A ‘dancing’ club along the Cantabrian coast
The passion of Laredo goes back more than one hundred years, making the red club one of the oldest in Cantabria. However, the club did not reach fame like other old clubs and can usually be found in the Tercera División. However, the club is – locally – famous for a curious link with a dance from the 1920s. Welcome to…Laredo.
A fishing town
Just like many other Cantabrian towns, Laredo is known for its fishing industry. The Cantabrian Sea was the source of income for many laredanos for centuries, even though the tertiary sector is obviously the biggest economic sector here. More specifically, tourism is the current engine of the local economy, boosted by the beach of La Salvé, one of the biggest beaches in Cantabria.
Laredo is also a city of many traditions, among which La Batalla de Flores, ‘The Flower Battle’. Every last Friday of August, the inhabitants of Laredo present enormous boats covered in flowers in a day-long parade after working weeks, if not months, on their artworks. The festival is complemented by all kinds of stands, live music, and fireworks.
Laredan football
Even though football arrived in Laredo in the first years of the 20th century, the first time that its inhabitants thought of founding a club occurred in 1918 with the creation of Olimpia SC. However, the lack of support and the economic challenges paved the way for a sad dissolution in 1927.
However, the people at the club wanted to create a new one and managed to gather more people for a solid initiative, constituting SD Charlestón FC in the same year. The football club was named after a very popular dance at the time, originating from the homonymous city in the American state of South Carolina. The founders wanted to associate the club with youth, fun, and excitement.
After some years, Charlestón merged with Deportivo Laredo to create SD Laredo FC, even though its supporters would continue to call the team ‘Charles‘. The red team would often compete in the lower divisions until the 1950s when the rojillos started to alternate playing in these leagues and in the Tercera División, which used to be the third level.
The 1980s would be Laredo’s first golden era. After the seventh (!) promotion to the Tercera División in 1983, Laredo would not return to the Preferente as it used to do. Instead, the pejinos reached the Segunda División B on two occasions, becoming one of the strongest Cantabrian sides after the almighty Racing de Santander.
In 1990, a long period of consistent presence in the Tercera División started and only ended in 2020, when Laredo achieved its third promotion to the Segunda B. Note that Charles had played 12 playoffs for promotion in three decades without success. 13th time’s the charm.
The promotion meant the second period of glory for Laredo. The Cantabrians managed to stay up for the first time ever and repeated this feat the next year. The cántabros might have been relegated in 2023, but the fans were incredibly proud of the earlier achievements and results in the 2020s.
The future
Even though Laredo was relegated to the Tercera Federación in the summer of 2023, the Cantabrians are full of optimism to return to the fourth tier that they were just getting used to. Moreover, they can consider themselves ‘lucky’ for the absence of some historic teams in the Cantabrian group of the Tercera, among which Gimnástica, Cayón, and Rayo Cantabria. Nevertheless, bouncing back after relegation is harder than many think, so it will be an exciting season for the ‘dancers’. This was…Laredo.
Sources
- http://lafutbolteca.com/club-deportivo-laredo/
- https://www.cdlaredo.com/historia/
- Borchers, L. (2021). GOLAZO. Self-published.
- Borchers, L. (2022). CARA O CRUZ. Self-published.
Modest Spanish Football 
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