Full name | Valencia Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Nickname(s) | Los Ches[1] | |||
Short name | Valencia, VCF | |||
Founded | 18 March 1919 | (as Valencia Foot-ball Club)|||
Ground | Camp de Mestalla | |||
Capacity | 49,430[2] | |||
Owner | Peter Lim[3][4][5][6] | |||
President | Layhoon Chan | |||
Head coach | Rubén Baraja | |||
League | La Liga | |||
2022–23 | La Liga, 16th of 20 | |||
Website | Club website | |||
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Valencia Club de Fútbol (Spanish: [baˈlenθja ˈkluβ ðe ˈfuðβol]; Valencian: València Club de Futbol [vaˈlensi.a ˈklub de fubˈbɔl]),[7] commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a Spanish professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the Spanish league system. Valencia was founded in 1919 and has played its home games at the 49,430-seater Mestalla since 1923.[2]
Valencia has won six Spanish League titles, eight Copa del Rey titles, one Supercopa de España, and one Copa Eva Duarte. In European competitions, they have won two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, one UEFA Cup, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, two UEFA Super Cups, and one UEFA Intertoto Cup. They also reached two UEFA Champions League finals in a row (2000 and 2001). Valencia were also members of the G-14 group of leading European football clubs and since its end has been part of the original members of the European Club Association. In total, Valencia have reached seven major European finals, winning four of them.
Historically one of the biggest clubs in the world in terms of number of associates (registered paying supporters), with around 50,000 season ticket holders[8] at their peak, the club began to decline in the mid-2010s. Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim acquired the team in 2014.[3][9]
Over the years, the club has achieved a global reputation for their prolific youth academy, or "Acadèmia." Products of their academy include world-class talents such as Raúl Albiol, Javier Farinos, David Albelda, Vicente Rodríguez, Gaizka Mendieta, David Silva, and Juan Mata. Current stars of the game to have graduated in recent years include Isco, Jordi Alba, Juan Bernat, José Gayà, Carlos Soler, Ferran Torres, Lee Kang-in and Yunus Musah.