Welcome to…Brea

A sky blue team in an Aragonese village

West of Zaragoza, we find Brea de Aragón, a village of just 1,500 inhabitants. Logically, such a town has a modest team, but after reaching the Segunda RFEF in 2021, Brea is playing among some great teams. And even more impressive, they are not showing any signs of giving up. Welcome to…Brea.

The breanos form a fanbase that’s, relatively speaking, huge. The fans of Brea are an exemple for all of Spain. © CD Brea.

A village known for its shoes

Brea de Aragón only has around 1,500 inhabitants and is known for its shoe production. Already in the Middle Ages did everyone in the Kingdom of Aragón understand that the best footwear was produced by the masters in Brea de Aragón. The breanos maintained the industry in later centuries, and still can many workshops be found in the village. Moreover, Brea de Aragón has a shoe museum, in which the industry’s history is remembered and promoted.

An aerial view of the village of Brea de Aragón. © turismodearagon.com

Football in Brea de Aragón

The first football matches in Brea de Aragón were disputed in the 1930s, after which the sport’s popularity increased every year. However, the village would not have an officially founded football club until 1971, when Club Deportivo Brea was created. Since that year, CD Brea has been the representative club of Brea de Aragón.

The first official team of Brea of the 1971-72 season. © CD Brea.

In the rest of the 20th century, Brea slowly but steadily climbed to higher amateur divisions. In 2007, the celestes reached the Tercera División for the first time but only established themselves in the national division by 2016. This also contributed to the club’s institutional and financial development.

The Estadio Piedrabuena has a capacity of 900. However, the players of Brea usually train at La Almozara, the stadium of CD Ebro from Zaragoza. © CD Brea.

Since 2017, the breanos have improved their performance every year and approached promotion to the Segunda División B, even though this might have seemed like an unobtainable goal for a club without much experience in the national division. Nevertheless, the sky-blues’ results did not worsen, and promotion came very close. After having lost in the promotion playoff in 2020, Brea outperformed itself once again in 2021 and achieved direct promotion to the Segunda RFEF in 2021.

The players and fans of Brea celebrate the heroic promotion to the Segunda RFEF in 2021. In the 2021-22 season, Brea de Aragón was the smallest village with a team in the fourth tier. Other teams in this division were Córdoba, Hércules from Alicante, and Terrassa, cities with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. The slogan of Brea during this season was ‘The big games are played in the small villages’. © Marcos Allué.

Curiously, Brea celebrated its 50th birthday a day after playing its first match in the Segunda RFEF. On the club’s official website, they mentioned this moment like this:

‘Fifty years ago, no one could’ve imagined that the club would arrive where it has arrived. This is a golden opportunity to place CD Brea on the national footballing panorama, to expand the image of Brea de Aragón wherever the club goes, and spread the values of sportsmanship, unity, and family to dream like many others did fifty years ago.’

CD Brea.

Pepo Losfablos in action for Brea. © Lucía Martínez.

The season ended incredibly well: in the 10th position. Whenever the supporters of Brea dreamt of an achievement, the players accomplished it. This was proven again in 2022-23, as the celestes were able to stay up yet another year, even though they played against teams with more history in the Segunda Federación.

The supporters, staff, and players of Brea after yet another victory in the 2021-22 season. After this victory, Brea practically had secured its continuation in the division. © CD Brea.

Future

Even though Brea has a small stadium and has played most of its life in the amateur leagues, the hope and fighting spirit of Brea is admirable. Moreover, the club has an extraordinary fanbase, as almost the entire village of Brea de Aragón stands behind its team, which leads to atmospheres during home games that no one could have seen coming fifty years ago. This was…Brea.

A starting XI of Brea during the 2021-22 season. © Lucía Martínez.

Sources

• Borchers, L. (2021). GOLAZO. Self-published.
• Borchers, L. (2022). CARA O CRUZ. Self-published.
• https://cdbrea.com/historia/
• https://saposyprincesas.elmundo.es/actividades-ninos/zaragoza/cultura/museos/zapatos-zapatitos-zapatones-en-el-museo-del-calzado/