UP Langreo · History

On 4 July 1961, at a meeting in Langreo town hall, Racing Club de Sama and Círculo Popular de La Felguera agreed to merge into a single club. The name Unión Popular de Langreo passed by nine votes to one, and José Antonio Coto Álvarez was elected president unanimously. Just a year later, in the 1961-62 season, the new club won the Tercera División and was promoted to the Spanish second division. It plays at the Estadio Municipal Ganzábal, and its supporters and players are known as “unionistas” or “azulgranas”.

Two clubs from the mining valley

Both clubs behind the merger were founded around 1916 in two of the borough’s main towns, Sama and La Felguera. For decades they competed separately in a mining and steelmaking area with strong support for football. The 1961 merger aimed to bring those fans and resources together in one team representing all of Langreo. The founding minutes set the colours: a blue and red shirt with blue shorts, and an all-white away kit. Over time, the home shirt settled into two vertical halves, one blue and one maroon.

The second division years

Winning the 1961-62 Tercera title took the club straight into the second division. It stayed there for six consecutive seasons, from 1962-63 to 1967-68. After relegation, it finished runner-up in the Tercera in 1968-69 and won it in 1969-70, which took it back up for 1970-71. That second spell lasted two campaigns and ended in 1972. In all, Langreo has spent eight seasons in the second division, all of them in its first eleven years.

Between the Tercera and Segunda B

From 1972 the club moved between the Tercera División and Segunda División B, the third tier created in 1977. It won its first promotion to the new division at the end of the 1976-77 season. It won the Tercera again in 1981-82 and 1985-86, and a year later secured another promotion, in 1987. In that same 1986-87 season it had its best run in the Copa del Rey, reaching the round of 16. Further promotions to Segunda B followed in 1993 and 2002, the latter after winning the 2001-02 Tercera, its fifth league title at that level. It was also runner-up in 1973-74, 1982-83 and 2005-06.

The Ganzábal

The stadium opened in 1920 under the name La Barraca, when it was used by Círculo Popular de La Felguera. It was later named after Francisco Fernández Ganzábal. After a full rebuild, it reopened in the summer of 2006 and has 4,024 seats. Langreo has played its second division, Segunda B and Tercera matches there, as well as the home games of its 33 Copa del Rey campaigns. The most recent of those was in 2018-19.

Promotions in 2014 and 2018

In 2013-14 Langreo finished second in its Tercera group and came through the play-offs. On 22 June 2014 it sealed its return to Segunda División B. It later dropped back to the Tercera and was runner-up again in 2015-16. In 2017-18 it finished second once more, won the Asturian stage of the Copa Federación and earned its sixth promotion to Segunda B in 2018. It had already won that Asturian stage in 1997-98 and 2008-09. The 2018 promotion took its total to 19 seasons in the third tier.

Segunda Federación

The Spanish Football Federation’s league restructuring abolished Segunda B in 2021. That year Langreo moved into the new Segunda Federación, and in 2021-22 it began playing in Group I, alongside clubs from Galicia, Asturias and Castile. In 2020-21 its reserve team had won Group 2 of the Asturian Regional Preferente. By 2021, the first team’s honours included five Tercera División titles (1961-62, 1969-70, 1981-82, 1985-86 and 2001-02), seven runner-up finishes and three Asturian Copa Federación titles, the last of them in 2018.