Welcome to…Sestao

Something more than the pride of a town

Next to Bilbao lies Sestao, an industrial city on the left bank of the river Nervión. Football was introduced here early and developed well, even though Sestao never reached the first tier. Nevertheless, the club has some exciting stories to tell, for example about River Plate, an almost-promotion, and even Pelé. Welcome to…Sestao.

Players of Sestao celebrate a goal in the 2022-23 season. © Jordi Alemany.

A steelworkers city

Sestao has tens of thousands of inhabitants, but this has not always been this way. Before the 19th century, it was a village of around 300 people, but after the industrial revolution, Sestao’s demography rose high. The city became a living place for many workers at Altos Hornos, the factory with the most employees in all of Spain. Even though the iron industry is not as popular and lucrative as it used to be, Sestao is still known as an industrial town. To illustrate, its coat of arms includes a boat in front of some factories, which is also present on the crest of its football club.

Sestao from the sky. © eysmunicipales.es

Sestao Sport Club

The growing demography of Sestao coincided with the increasing interest in football. In 1916, Sestao Sport Club was created to give the sestaoarrak their own team, a team that would play against the best Basque teams from the beginning. This allowed the team to join the Tercera División in its first edition (1929).

The first team of Sestao in 1920-21. © El Correo.

Ten years later, the verdinegros even achieved a spot in the Segunda División after being invited by the competition, as Spain had just lived a terrible civil war, and football needed a fresh start. Sadly, Sestao was not able to stay up, but that would change in the 1950s. As a matter of fact, Sestao achieved its first promotion on the field in 1954, in which a golden era started.

The Estadio Las Llanas, close to the neighboring town of Portugalete. Las Llanas has two major stands and has a notable capacity of 8,900 spectators. © Sestao River Club.

Interestingly, Sestao’s promotion, which they had earned with great football, coincided with a tour by River Plate through Europe after having won the Argentinian Cup. This led the supporters of Sestao to call their team ‘River‘, a nickname that got stuck and never left.

The logo of Sestao from 1941 to 1973, its first glory period. © lafutbolteca.com

The Basques played seven consecutive seasons in the second tier, an achievement of which they were very proud in Las Llanas, not knowing that they would outdo themselves. This happened between 1985 and 1993 when River did not only play eight seasons in a row in the silver division but also qualified for the promotion playoff to the Primera in 1987. However, Sestao did not have luck on its side and failed to become the next Basque team to make its debut in the highest league.

This picture contains a lot of history for Sestao, as the two men are very important in the history of Spanish football. Javier Irureta, on the left, coached the verdinegros when they achieved promotion to the Segunda in 1985 and when they almost joined the Primera two years later. Irureta would go on to do the impossible: he was the coach who made Deportivo de la Coruña champions of Spain in 2000. The person on the right is Ernesto Valverde, who played under Irureta at Sestao. When he became a coach, Valverde won many prizes, among which the double at Barcelona in 2017-18. Currently, both Irureta and Valverde play for the veteran team of Sestao. © Aiol.

The relegation in 1993 was the beginning of the end. Even though Sestao returned to the Segunda in 1995, the club could not pay off its debts one year later. Moreover, Sestao did not receive enough help from the municipality either due to the closing of the Altos Hornos factory and the related local economic crisis. In the summer of 1996, Sestao SC ceased to exist.

An image of a player of Sestao dueling with a player of Real Mallorca in the 1995-96 season, the last one before Sestao SC disappeared. © Última Hora.

Sestao River Club

After 80 years in which Sestao has been one of the ten most prominent names in Basque football, it had come to an end, and a new club was presented: Sestao River Club. After many promotions, Sestao was already back in the Tercera before the 21st century had started. The Segunda B, however, was a more challenging goal, only obtained in 2004.

The kit evolution of Sestao River. © lafutbolteca.com

In the following years, Sestao River would play almost every season in the Segunda B, apart from four in the Tercera. Moreover, the green-black team was proclaimed champion in 2023, making the leap to the Primera Federación, the most prestigious competition in which Sestao River has played since its refoundation.

The players of Sestao celebrate one of the goals in the victory against Urduliz in 2021, which secured promotion to the Segunda RFEF. © Sestao River Club.

Edson Arantes do nascimento, “Pelé”

Pelé is considered one of the best footballers of all time and is, in a way, related to Sestao. He has never visited Las Llanas nor another part of the city but has seen Sestao play once. He was invited by UD Las Palmas in 1981 to attend a match of the first team at Gran Canaria, but when Pelé arrived, he was told that the first team was playing an away match. He did not leave, but instead, he watched the Segunda B match between Las Palmas’ reserve team and… Sestao. Pelé did the honorary kick-off but left before the second half had begun, probably because it was a boring game to watch.

Pelé posing with the players of Sestao on that day in 1981. These players will never forget this experience. © Sestao River Club.

The future

Even though Sestao River will always deal with the limited financial possibilities of a small city like Sestao, 2023 is one of the best years in the refounded club’s history. The Basques dominated their group of the Segunda Federación and will make their debut in the Primera Federación, in which they will compete with the likes of Lugo, Ponferradina, Cultural Leonesa, Sabadell, and even Deportivo de la Coruña. Moreover, the fans have faith in the continuation of the upwards spiral and will do everything they can to contribute to that. This was…Sestao.

The fans of Sestao fill the streets with green and black after the amazing promotion in 2023. © En Sestao.

Sources

• http://lafutbolteca.com/sestao-sport-club-s-a-d/
• http://lafutbolteca.com/sestao-river-club/
• https://www.sestaoriverclub.com/historia/
• https://espanaestadios.com/2018/11/08/sestao-las-llanas/
• https://www.tintaamarilla.es/noticia/2022/12/29/167/48296-Y_una_vez_Pele_paso_por_el_Estadio_Insular.html
• Borchers, L. (2021). GOLAZO. Self-published.
• Borchers, L. (2022). CARA O CRUZ. Self-published.