Fabril · History

In 1953-54 Fabril won the Galician amateur championship and the regional Serie A, a double that earned the club its first promotion to the Tercera División. Founded on 21 February 1914 in the Cuatro Caminos district of A Coruña, the club has been the reserve team of Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña since 1963. It has played under the name Real Club Deportivo Fabril since 2017 and hosts its home games at the Abegondo training complex.

From neighbourhood club to Deportivo reserve side

The club was born as Fabril Foot-ball Club and kept that name until 1941. That year a ban on foreign words in club names forced it to become Fabril Sociedad Deportiva. In 1948 it signed a cooperation agreement with Deportivo, the first step in a relationship that was formalised in 1963. That year Fabril merged with Club Deportivo Juvenil, took the name Fabril Deportivo and became Deportivo’s reserve team. From then on it has been the last step in the academy before the first team.

The early decades in the Tercera División

The 1954 promotion began a run of seventeen consecutive seasons in the Tercera División, from 1954 to 1972. The 1953-54 squad included Luis Suárez, who made his Deportivo debut on 6 December 1953 at Les Corts and won the Ballon d’Or in 1960. In 1963-64 Fabril finished second in their Tercera group and played the promotion play-off for the Spanish second division, without success. The club has taken part in the Copa del Rey three times, reaching the third round in 1969-70 and 1978-79. In 1976-77 it won the Galician regional Serie A for a second time.

Segunda B and the Deportivo B years

With Paco Melo as coach, the team reached Segunda División B for the first time in 1991. The stay lasted a single campaign: in 1991-92 it finished eighteenth and went down. During the 1990s the club stopped being an independent entity, came fully under Deportivo’s control and played as Deportivo de La Coruña B. In the Tercera División it was group runner-up in 1989-90, 1993-94, 1999-00 and 2002-03. In between it also returned to Segunda B, suffering relegations from that division in 1998-99 and 2000-01. On 1 May 2003 the Abegondo training complex was opened, and its main pitch became the team’s home ground.

Three Tercera titles in five years

The second half of the 2000s brought the reserve side’s first league titles. In 2005-06 it won Group I of the Tercera División but missed out on promotion. It repeated as champion in 2006-07 and this time went up to Segunda B after knocking out Don Benito in the play-off. It spent two seasons in that division before finishing seventeenth in 2008-09 and dropping down. A year later, in 2009-10, it was champion again and returned to Segunda B after beating Burgos in a penalty shoot-out at Riazor. In 2010-11 it once more finished seventeenth and was relegated.

The Fabril name returns

After reaching the promotion play-offs in 2014-15, as runner-up, and in 2015-16, in third place, the reserve team won Group I of the Tercera División in 2016-17 and moved up to Segunda B. On 10 July 2017 the Royal Spanish Football Federation approved the change of name to Real Club Deportivo Fabril, restoring the name of the club’s origins. The first campaign under that name produced its best league finish: runner-up in Group I of Segunda B in 2017-18, which earned a place in the play-offs for the Spanish second division. In 2018-19 it finished twentieth and dropped back to the Tercera División.

From Tercera Federación to Primera Federación

After the 2021 restructuring of the Spanish lower divisions, Fabril competed in the Tercera Federación, finishing fifth in 2021-22. In 2022-23 it won Group I and was promoted to the Segunda Federación. There it finished ninth in 2023-24 and fourth in 2024-25, a position that gave it a place in the play-offs for the Primera Federación. In 2025-26, coached by Manuel Pablo, it was crowned Group I champion of the Segunda Federación. The title and promotion to the Primera Federación were confirmed on 12 April 2026, with three rounds to spare, after a win over UD Ourense at Riazor in front of 5,022 spectators and a draw for Real Oviedo Vetusta, their closest pursuers. On 21 April 2026 the squad was received by mayor Inés Rey at A Coruña City Hall.