To many, Rayo Vallecano is just one of the “other teams” in Madrid. The club isn’t as glamourous as their neighbors Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, but it’s arguably more interesting.
You might not believe us now but keep reading and see for yourself what makes this working-class football club so special.
Rayo Vallecano’s rise back to LaLiga
Rayo Vallecano were promoted from the Segunda Division in 2021 through the division’s promotion playoff. Rayo were the lowest-seeded team in that playoff after finishing sixth in the league that year.
Rayo defeated Leganés and Girona in successive two-legged ties to gain promotion. They accomplished this without one of their most important players. Starting goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski was busy representing North Macedonia at the 2020 Euros, so was unable to play in the promotion playoffs.
Over the past eight years, Rayo have been a stereotypical yo-yo club. They would occasionally get promoted LaLiga and then go right back down.
Many expected this would happen again when Rayo were promoted in 2021. Thankfully for Rayo fans, those predictions were wrong.
Last season, Rayo finished comfortably in 12th. This season, they are just five points off finishing in one of Spain’s 6 European places.
Barring a catastrophe of biblical proportions, Rayo will be in LaLiga next season. This would be the first time Rayo has been in LaLiga for three consecutive seasons since 2016.
Given their off-the-field dysfunction we’ll discuss later, staying in LaLiga for just two seasons might be a bigger achievement than any of Rayo’s previous stays in the first division.
How Rayo Vallecano have defied the odds and stayed in LaLiga
Unlike in the Premier League, when teams are promoted into LaLiga, there is not an entire squad overhaul thanks to the increased funds granted from being promoted. Clubs coming into LaLiga are often hardly different than the sides that got them up from the second division. Rayo Vallecano is no exception to this general rule.
Rayo’s squad is practically identical to the squad that got them promoted two and a half years ago. Nine of the eleven players who started Rayo’s final playoff game against Girona are still under contract with the club.
Six of those eleven played for Rayo in their last LaLiga game against Real Sociedad, not including Stole Dimitrievski who would’ve played in that Girona match had he not been playing at the Euros.
Another constant from their 2020-21 squad is manager Andoni Iraola. Don Iraola, as he is affectionately called by many Rayo fans is one of the best up-and-coming managers in all of Europe.
The former Athletic Club player knows his club’s limitations and plays a system that suits them. Rayo are direct, high pressing, and look to exploit wide spaces with their wingers and fullbacks.
The main principles of Iraola’s system are admittedly not very unique. Many managers talk about trying to take advantage of wide spaces and clubs like RB Leipzig have enjoyed great success by developing a club culture of direct, high-pressing football.
What makes Iraola different is that he plays this system with limited resources. Given his players’ limitations, they have to be perfect for Iraola’s system to work.
More often than not, his players deliver perfection thanks to their and Iraola’s work on the training ground.
Another aspect of Iraola-ball is what his players do off the ball. Rayo’s press involves setting traps for opposition players to play into. Once playing into those traps, Rayo’s players swarm, win possession, and then quickly start their attack.
Iraola knows his players are not as good as most of their opposition man-for-man, so he’s created a system where they work as a collective. It’s worked with great success and could even see Rayo playing in Europe next season.
An anti-racist, anti-fascist, and pro-socialist football club
Rayo’s stadium is in heart of the working-class neighbourhood of Vallecas in Madrid. The Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas (Estadio Vallecas) has remained largely unchanged since the 1980s.
To give you some perspective on just how intertwined the stadium is with the surrounding community, the club literally can’t build a southeast stand because there are residential apartments pressed right up against the stadium.
Estadio Vallecas isn’t the only thing about Rayo from a bygone era of football.
If you want to go to a Rayo home game, you need to queue up outside the stadium and purchase one from a “taquilla” inside the stadium.
On gamedays, there are no luxury suites, no hospitality tickets; just plastic seats and the smell of cigarettes and sunflower seeds being enjoyed by the Rayo fans around you.
Despite its many faults, Rayo fans are proud of their home. While waiting in line to buy a ticket, it’s not uncommon to hear fans talking about how old and run-down the stadium is. However, they always end with a bittersweet and proud remark about how the stadium is theirs’, despite all its faults, it is theirs’, and they love it for that.
This is just one example of how Rayo fans are a unique bunch.
On the northwest end of the stadium, you will find “Los Bukaneros,” Rayo’s supporters’ group.
They sing throughout the game, wave flags, and lead the entire stadium in chants about the club’s proud history, its players, and occasionally lead chants against at the referee or opposition players.
Like the community of Vallecas which Rayo calls home, Los Bukaneros are notoriously left wing and proud of it. Rayo fans are anti-racist, anti-fascist, and ardently socialist.
Players like Roman Zozulya and Luis Advíncula were forced out of the club after publicly supporting right-wing issues and matches have been canceled due to anti-fascist demonstrations by the fans.
What makes Los Bukaneros truly different than most supporters’ groups is that their club’s ownership doesn’t want them to exist, yet they do.
Rayo Vallecano is fighting a war against their owner
Rayo’s owner, Raúl Martín Presa, is not a fan of Rayo fan demonstrations or his club’s left-wing values.
Presa has repeatedly invited far-right political leaders to Rayo’s stadium, one occasion resulted in Rayo fans coming to the stadium in hazmat suits with cleaning gear to “clean the stadium” the next day because they felt it was sullied by Presa and his far-right friends.
“Presa, vete ya,” (Presa go now) is a common chant at Rayo games and is spray painted all over Vallecas. There is good reason for this. In addition to his questionable colleagues, Presa is just a bad owner.
Presa was among the first owners in Spanish football to lay off staff during the height of COVID and has refused to create an online ticket exchange, leading to Rayo fans standing out in extreme temperatures to buy season tickets.
These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Presa scandals, which have been a constant since he bought the club in 2011.
Presa has been at his most abhorrent with Rayo’s women’s team. Rayo Vallecano Femenino were well supported and had become Women’s Champions League regulars by the time Presa assumed ownership of the club in 2011.
Now, they are in Spain’s second tier of women’s football.
This rapid decline came from not only a lack of investment in the women’s team, but also a seeming resentment towards Rayo Femenino from Presa himself.
Since at least 2014, Presa was public with the fact that the Rayo Femenino would not be receiving any of his money.
Prior to their relegation in 2022, Rayo Femenino were in the news for having to be treated by opposition physios because Presa didn’t want to pay for women’s team physios.
Protests from fans and players, including men’s club captain Oscar Trejo, fell on deaf ears as the team continue to not have a club doctor.
Things reached a new low just months later when Presa hired Carlos Santiso to manage Rayo Femenino.
Santiso is most famous for a leaked WhatsApp voice message where he referenced the 2017 gang-rape of a 15-year-old girl by three footballers from Arandina CF as a possible team bonding exercise players of the youth team he was managing should replicate to raise their morale.
Despite protests in and out of the stadium that are still ongoing, Santiso is still Rayo Femenino manager, even though the club is set to be relegated for the second straight season.
Many people feel that Presa didn’t just let Rayo Femenino die, he killed it, and that he is now doing the same to the men’s side. It’s hard to argue with those who feel that way since many people within the club feel the same way.
Iraola, men’s club captain Oscar Trejo, and former Femenino club captain Alicia Gomez all have spoken out about Presa’s ownership.
Trejo goes as far as saying that playing for Rayo Vallecano is special because you are fighting for the people against people like Presa.
As long as Presa remains owner, it seems the fans, players, and staff will keep fighting him. The fact they are able to keep up this fight while playing so successfully makes what they’ve accomplished so far even more impressive.
