Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa

Cultural Leonesa

Full name	Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa
Nickname(s)	La Cultu La Leonesa
Founded	5 August 1923; 101 years ago (5 August 1923)
Ground	Estadio Reino de León
Capacity	13,346
Owner	Aspire Academy (more than 99.74%) 4 minority stockholders (less than 0.26%)
President	Mohd Khalifa Al Suwadi
Head coach	Raúl Llona
League	Primera Federación – Group 1
2023–24	Primera Federación – Group 1, 6th of 20
Website	cydleonesa.com
Home colours Away colours

Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa (Spanish pronunciation: [kultuˈɾal i ðepoɾˈtiβa leoˈnesa]), better known as Cultural Leonesa or La Cultural, is a Spanish football team based in León, in the autonomous community of Castile and Leon. Founded on 5 August 1923, it currently plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, holding home games at Estadio Reino de León, with a capacity of 13,346 seats.^[1]

Ahead of the 2014–15 season, the club released a kit designed to look like a tuxedo. The kit, which attracted huge attention in the media and social networking sites, was worn in a pre-season charity match in support of local charities for mining families.

History

Deportivo de La Coruña vs. Cultural Leonesa.

Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa was founded on 5 August 1923.^[2]

In 1926, Cultural Leonesa won the Regional championship and in 1929 Cultural played the Segunda División B and promoted to the second division.

In 1931, the club ceased activity and several teams were created in the city with the aim to replace them, but after the Spanish Civil War, Cultural Leonesa came back to the competition.

In 1955, Cultural was promoted for the first time to La Liga, but they could only play one season in the Spanish top tier.

In 2011, the club was relegated to Tercera División due to unpaid debts to the players^[3] and took two years to recover the place in the third tier. In 2015, the Qatari Aspire Academy bought a controlling 99% of the shares of the club, thus avoiding its dissolution.^[4]

On 28 May 2017, Cultural was promoted to Segunda División after 42 years by defeating Barcelona B in the promotion play-offs. On 3 January 2018, Leeds United announced an official partnership with Cultural Leonesa's owners Aspire Academy in Qatar.^[5] The link up saw Leeds players Yosuke Ideguchi and Ouasim Bouy both join Cultural Leonesa on loan as part of the unique partnership.^[6]

On 2 June 2018, Cultural was relegated to the third level, after being defeated by Numancia on the last matchday. In the 2018–19 season the club played in Segunda División B, Group 1 and fought to be promoted back to the second tier. But it finished only in the 5th position.^[7] The club had a good start on the 2019–20 season, being in the 2nd position after first 16 games.^[8] In the 2019–2020 season, they upset Atletico de Madrid in the Copa del Rey Round of 32.^[9]

On 2 December 2020, Cultural hired Iñigo Idiakez as Head Coach who came from Luton Town in EFL Championship and previously Leicester City and Derby County.

Club structure

Position					Name
President					Mohd Khalifa Al Suwadi
Vice-President
Managing Director					Felipe Llamazares Díez
Sports management					Ricardo Pozo Álvarez
Director Delegate					Ignacio Álvarez Martínez
Advisory Board					Antonio Martín Espina José Lasa Jassim Mohammed AA Al-Ansari
Fundation culturalista					Manuel Carnero Diego Calzado
Technical secretary					Santi Santos Juan Carlos Valiño (adjunto) César Villafañe (adjunto)
Social area					Juan Luis Diez Mata

Season to season

Season Tier Division Place Copa del Rey 1929 3 3ª 1st Round of 32 1929–30 2 2ª 10th Round of 32 1930–31 3 3ª 6th Round of 32 1931–32 3 3ª (W) 1932–1939 DNP 1939–40 3 1ª Reg. 2nd 1940–41 4 1ª Reg. 2nd 1941–42 3 1ª Reg. 1st 1942–43 2 2ª 3rd 1943–44 2 2ª 9th Round of 32 1944–45 2 2ª 13th First round 1945–46 3 3ª 3rd 1946–47 3 3ª 2nd 1947–48 3 3ª 8th Fifth round 1948–49 3 3ª 7th Second round 1949–50 3 3ª 5th 1950–51 3 3ª 5th 1951–52 3 3ª 3rd 1952–53 3 3ª 2nd 1953–54 2 2ª 4th

Season Tier Division Place Copa del Rey 1954–55 2 2ª 1st Round of 16 1955–56 1 1ª 15th Round of 16 1956–57 2 2ª 6th 1957–58 2 2ª 16th 1958–59 2 2ª 16th 1959–60 3 3ª 1st Round of 16 1960–61 2 2ª 12th First round 1961–62 2 2ª 16th First round 1962–63 3 3ª 4th 1963–64 3 3ª 3rd 1964–65 3 3ª 7th 1965–66 3 3ª 2nd 1966–67 3 3ª 3rd 1967–68 3 3ª 1st 1968–69 3 3ª 4th 1969–70 3 3ª 2nd Second round 1970–71 3 3ª 1st Fourth round 1971–72 2 2ª 5th Fifth round 1972–73 2 2ª 19th Fourth round 1973–74 3 3ª 1st Third round

Season Tier Division Place Copa del Rey 1974–75 2 2ª 20th Fifth round 1975–76 3 3ª 6th Second round 1976–77 3 3ª 2nd First round 1977–78 3 2ª B 6th Second round 1978–79 3 2ª B 5th Second round 1979–80 3 2ª B 4th Second round 1980–81 3 2ª B 4th First round 1981–82 3 2ª B 19th Second round 1982–83 3 2ª B 19th 1983–84 4 3ª 2nd 1984–85 4 3ª 2nd First round 1985–86 4 3ª 1st First round 1986–87 4 3ª 2nd Third round 1987–88 3 2ª B 14th First round 1988–89 3 2ª B 8th First round 1989–90 3 2ª B 7th 1990–91 3 2ª B 9th Second round 1991–92 3 2ª B 6th Second round 1992–93 3 2ª B 10th Second round 1993–94 3 2ª B 17th Third round

Season Tier Division Place Copa del Rey 1994–95 4 3ª 1st Third round 1995–96 3 2ª B 4th Second round 1996–97 3 2ª B 8th First round 1997–98 3 2ª B 4th 1998–99 3 2ª B 1st First round 1999–2000 3 2ª B 9th Preliminary 2000–01 3 2ª B 2nd 2001–02 3 2ª B 2nd Round of 32 2002–03 3 2ª B 5th Round of 32 2003–04 3 2ª B 4th Round of 32 2004–05 3 2ª B 10th Round of 32 2005–06 3 2ª B 14th 2006–07 3 2ª B 11th 2007–08 3 2ª B 11th 2008–09 3 2ª B 2nd 2009–10 3 2ª B 12th Round of 32 2010–11 3 2ª B 14th 2011–12 4 3ª 3rd 2012–13 4 3ª 2nd 2013–14 3 2ª B 14th

Season Tier Division Place Copa del Rey 2014–15 3 2ª B 7th 2015–16 3 2ª B 7th Second round 2016–17 3 2ª B 1st Round of 32 2017–18 2 2ª 19th Third round 2018–19 3 2ª B 5th Round of 32 2019–20 3 2ª B 2nd Round of 16 2020–21 3 2ª B 2nd / 6th Second round 2021–22 3 1ª RFEF 12th Second round 2022–23 3 1ª Fed. 10th 2023–24 3 1ª Fed. 6th 2024–25 3 1ª Fed.

---

• 1 season in La Liga
• 15 seasons in Segunda División
• 4 seasons in Primera Federación/Primera División RFEF
• 36 seasons in Segunda División B
• 33 seasons in Tercera División

Players

Current squad

As of 30 August 2024.^[10]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  ESP Miguel Bañuz 2 DF  VEN Víctor García 3 DF  ESP Eneko Satrústegui 4 DF  ESP Rodri Suárez 5 DF  ESP Quique Fornos 6 MF  ESP Kevin Presa 7 FW  ESP Carlos Calderón 8 MF  ESP Diego Barri 9 FW  ESP Manu Justo 10 FW  ESP Luis Chacón (on loan from RC Deportivo de La Coruña) 11 FW  ESP Santi Samanes

No. Pos. Nation Player 12 DF  ESP Guzmán Ortega 13 GK  ESP Alejandro Amigo 14 MF  ESP Bicho 15 DF  ESP Víctor Ruiz 16 MF  ESP Sergi Maestre 17 DF  ESP Álvaro Martínez 19 FW  ESP Antón Escobar 20 MF  ESP Txus Alba 21 FW  ESP Juan Artola 22 FW  ARG Pibe

Reserve team

Main article: Júpiter Leonés

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 26 GK  ESP Joel Ruiz 27 MF  ESP Kirian Ramírez 28 MF  ESP Adrián Ruiz 29 DF  ESP Santi Prado 30 FW  ESP Adri Álvarez 31 FW  ESP Ian Martínez

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  ESP Nico Toca (at RS Gimnástica de Torrelavega until 30 June 2025) — FW  ESP David López (at CD Illescas until 30 June 2025)

Coaching staff

Position					Name
Head coach					Raúl Llona
Assistant Coach					Odei Calzón
Fitness coach					David Madurga
Goalkeeper coach					Javier Pérez
Material Manager					Carlos Gómez Carballo
Material Manager					Manuel Martínez Sela
Doctor					Salustiano López-Contreras
Analyst					Pedro Gómez
Re-trainer					Álex Bienzobas
Physiotherapist					Pedro Vicente
Team Delegate					Eduardo Álvarez
Material Manager					Rubén Álvarez

Notable former players

Note: this list includes players that have appeared in at least 100 league games and/or have reached international status.

César Chema Iván Casquero Sergio Fernández Santi Santos Yosuke Ideguchi Almoez Ali

See also: Category:Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa players

Famous coaches

• Miguel Ángel Rubio

Stadium

C. Leonesa vs. Sabadell, in the 2008–09 Segunda División promotion playoffs

Main article: Estadio Reino de León

Reserve team

Júpiter Leonés is the reserve team of the club.

Founded in 1929, later known as Cultural de León and finally changed to its current name Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa "B" Jupiter Leonés. After the 2009–10, the team was dissolved after Cultural was relegated to Tercera División due to its debts. In 2014, it was re-founded as the reserve team and after three promotions it currently plays in Tercera División, the fourth tier, after gaining promotion in the Primera División Regional de Aficionados 2017–18 season.

References

1. "Estadio Reino de León". Football Tripper. October 5, 2017. Archived from the original on January 3, 2020. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
2. "Historia de la Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa" (in Spanish). Nos Gusta León. October 18, 2016. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
3. "Doce equipos descienden por impagos a futbolistas" (in Spanish). ABC.es. June 30, 2011. Archived from the original on September 3, 2011. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
4. "Aspire compra la Cultural Leonesa y evita su desaparición" (in Spanish). As.com. September 16, 2015. Archived from the original on June 4, 2017. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
5. "LEEDS UNITED LAUNCH ASPIRE ACADEMY PARTNERSHIP". www.leedsunited.com. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
6. "Aspire-owned Cultural Leonesa hope to shock Real". gulf-times.com. October 25, 2016. Archived from the original on December 7, 2017. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
7. "Histórico Cultural Leonesa - Segunda División B G 1 2018/2019". www.resultados-futbol.com. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
8. "Resultados de Fútbol: Segunda División B Grupo 2". Mundo Deportivo. Archived from the original on September 20, 2020. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
9. "Cultural Leonesa 2 Atlético Madrid 1". ESPN FC. Archived from the original on January 23, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
10. "PLANTILLA | Cultural Leonesa - Web Oficial". Archived from the original on January 30, 2018.

External links

• Official website (in Spanish)
• Futbolme team profile (in Spanish)
• Unofficial website (in Spanish)
• Club & Stadium History at Estadios de España Archived January 13, 2017, at the Wayback Machine (in English)