MADRID, 10 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Villarreal celebrates 100 years of history this Friday, March 10, 2023, a centenary marked by great successes for a modest club in its beginnings, but led by great management in the offices that has allowed it to have high-level players, both national as international. We highlight some of the ten that we think have marked the most modern history of the ‘Yellow Submarine’.
1. Manu Trigueros. No one has played more official matches in the history of Villarreal than the midfielder from Talavera. The 31-year-old from La Mancha has accumulated 445 games with the ‘Yellow Submarine’ and has been at the club for more than a decade.
2. Unai Vergara. The Biscayan center-back is in the history books of the Castellón club for being the first to reach international status with the Spanish team, with which he was summoned by José Antonio Camacho and with which he made his debut in what was his only game, on 28 December. February 2001 against England. He played the whole game in a 3-0 loss at Birmingham.
3. Paul Torres. And if Vergara was the first international, the center-back has the honor of being the first to wear the ‘Red’ as a Villarreal player and born in the town.
4. Diego Forlan. The Uruguayan striker left his mark during his time at the ‘Yellow Submarine’, to which he gave the only Pichichi Trophy in its history in the 2004-2005 season with 25 goals, keys for the team to qualify for the first time for the qualifying round of the Champions League.
5. Gerard Moreno. And if the ‘Cachavacha’ has that honor in the club’s history books, the attacker from Santa Perpetua de Moguda (Barcelona) is about to have surpassed all the scoring records for the Castellón team, with 105 goals, the most since he started his second stage in the summer of 2018.
6. Joan Capdevila. Villarreal can boast of having contributed to the best period of the Spanish team with players who were key in the historic treble between 2008 and 2012, such as Joan Capdevila, Marcos Senna and Santi Cazorla. Of the three, only the left-back won the EURO 2008 and the 2010 World Cup as a ‘yellow’ footballer, and the undisputed starter.
7. Gica Craioveanu. The Romanian has been another of many foreign players who came together at Villarreal and one of the first to shine in the team, in which he was between 1998 and 2002. His was the first goal in the history of the ‘Submarino’ in the First Division, on August 31, 1998, against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu.
8. Bruno Soriano. Surely, without the injuries that plagued him in recent years, the talented midfielder would probably have been one of the so-called ‘one club man’. He spent his entire career at Villarreal, whose first team he jumped to in 2006, and until his forced retirement he exceeded 400 games (425).
9. Sergio Asenjo. As for the goal, many important goalkeepers have passed through Villarreal, such as two world champions such as Pepe Reina and Gero Rulli, or Andrés Palop, the goalkeeper for promotion to First Division, but it is the man from Palencia who can boast of having defended it on more occasions in its history, with 258.
10. Marcos Senna. Nationalized Spanish in 2005, the Brazilian midfielder, current director of Institutional Relations for the club, is the player born outside of Spain who played the most games with Villarreal with 363.
