Welcome to…Cornellà

A green club with one of the best Catalan youth academies

Traditionally, Cornellà is an amateur team that used to participate in the fifth or sixth tier of Catalan football. However, in the 2010s, this club burst onto the Catalan footballing scene and almost reached professional football. As a matter of fact, this green club has always focused on its youth academy, something they are now famous for throughout Spain. Welcome to…Cornellà.

The players of Cornellà are celebrating a goal in the Segunda B. © UE Cornellà.

Cornellà de Llobregat

Cornellà de Llobregat is a typical Barcelonese suburb, similar to L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, El Prat de Llobregat, Badalona, and Sant Joan de Despí. As can be deducted from its name, the city lies along the Llobregat River, and it has an ever-growing population of around 90,000 in 2023.

Cornellà de Llobregat from an aerial perspective. © agefotostock.com

Cornellà’s footballing scene is rather rare. The biggest football club based in Cornellà de Llobregat is Espanyol. Espanyol is a club from Barcelona but has its stadium in this suburb. In short, Espanyol is located in Cornellà but does represent the city in any way. The team that does represent Cornellà de Llobregat is a club that carries its name.

The RCDE Stadium, also known as the Corneprat, has been Espanyol’s home since 2009. © RCD Espanyol.

The First years

Unió Esportiva Cornellà was founded in 1951 after the merger of Academia Junyent, CA Padró, and CF Cornellà. This meant that Cornellà was the town’s new representative club, which did not translate into good results. From the 1950s to the 1990s, the cornellanencs were participating in amateur competitions.

The evolution of Cornellà’s logo. Until 2021, the crest portrayed the city’s coat of arms. © lafutbolteca.com

COnsolidation in the Tercera

The first breakthrough in the sportive history of Cornellà was its debut in the Tercera División, occurring in 1999. The verds had finally been able to escape the Regional Preferente and would not return often. In the 15 years that followed, Cornellà played 12 seasons in the Tercera.

The table of the Catalan group of the Tercera División in 1999-2000, Cornellà’s debut season. The fourth place was a very prestigious qualification, especially considering the presence of historic teams like Girona, Europa, Palamós, and Reus. © bdfutbol.com

The glory years

In 2014, Cornellà’s second breakthrough happened: promotion to the Segunda División B. After some seasons in which the Catalans were close to promotion, a home victory of Izarra secured the jump to the third tier. And even better, Cornellà managed to stay up.

An image of Cornellà’s debut match in the Segunda B against Olot (0-0). © Andrés Ayala.

This gave the club space to develop, which it did. 2014-15 would be the only season in which Cornellà finished in the bottom half. In 2018, 2019, and 2020, the verds qualified for the play-offs for promotion to the Segunda División and were very close on the third try, losing in the final to Castellón.

Cornellà’s stadium, the Nou Municipal de Cornellà, is located next to the RCDE Stadium. Cornellà has played some seasons in Espanyol’s arena. © Estadios de España.

In 2021, Cornellà achieved promotion to the Primera Federación, an even more prestigious league than the Segunda División B. Moreover, the cornellanencs knocked Atlético Madrid out of the Copa del Rey in the same year, which gave them international fame. In the next round, Cornellà lost against Barcelona, which was still a great experience.

The players and staff of Cornellà celebrating the heroic victory against Atlético (1-0). © Getty Images.

The Baix llobregat derby

Even though Cornellà is a club without a long or successful history, it has one principal rival: Prat. Cornellà and El Prat are two neighboring cities divided by the Llobregat, and their football teams meet in the derbi del Baix Llobregat, after the area in which both cities lie. It’s not a historic, intense, or hot derby, but it remains a special fixture for the supporters.

A preseason friendly between Cornellà and Prat in 2018. © UE Cornellà.

The youth academy

Cornellà is best known for its youth academy, simply one of the most successful ones in Spain among the semi-professional or amateur clubs. The club has trained players like Jordi Alba, Keita Baldé, Víctor Ruiz, Ignasi Miquel, and David Raya, players who made it to professional football.

Even though Enric Gallego has never played in the youth academy of Cornellà, he is an example of a ex-Cornellà player who made it to the Primera División. After five strong seasons in Catalonia, he moved to Extremadura, Huesca, Getafe, and Osasuna. © David Riol.

The future

One of the most important bases of a football club is its youth academy, so that’s looking good for Cornellà. Moreover, the club has adapted to the dynamics of professional football, implementing a new crest, playing in the RCDE Stadium, and professionalizing different departments of the club, showing that it’s ready to join the Segunda. This was…Cornellà.

The fanatic supporters group of Cornellà are the Cornehools. The text in the picture means ‘Cornellà never gives up’. © UE Cornellà.

Sources

• Borchers, L. (2021). GOLAZO. Self-published.
• Borchers, L. (2022). CARA O CRUZ. Self-published.
• https://www.uecornella.cat/club/
• http://lafutbolteca.com/unio-esportiva-cornella-s-a-d/