Last update 8 December, 2022 by Alberto Llopis
The Copa del Rey is here. For the first time in a long time, the second most important national competition will play the third round, already with the greats, on weekend, in the image and likeness of what happens with the FA Cup. Big against small, the Cup usually leaves us in these first rounds, the typical stories of a village team that seeks the feat of reaching as far as possible under the watchful eye of half Spain, as in their day did Numancia or Mirandés.
Within this third round, a tie stands out above it: the Olímpic de Xátiva against Real Madrid. And it is that the Valencians are a modest club but with a very interesting history. Officially trained in 1932, We are talking about a team that has never stepped on the First or Second Division and that only nine seasons have played in the bronze category. Little baggage for a population with 30.000 inhabitants claims to be one of the largest in the province of Valencia, but that explains well the difficulty involved in locating a team in the elite of Spanish football.
However, more than his historical career in which players like former Madrid player Edwin Congo have passed (four years ago, before ending his career at Paiporta CF) or José Luis Albiol from Benagua (Raúl's brother), it would be convenient to stay with its present history. Because located in Group III of Second B (where are sixths), the Olímpic is a club with just six professional players and a squad mostly made up of either young students or experienced players who work in all kinds of trades and who have toured all kinds of fields in Second B and Third. Eduardo Rifaterra stands out above all, 39 years behind, and the veteran of a group that “aspires to win” as they proclaim in the dressing room the best club in history.
Optimism above all, because winning seems almost impossible if you compare what both entities are. If Real Madrid is the entity with the most European Cups, with the highest paid players in the world and with a stage like the Santiago Bernabéu in which to receive their rivals, the Olympic is modesty personified.
Play in the Murta, an artificial turf field of 5.000 spectators (expandable for the occasion to 7.000). Has a budget of 400.000 euros (for the more than 500 millions of Real Madrid) and hardly destines 280.000 euros to pay the salaries of the entire workforce, money that would not even cover the record of a member of the Madrid first team.
All of this, despite having a well-known president: Alfonso Rus, President of the Valencia Provincial Council, Mayor of Xátiva since 1995, deputy in the Valencian Parliament and until recently a very high-profile candidate to be president of Valencia CF. The man who is good for everything and who describes himself as, “throw the corner, He finishes it off and becomes a goalkeeper”. It may be because he always accompanies the first team, it is included, en muchas ocasiones, to the juveniles.
