UD Almería

The first football club in Almería was founded in 1909: el Almería Foot-Ball Club.^[5] Since then, several Almería football clubs appeared and disappeared. One of them was AD Almería, a team that played in La Liga between 1979 and 1981, but disappeared in 1982, and was arguably UD Almería's predecessor.

In 1989, a club named Almería Club de Fútbol was born, but in 2001 was renamed Unión Deportiva Almería. On 19 January 2001 the mayor of Almería Santiago Martínez Cabrejas announced in the city council that the new club UD Almería had been formed after the merger of two city teams - Polideportivo Almería and Almería CF.^[6] But UD Almería was not official until 28 June 2001, when Almería CF approved at the General Meeting of Shareholders the renaming.^[6] After playing one season in the second division, it was relegated to the third and the fourth divisions.

After spending several seasons in the second level, Almería side was first promoted to the top flight after finishing runner-up in the 2006–07 season. After some outstanding performances, as the away win against Deportivo de La Coruña 3–0 in the first La Liga match, the team achieved a final 8th league place in 2007–08.^[6] At the club's helm was coach Unai Emery, as striker Álvaro Negredo finished team topscorer with 13 goals.

After Emery left for Valencia CF, Gonzalo Arconada stepped in,^[7] but was sacked on 21 December 2008, after a string of poor results, albeit without ever reaching the last three.^[8] Mexican Hugo Sánchez took the job, and fared slightly better, for a final mid-table position.

In 2010–11, Almería reached the semifinals of the Copa del Rey for the first time ever.^[6] In the league, however, the club was finally relegated after a four-year spell in the top flight; in November 2010, coach Juan Manuel Lillo was fired after a 0–8 home loss against FC Barcelona (precisely the team that ousted the Andalusians in the domestic cup's last-four, with the same score, but on aggregate),^[9][10] and his successor José Luis Oltra met the same fate,^[11] in April 2011.^[12] He was replaced by Roberto Olabe.^[13]

After two seasons in the second level, Almería returned to the main category of Spanish football on 22 June 2013, after defeating Girona FC in the play-offs. After the departure of manager Javi Gracia, the club appointed their former player and manager of the reserves at the time Francisco Javier Rodríguez Vílchez;^[14] the team eventually managed to survive in 2013–14, finishing 16th.^[15][16]

Francisco was sacked in December 2014, after only managing two points out of 24,^[17] and was later replaced by Juan Ignacio Martínez.^[18] "JIM" also only lasted until April of the following year,^[19] and even with new manager Sergi Barjuán,^[20] the club was relegated after finishing 19th.^[21][22]

In the 2018–19 season, Almería finally escaped the tough fight for the permanence in Segunda División until the last matches as during 3 previous seasons. This time they were closer to the promotion play-offs to La Liga, and finished 10th from 22 teams participated.^[23]

On 2 August 2019, Turki Al-Sheikh became the owner of the club, replacing Alfonso García Gabarrón.^[24] He appointed Mohamed El Assy as general director,^[25] Dario Drudi as sporting director, who replaced Miguel Ángel Corona,^[26] and manager Óscar Fernández was replaced by Pedro Emanuel.^[27] On 5 November 2019, it was announced Guti replaced Emanuel.^[28] On 26 June 2020, he was ceased and replaced by Mario Silva,^[29][30] who was himself replaced by José Gomes on 27 July.

In August 2021, UD Almería (Mohamed El Assy) and the Ayuntamiento de Almería [es] (Ramón Fernández-Pacheco Monterreal [es]) agreed to a lease on the operation of the municipally-owned Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos for a 25-year period.^[31] In June 2022, the club achieved promotion to the first division by sealing a 1st position in the table, respectively, on the very last match day of the season, after spending seven years in the second tier.

In the 2023-24 season, Almeria start the season with record of 28 league games without a win between 11 August 2023 to 11 March 2024, Almeria finally secured a victory against Las Palmas On 17 March 2024. However, Almeria was relegated to second division after a 1–3 loss to Getafe on 27 April 2024, ending their two-year stay in top tier.

• 8 seasons in La Liga
• 17 seasons in Segunda División
• 6 seasons in Segunda División B
• 2 seasons in Tercera División
• 3 seasons in Categorías Regionales

As of 28 May 2024.^[32]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
16	DF	SRB	Aleksandar Radovanović
17	DF	ESP	Alejandro Pozo
18	DF	ESP	Marc Pubill
19	MF	ESP	Sergio Arribas
20	DF	ESP	Álex Centelles
21	DF	ESP	Chumi
22	DF	MEX	César Montes
23	FW	MLI	Ibrahima Koné
24	DF	MOZ	Bruno Langa
25	GK	POR	Luís Maximiano (on loan from Lazio)
29	FW	SRB	Marko Milovanović
38	FW	ARG	Luka Romero (on loan from AC Milan)

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
30	DF	ESP	Carlos Ballestero
32	DF	ESP	Miguel Peñalver
37	GK	ESP	Bruno Iribarne

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	ESP	Arnau Puigmal (at Elche until 30 June 2024)
—	MF	BRA	Lázaro (at Palmeiras until 30 June 2024)
—	FW	ENG	Arvin Appiah (at Rotherham United until 30 June 2024)
—	FW	ESP	Carlos Rojas (at Murcia until 30 June 2024)
—	FW	GNB	Marciano Sanca (at Alcorcón until 30 June 2024)

Note: this list includes players that have appeared in at least 100 league games and/or have reached international status.

The following players have been selected by their country in the World Cup Finals, while playing for Almería.

¹ The shirt contained messages such as Isla del Fraile or Corredor de Vida.

• Segunda División
  • Champions (1): 2021–22

• UD Almería B – Almería's B team
• AD Almería
• List of managers
• List of statistics

Wikimedia Commons has media related to UD Almería.

• Official website (in Spanish)
• Futbolme team profile (in Spanish)
• BDFutbol team profile
• Almeria on kouragoal site