الثلاثاء، 28 مارس 2017

Off-the-radar: Ramón de Quintana - the unluckiest player in Spain

Sarthak Kumar talks about the player who has suffered a record eight relegations

It's a national record - a record of how unlucky a player can be.

Ramón de Quintana, a center-back, holds the record for the most number of relegations as a player. Eight, to be exact - and one of them wasn't even a sporting relegation.

The Girona native graduated from CF Damm and made his first team debut with UE Figueres in the Segunda in 1991. In 1992, the team came 3rd - a record high for the club, qualifying for the promotion playoffs but losing to Cádiz. But it is there where the heroics end.

In 1993, Figueres went down on goal difference, tied with Eibar on head-to-head. Subsequently, Quintana went to La Liga club Osasuna, but was relegated again after the Navarrese club finished last.

Subsequently, de Quintana moved to Madrid's Rayo Vallecano in the Segunda, earning promotion in his first season but being relegated in his third. With his following club, CP Mérida, he would suffer two relegations in three years, although the last one in 2000 was due to financial irregularities, as the Extremadura team had finished in sixth position in division two.

In the 2000 summer, de Quintana returned to Rayo, helping the side reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup in his debut season – after they had been granted a spot in the European competition via the Fair Play ranking – but was again relegated in 2002–03, after which he left at the age of 31.

De Quintana's last club was Cádiz CF, where he played for five years, winning the second tier in 2005 but being immediately relegated back. After only appearing in nine league games in the 2007–08 campaign, with the Andalusians dropping to Segunda División B, he retired from football at the age of 36, amassing totals of 458 matches and 14 goals in 17 professional seasons.

His luck as a manager seems to be going the same way - he was Recre's assistant as they finished eighth in the 2013-14 Segunda, but his success with Sergi Barjuán ends there. In April 2015, Sergi was appointed manager of Almería with Quintana his assistant, but they were relegated from La Liga.

The fate of the clubs after Ramón left them seems to show signs of bad luck too - UE Figueres never returned to the Segunda, were literally made to disappear by an investor and had to start all over again in the ninth division, Osasuna took six seasons to return to La Liga, CP Mérida were relegated to the Tercera in 2000 but never played again, Rayo went on to suffer a consecutive relegation and returned to La Liga after an eight year absence, and Cádiz have only played two Segunda seasons since 2008.

Moreover, Recreativo were relegated the very next season and underwent serious economic problems, for which they had to organize a campaign to raise money (Liberos del Decano), and Almería nearly got relegated consecutively the following season, and are fighting relegation right now.

Funny how a center-back who has scored some of the most important goals for teams in La Liga and the Segunda will forever be known for taking teams down with him.



This article is reproduced from a series on the faces of Spanish football. You can read it here.


from Barca Blaugranes - All Posts http://ift.tt/2nqMQxw

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