Last update 5 April, 2024 by Alberto Llopis
If in the city of Valencia, in a bar any, you are talking about football and jump to the fore the name of Real Madrid, there is a high percentage chance that most people around that table, are red-faced, on and dedicating "lindeces" merengue team.
What some of these people do not know, and others do not agree or unwilling to (depending on the age of the coterie) is that, not so long ago, the city of Valencia, It was full of followers of the Madrid team and only had to attend Mestalla in Valencia - Real Madrid to see the large number of followers of the Santiago Bernabeu team was in the city of Turia.
Proof of this is that, historically, Real Madrid has chosen the Mestalla stadium to play their official matches when it has been sanctioned. If we go back to the season 75-76, a spectator attacked the referee Linemayer (Austria) Once finished the match against Bayern Munich in the European Cup. After the first penalty and relevant resources, finally the thing was a punishment of playing two games away from their stadium were played in what was then called Luis Casanova of Valencia.
Without going much, in the season 86-87 Real Madrid was again sanctioned, Interestingly in another match against the German team, this time by throwing objects at visiting goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff. The penalty was a party to more than 300 kms away, which he was also played at the Luis Casanova. As can be seen relations between clubs were not bad precisely, But it took a radical change, a shift for a very specific event and determining.
In 1996 Real Madrid signed which in those days was Pedja Mijatovic the Valencia star, which denied all the signing until the last press conference he gave as Valencia player. Surely Lorenzo Sanz (Real Madrid president at that time) He never thought that this move could deteriorate to such a limit relations between the two clubs.
Thereafter, Real Madrid has tried the signing of several players valencianistas (Mendieta, Ayala, Villa…) but no president of the Valencian entity has gone against the wishes of his fans, who he has never wanted a player of his team was transferred to merengue club. The most notorious was the case of Gaizka Mendieta, which in his transfer to Lazio, It included a clause known as anti-Madrid, to prevent the Italian team made a "bridge" for the arrival of Real Madrid idol valencianista.
Hostility between the two teams is manifest, difficult to go back. Since then, the position of both clubs seem irreconcilable. But it is difficult to remember (and not so long ago) they were two teams which had some sympathy, perhaps because the Valencia coast is one of the favorite places for locals, perhaps because of the large number of descendants Cuenca and Albacete and there in the city of Valencia (which they are overwhelmingly madridistas), But one thing is for sure, No need to have fulfilled many years to have seen Mestalla full of madridistas shirts.