia CF won the Spanish title for the sixth time in May 2004, their second in three years.

Valencia CF won the UEFA Cup for the third time in 2004, tying four other teams for the most UEFA Cups won. After suffering recent tough losses in Europe in the finals of the UEFA Champions League in 2000 and 2001, the team was finally able to triumph in the finals of European play.

Thanks to good coaching, one of the best defences in world soccer, including the charismatic Italian Carboni and the fiery Argentinian Roberto Ayala, and an imaginative playmaker, young Pablo Aimar (also from Argentina), Valencia has grown into one of the world's great teams.

On June 1, 2004, Rafa Benitez stepped down as coach of Valencia amid rumors that he was headed to Liverpool F.C.; those rumors proved true, as he was hired by Liverpool two weeks later.

On June 8, 2004, Claudio Ranieri was named the new head coach.

Honours

• Spanish First Division Champions
  • 1941/42 1943/44 1946/47 1970/71 2001/02 2003/04
• Spanish Cups
  • 1941 1949 1954 1967 1979 1999
• Spanish Super Cup
  • 1999 2004
• UEFA Cup (formerly Inter-Cities Fairs Cup)
  • 1961/62 1962/63 2003/04
• European Cup Winners Cup
  • 1979/80
• European Super Cup
  • 1980/81 2004/2005

Notable Players

• Pablo Aimar
• Roberto Ayala
• Mario Kempes
• Romário
• Zlatko Zahovic

2004/2005 squad

Goalkeepers

• • 1 - Santiago Cañizares Ruiz
  • 13 - Andrés Palop Cervera
  • 25 - Ludovic Butelle

Defenders

• • 3 - Fabio Aurelio Rodrigues
  • 4 - Roberto Fabián Ayala
  • 5 - Carlos Marchena López
  • 12 - Marco Caneira
  • 15 - Amedeo Carboni
  • 17 - David Navarro Pedrós
  • 23 - Crístobal Emilio Torres Ruiz (Curro Torres)
  • 24 - Emiliano Moretti

Midfielders

• • 6 - David Albelda Aliques
  • 7 - Stefano Fiore
  • 8 - Rubén Baraja Vegas
  • 14 - Vicente Rodríguez Guillén
  • 16 - Mohamed Lamine Sissoko
  • 19 - Francisco Joaquín Pérez Rufete
  • 21 - Pablo César Aimar
  • 31 - Nicolas Karlamoff

Forwards

• • 9 - Bernardo Corradi
  • 10 - Miguel Angel Angulo Valderrey
  • 11 - Marco Di Vaio
  • 18 - Francisco Muñoz Llompart (Xisco)
  • 20 - Miguel Ángel Ferrer Martínez (Mista)

External links

• Official Website (http://www.valenciacf.es/) - available in English, Spanish, Valencian, and Japanese
• http://www.ciberche.net - Fan website
• http://www.che-uk.co.uk - Che-UK is the supporters club of Valencia CF fans living in the UK and Ireland
• http://www.amunt-valencia.net - Amunt Valencia Web (in Spanish)