Deportivo La Coruña Looks To Become Super Again

For soccer fans of a certain age, the words “Super Depor” bring back nostalgic memories of a star-studded blue and white-striped team. In the late 90s and early 2000s, the team from La Coruña — a fishing city in northwest Spain of roughly 250,000 inhabitants — conquered the imagination of fans across Europe, overthrowing the Real Madrid-Barcelona duopoly to win La Liga and the Copa del Rey. After years in the doldrums of the Spanish lower divisions, Depor is looking to become super again by investing in its academy and facilities.

In late April of the 2017-18 season, the club was relegated to the second division—LALIGA Hypermotion. Depor has been playing in the lower leagues ever since, dropping down to Spain’s third division for several years and narrowly escaping relegation to the non-professional leagues. The years of Bebeto, Roy Makaay, and Diego Tristán were a distant memory.

Despite the recent turmoil, “Deportivismo” remains strong. According to club CEO Massimo Benassi, Deportivismo is the fans’ emotional connection to Depor, and such is the feeling that it’s hard to put into words. It never wavered during the dark years of the late 2010s and early 2020s, which is why Benassi says, “Our fans are our biggest treasure.”

Unlike in most cities, in A Coruña (Galician for La Coruña) it’s rare to see kids walking the streets or in schools with Real Madrid and FC Barcelona jerseys on. People in the city are born into the blue and white culture and begin going to matches at El Riazor from a young age. Many of them dream of playing at El Riazor in front of their parents. This passion helps explain why Depor regularly gets some of the best attendances in the country, even as it scraps to get out of the lower leagues.

Fans are ready to see Depor rise to the top again, and the club is making no secret of its objective of returning to LALIGA. Depor’s women’s team was promoted to Liga F last season. Now the city is primed for the men’s team to do the same.

However, the club is intent on learning from past mistakes. In the late 90s and early 2000s, its spectacular soccer was built on the back of expensive star players like Bebeto. The club’s success came at an eye watering cost, something current management is looking to avoid. Depor is adopting a long-term view based on financial sustainability and player development that its executives assume will enable it to become a fixture in the top division for decades to come. As Benassi puts it, “we don’t want to die in the process [of promotion].”

Benassi first joined Depor as Chief Revenue Officer three years ago when the club was in Spain’s third division. Back then, because of the club’s history and fanbase, playing Depor was every opponent’s biggest game of the season. Benassi says promotion back to the second division has been the club’s biggest challenge during his tenure.

The Italian transitioned to his current role as CEO in July 2023. He understands the fiscal responsibility on his shoulders and is pushing the club to innovate to succeed. Benassi, Director of Football Fernando Sorriano, and Technical Director Ismael Arrilla have been instrumental in helping the club rebuild its academy and begin the reconstruction of critical club facilities.

Arrilla has worked all over Spain as an academy director, most notably with LALIGA stalwart Villarreal. At Depor, he covers every team from the U5s to the second team and looks after players’ psychological, methodological, and nutritional preparation. He is in constant communication with Sorriano and acts as the link between the academy and the first team.

For Arrilla, the club’s investment in el Fabril (the academy) is critical to its success. At the time of writing, the club has six former youth players in its first team, and two U19s training with the first team.

Many soccer clubs talk about the importance of their academies, only to sell off their newest asset at the earliest opportunity. Depor is putting its money where its mouth is. The club capitalizes on its regional popularity, bringing in youth players from neighboring villages. It sets them up in comfortable living situations and even sends out vans to pick up players living further away. Arrilla says it’s all about making them happy as people so that they can give their best on the field as players.

Just as important are the opportunities the club gives them. Arrilla is proud that Depor continues to prioritize homegrown talent and gives youth players “opportunities with the first team.” This has meant making hard decisions like loaning out veteran Diego Gómez so that youth player Guerrero could get first-team minutes. It also means accepting that young players will make mistakes and guiding them through them.

Academy players are given everything they need to succeed, from transportation to medical insurance and, of course, high-level coaching. They are trained to play the Depor way, which is fast, vertical soccer, but they are also taught to be adaptable. Once they are on the field, it is up to the individual to maximize their opportunities. As Arrilla notes, “the objective for the youth teams isn’t to get promoted, but if we do our work right, they will get promoted.”

Arrilla, Benassi, and Soriano also guide their staff through the player recruitment process. As Arrilla notes, the club is lucky that the “raw materials in Galicia are so good and they don’t have to look too far to capture talent.” Still, the club has an expansive scouting system that mixes data and personal input to analyze the personal, educational, athletic, and technical-tactical characteristics of players before offering them a spot at el Fabril. No player is signed solely based on data or personal input. It is a mix of both elements to ensure the player fits the system and the person fits the environment.

One player who recently made the cut is Dutch striker Zakaria Eddahchouri. Scouted from Telstar in the Dutch second division, Zakaria has adapted well to his new life in Spain. He grew up 20 km from Rotterdam, where former Deportivo players Roy Makaay and Noibert got their starts. He knew Super Depor because of them and says when his agent told him Depor was interested in him, “it was an easy decision” to go.

Off the field, Benassi is working hard to renovate Depor’s facilities to bring them up to a 21st-century standard. This work has been accelerated through LALIGA’s “Impulso” project, which gives clubs in the first and second divisions money from private equity firm CVC to modernize and internationalize.

Benassi is sure that Depor already has the stadium, the fanbase, and the training facilities of a first division club. But to ensure the club returns to the first division and stays there long-term, he has spent countless hours touring Europe to learn from other clubs with strong academies and renovated training centers.

Deportivo is working with the architecture firm Populous, famous for its NBA arena work and the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium, to design its new, state-of-the-art training facilities. The club completed phase one of the redevelopment project last summer, renovating the existing building that houses the first, second, and women’s teams. Phase two is currently underway. By the 2027-28 season, Depor expects to have four new pitches and a new building with modern technology for its top teams where they can train, eat, and sleep. All facilities will be within the same complex to ensure that the transition for players from the academy to the professional side is as smooth as possible.

With just five games left in the season, promotion to LALIGA is almost impossible for Depor. With 50 points, the club is nine points outside the promotion playoff zone. Ownership will be disappointed that results have tailed off and that the club will be spending another season in the second division, but the building blocks are being put in place to ensure Depor returns to what it considers its rightful place in the top division. And while ownership waits for promotion, fans will continue to pack the stadium, and the next generation of potential Deportivo players will fall in love with the club.