It was a fairytale first season for Benidormida, it’s been a meteoric rise for the small club from the seaside resort, 2 years ago they were part time side, and they now find themselves finishing only 3 points off of promotion to the Primera Division.
Scottish tycoon Andrew Gibney bought Benidorm FC 3 years ago after making millions selling square sausage and chicken pakora in England, after finding a hole in the market.
His dream is to take the team from the Holiday resort on the Costa Brava all the way to becoming one of the top clubs in Europe, his first success came when he made the club full time and the achieved promotion to the Regional Division, the next season they romped the league winning promotion to the 2nd Division.
This is where our story begins.
Gibney who also manages the club brought in 4 players for his assault on Division 2, Israeli striker Ben Sahar joined on loan from Chelsea, Portuguese midfielder Manuel Jose ended his miserable time at Romanian club CFR Cluj and he was join from Holland by Saidi Ntibazonkiza from NEC Nijmegen and Promising young centre back Rens van Eijden.
During the off season they had also managed to hold on to veterans Castolo, Minanda, Ruskin and Stremer.
The started the season as most pundits had predicted and struggled to find the net, and drawing 3 out of 5 games, losing one, but they did pick up a victory over league leaders River Plate.
It was in the cup where they shocked people, beating Hammarby, Goteborg and Cluj over 2 legs they made it to the cup final, were in the ultimate heartache they lost on Penalties to River Plate after dominating the 120 minutes of football.
In the January transfer window, Gibney made the surprise signing of young French striker Loic Remy from Nice, adding fire power to the Spanish front line.
In the end Benidormida’s 7 wins wasn’t enough to gain promotion, the defeats to Basel and Brugge in the last 3 weeks killed off their promotion chances, and finally finished 3 points behind Brugge and failed to gain promotion.
Ben Sahar finished with 13 goals, Remy and Castolo scored 4, Ntibazonkiza added 3 from midfield. Playmakers Minanda and Manuel Jose provided 4 assists.
Season 1 – Division 2
Final Standings
1.Besiktas 43 +17
2.FC Basel 38 +11
3.Club Brugge 34 +3
-------------------------
4.Crvena Zvezda 34 -6
5.Hammarby 33 +2
6.Benidormida 31 +6
7.River Plate 31 +5
8.CFR Cluj 31 1
9.AIK 30 +1
10.IFK Goteborg 25 -7
11.Standard Liege 22 -8
12.HJK Helsinki 12 -25
Scottish tycoon Andrew Gibney bought Benidorm FC 3 years ago after making millions selling square sausage and chicken pakora in England, after finding a hole in the market.
His dream is to take the team from the Holiday resort on the Costa Brava all the way to becoming one of the top clubs in Europe, his first success came when he made the club full time and the achieved promotion to the Regional Division, the next season they romped the league winning promotion to the 2nd Division.
This is where our story begins.
Gibney who also manages the club brought in 4 players for his assault on Division 2, Israeli striker Ben Sahar joined on loan from Chelsea, Portuguese midfielder Manuel Jose ended his miserable time at Romanian club CFR Cluj and he was join from Holland by Saidi Ntibazonkiza from NEC Nijmegen and Promising young centre back Rens van Eijden.
During the off season they had also managed to hold on to veterans Castolo, Minanda, Ruskin and Stremer.
The started the season as most pundits had predicted and struggled to find the net, and drawing 3 out of 5 games, losing one, but they did pick up a victory over league leaders River Plate.
It was in the cup where they shocked people, beating Hammarby, Goteborg and Cluj over 2 legs they made it to the cup final, were in the ultimate heartache they lost on Penalties to River Plate after dominating the 120 minutes of football.
In the January transfer window, Gibney made the surprise signing of young French striker Loic Remy from Nice, adding fire power to the Spanish front line.
In the end Benidormida’s 7 wins wasn’t enough to gain promotion, the defeats to Basel and Brugge in the last 3 weeks killed off their promotion chances, and finally finished 3 points behind Brugge and failed to gain promotion.
Ben Sahar finished with 13 goals, Remy and Castolo scored 4, Ntibazonkiza added 3 from midfield. Playmakers Minanda and Manuel Jose provided 4 assists.
Season 1 – Division 2
Final Standings
1.Besiktas 43 +17
2.FC Basel 38 +11
3.Club Brugge 34 +3
-------------------------
4.Crvena Zvezda 34 -6
5.Hammarby 33 +2
6.Benidormida 31 +6
7.River Plate 31 +5
8.CFR Cluj 31 1
9.AIK 30 +1
10.IFK Goteborg 25 -7
11.Standard Liege 22 -8
12.HJK Helsinki 12 -25
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