Real Sociedad Club de Fútbol

Real Sociedad is a Spanish club, from the city of San Sebastian(Basque Country) founded in 1909 through the Club Ciclista de San Sebastian and started out as Ciclista Football-Club. The team plays at the Reale Arena , which for sponsorship reasons has been so named since the 2019/2020 season. Until then, the Real Realista stadium was known as Anoeta or Estadio de Anoeta. The txuriurdin team is recognized as one of the historic teams in Spain, being one of the few to have never been relegated to 2nd Division B.

A dream 80's

Real Sociedad is a team with an important track record. The Basques have 2 leagues, 2 King's Cups and 1 Spanish Super Cup. All these titles, with the exception of the first Copa del Rey, were won in the 1980s. There, the Blue and Whites had a team of great quality. Satrústegui, Arconada, López Ufarte, Gorriz, Kortabarria, Zamora... are well remembered. The Real team in those years was a marvel. And so it was proved, after a 79/80 season in which they were at the gates of the title, the 80/81 and 81/82 campaigns were welded with two txuriurdin championships. The old Atocha stadium was a fortress for the Realistas, who overcame a great Real Madrid to win two titles for history. Even so, the decade would bring more important successes.

The following season, 82/83, Real Sociedad participated in the European Cup(current Champions League) reaching the semifinals where they were defeated by a Hamburg team that, in the end, would become champions. Ormaetxea 's team was just a step away from a European final that would have been another milestone in the history of this great club. In addition, that same season the team from San Sebastian would win another title. Having won the league, they played the Spanish Super Cup in which they came out champions, beating Real Madrid 4-1. However, things did not stop there, as 3 years later and with much suffering, they won the Copa del Rey against Atlético de Madrid on penalties. The decade had been impressive and Real Sociedad, with all its successes, was growing by leaps and bounds.

A runner-up finish and the fall to hell

Real Sociedad started the millennium with a great team. Just like in the 80s, the Basque team started the millennium with world-class players. Kovacevic, De Pedro, Karpin, Nihat, Xabi Alonso, Xabi Prieto or Mikel Aranburu were some of the players that made up that club. With such a strong team, Real was capable of competing for everything. And they did just that in the historic 2002/03 season. Denoueix 's men completed a great campaign and came within a hair's breadth of another league championship. In the end, they finished 2nd behind Real Madrid, which gave them access to the Champions League.

However, the Real Sociedad team's direction would change radically four seasons later. Many important players left the club and the board did not know how to make good reinforcements. All of this led the team to a catastrophic relegation that had already been in the offing for several seasons. The Basques only managed to score 35 points and in 19th place they were relegated to the Second Division many years later. There, the txuriurdin side spent 3 long years to finally be promoted in the 2009/10 season in first position after a great year. Real would start the decade in the First Division at last.

A decade of constant growth with the return to the Champions League.

After a dark period in the club's history, Real Sociedad managed to return to the First Division. The txuriurdin team then, faced a new season with all the illusion in the world and desire after a few years to forget. The realistic club was in a process of reconstruction and economic and social growth that came with a high level squad. Many players who are now in the elite were part of that team. Griezmann, Illarramendi, Iñigo Martínez, Zurutuza, Xabi Prieto, Carlos Vela, Agirretxe, Claudio Bravo... were some of the players who left Real Sociedad in the first four years of the decade. In those campaigns, the Basque team grew little by little. In the first season, the team coached by Martín Lasarte finished in 15th position , being saved by 2 points but achieving 45 units of merit. In the following year, Real kept on the same line. The txuriurdin were 12th with 2 points more than the previous one, 47.

The full growth came in the 2012/13 campaign. Real Sociedad put together a great team with many talented players from the youth academy. Los Donostiarras completed a dream season with an impressive and surprising game, finishing 4th and qualifying for the Champions League qualifying round. It was amazing. Real Sociedad had gone in 3 years from being in the Second Division to competing in the Champions League after a historic season.

In the following year, the txuriurdin faced a very big challenge ahead, to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League and do well in the league. With all their players at a very high level, Real made it to the Champions League group stage by defeating Olympique Lyon 4-0 on aggregate. Antoine Griezmann's amazing bicycle kick at the Groupama Stadium to put his team a foot and a half in the group stage is well remembered. With that, Real had a good season in the league as well. After failing to reach the knockout rounds of the Champions League, Jagoba Arrasate 's side finished 7th and qualified for the Europa League preliminary rounds. In addition, in the Copa del Rey they reached the semifinals, playing a great role in the knockout competition.

Two bad years and back to the Europa League

In the 2014/15 season, Real Sociedad had a year to forget. In the Europa League they failed to reach the group stage losing to Krasnodar in the qualifying round. The txuriurdin team had suffered many tough casualties that summer such as Antoine Griezmann, Seferovic or Claudio Bravo. The Donostiarras did not know how to reinforce well and finished in a poor 12th position in the league that was not convincing. The following season in Donosti was more of the same. Real Sociedad failed to qualify for European competition and finished in 9th position, although only 4 points behind 7th place. Then, third time lucky for Real Sociedad.

In the 2016/17 season they finally made it back to the Europa League having a very good year in which they scored 64 points. Real Real was well reinforced in the summer market with players like Willian José or Juanmi and others like Oyarzabal, Zubeldia or Odriozola began to stand out in the first team coming out of the youth academy. Eusebio Sacristán 's team finished 6th after a great season.

In the 2017/18 campaign, the Europa League returned to Anoeta. Real Sociedad wanted to do something important in Europe in addition to reaffirming themselves in the league by once again finishing in the top 6. Things did not start badly, as the Realistas qualified for the round of 32 of the Europa League and were alive in LaLiga Santander. However, in 2018 everything went wrong with a catastrophic elimination against Salzburg from the Europa League and a 12th place in league that left many doubts.

The following year Real faced it with illusion but with many casualties. Sergio Canales, Odriozola, Xabi Prieto or Iñigo Martínez had left and left a big gap in Donosti. Players like Mikel Merino, Sandro or Theo Hernandez arrived at Real in the summer to reinforce a team that had Asier Garitano as coach. Things did not go well at any time. The team never really convinced in the first round and by 2019 Asier Garitano was already dismissed. Then, Imanol Alguacil came in to turn around the situation of a team that was very close to relegation. The Orio native managed to straighten the course and reach the last day alive in the fight for Europe. Real had to beat Espanyol at the RCDE Stadium but after a bad game they were outplayed and defeated by the Pericans by 2-0 and lost the ticket to the Europa League.

In the following season, the current one, Real Sociedad has been wonderfully reinforced in the summer market. Alexander Isak, Martin Odegaard, Portu, Remiro... The txuriurdin team has put together a great squad and so far they are not disappointing. The Realistas are the revelation team of the competition, placing 4th with 46 points in the league and they are also in the final of the Copa del Rey. Real is having a great season and things are looking very good for the Basques who can make even more history than they are making this year.