Segunda Division was terra incognita to the world. Apart from England, France, West Germany, and Italy, no second division attracted attention, but considering the traditional strength and focus on Spanish football, it is a bit strange that it looked like nothing else than Primera Division existed. It did exist of course – tough, big second division of 20 clubs. Occasionally well known names went down there, but largely the league consisted of smaller clubs, moving up for a few years, then down for a few more. A smaller group of clubs never even lusting after promotion among the ‘big guys’ also played there – some old, faded long ago, clubs like Real Jaen; some without grand history, like Terassa. Some names are familiar today, but not back in the 1970s – clubs like Deportivo La Coruna, Getafe, Tenerife. A cursory look at any second division table from the 1970s tells that most of the clubs were no strangers of first division football, but never made big impression. Competition was fierce, though. It was not an easy league. CF Calvo Sotelo was the pariah this season, finishing last – a good 6 points behind the nearest club. Two other teams, much better known by names, also ended a bit distant from the real fight for safety – CD Tenerife, 19th with 31 points, and Cordoba CF, 18th with 32 points. The race for escaping the last relegation place was cruel – 4 clubs ended with 35 points. Goal-difference played no role – it looks like the final standings were decided by the results between the unlucky competitors. Real Oviedo went down, placed 17th, although they had the best goal-difference. It was even very unusual one – 40:42. Minus two goals was the goal-difference often found in solid mid-table – but not in Spain. Two more clubs of the bottom group had similar goal-difference as well: Real Jaen, 15th , was mines 4, and CD Castellon, 14th – minus 2. The 6th and 7th placed teams, Sabadell and Real Valladolid, finished with minus 4 – worse than those fearing relegation. But the group was tough – 5 points divided the relegated Real Oviedo from 5th finisher Real Murcia. Four clubs competed for the three promotional spots at the top. At the end, the unknown outside Spain Barakaldo CF failed – they ended 4th with 44 points. Celta Vigo and Recreativo Huelva finished with 46 points each – goal-difference did not count, and Celta took the 3rd place, although having better one than Recreativo. Did not matter at all, for both teams went up.
Champions – and comfortably at that – were Real Zaragoza. 50 points, best scoring record, most wins in the league – 20, not so great defense, but Zaragoza had no match in Segunda. It was good season for the champions, but for only one reason: they were relegated the previous year, a great disgrace for one of normally strongest Spanish clubs, who not long ago won the Spanish cup. Luckily, Real Zaragoza returned quickly to their normal place. It was a return of a kind for Celta too. The third promoted club was another story.
Recreativo is the oldest club in Spain – with them, Spanish football was born in 1889. Naturally, it was done with British help – two Scottish doctors, Alexander Mackay and Robert Russell Ross, working at the Rio Tinto mines (in passing, Rio Tinto is still one the world’s mining giants in the 21st century), found the club in order of providing the miners with physical recreation. The original name was Huelva Recreation Club, eventually becoming Recreativo. Locally, the club was successful, but that was long, long ago. Spanish football centralized into national league championship relatively late and by mid-1930s Recreativo was hardly a big club. Their biggest success was in 1940, when earned promotion to Second division. Where they lasted a single season. Huelva waited for another ascend 17 more years – Recreativo managed to go up again in 1957. This time they stayed in the second league, a constant member, although nothing more. Until 1977-78, when finally they gathered strenght and had their best season – they finished 2nd and got promoted to Primera Division for the first time in their history. Great and strange – it is quite unusual the oldest club of a country to reach top flight after 80 years of existence.
As a second division club, Recreativo had no team worth mentioning. The strength of the team was in the feet of two Uruguayans – the 25-years old defender Eduardo Gerolami, who played for Nacional (Montevideo) before moving to Spain, but without becoming a star. The midfielder Victor Esparrago was much better known, if only for playing for Uruguay at the 1974 World Cup. He was in Spain since the ban on foreigners was lifted, and was already 32-years old. Well past his prime, therefore no longer interesting for bigger and stronger clubs. But suitable for Recreativo and with them – returning to first division football. There was one more Uruguayan in the team – the much younger brother of Victor Esparrago, Ricardo, only 19 years old. Young, but not really talented… Ricardo Esparrago played a single match this season, which proved to be his total contribution to the club during his 2-year spell. Modest squad, perhaps too modest for Primera Division, but that was a concern for the next year. Presently, it was just fantastic – Recreativo finally promoted to the top league. Becoming for the oldest club? Very much so.
Big names were, of course, rare in Secunda Division, but still there were imports. The great, rich Spanish clubs, robing the rest of the world of the best players… the myth and the reality: CD Malag a finished 13th with the help of man playing for the national team of his native country.
Standing from left: Aráez, Vara, Vilanova, Nacho, Palomo, Macías
Crouching: Quevedo, Jantunen, Orozco, Migueli, Adolfo Benítez
Here is Pertti Jantunen, 25-years old centreforward. Snatched from… Finland. Yes, he was part of the strong Reipas Lahti team. Yes, he was a national team player. But… a player from Finland. Not exactly the kind of player able to lift up Malaga. In all fairness to the player, Jantunen was a good professional – after his spell in Spain, he also played in England and Sweden. Not for big clubs, but still he was among the early imports in England, which means quite a lot, given the critical attitude of the English towards ‘continentals’ in the 1980s. As for Spain, Jantunen was more typical than exceptional foreign player. More like Jantunen? Deportivo Alaves had one too, also a guy, who already donned the shirt of the national team of his home country.
Alaves attraced no attention – they finished a bit better than Malaga, 11th. The first crouching on the left is young Argentine, named Jorge Valdano. 22-years old by now, he already debuted for Argentina. Then he left to play for Spain, awarded with second division football. Obviously, not a great prospect… Menotti quickly forgot about him. Alaves was not taking the road up either. One more obscure player in Spain… the greatest thing about Valdano was his rolled down socks and no shin pads. Nothing suggesting stardom. Hard to imagine a future world champion in 1977-78. Even harder to imagine Alaves playing in Primera Division.