The finale was a sprint of four consecutive victories, celebrating with a matchday to spare. And after eight years of purgatory, Deportivo La Coruña is now back in the football it deserves: the Liga, the derby against Celta Vigo, the good old days of a bygone Europe. But if in the memories of Luque and Pandiani Depor basked all too much, running into a long and inexorable decline, now there is new air to breathe thanks to a solid and well-built football project. The man of the moment is Nsongo Bil, author of the brace that bent Valladolid, guaranteeing the Galicians promotion. The phenomenon of the category, instead, is Yeremay Hernández, a product of the youth sector valued at over 30 million euros. That Depor has no intention whatsoever of selling him, despite the tempting offers, is a symptom of the club’s renewed ambition.
A lot of water has passed under the bridges since that fateful 2020. The hardest moment of the club’s recent history: the relegation to the Segunda División B – that is the Spanish third tier –, the concrete risk, also because of the contextual reforms of the leagues, of ending up as much as two rungs further down. That is in the semi-amateur ranks, the oblivion of Spanish football that a club of this prestige did not deserve. After a few seasons of settling in, however, Deportivo put things back in order on the managerial front too: in 2024 it returns to the Segunda, last season it achieves a comfortable safety, this year it does not miss the most longed-for appointment. 77 points are a lot and bear the signature above all of two players: the first is precisely Yeremay, the second Zakaria Eddahchouri, fished out of the Dutch Eerste Divisie and immediately decisive. Together they have notched 22 goals and 14 assists. With the young Depor academy product who has yet to turn 24.
So at the Riazor a kind of football was seen again that had not been seen for a long time, combined with the certainty of being able to count on a club structure of renewed solidity. Emblematic in this sense is the new sports centre, renamed the Depor Training Center, which was inaugurated in the course of this season: a project of almost 50 million euros, on an area of 180 thousand square metres. It was among the great objectives set by Juan Carlos Escotet, the finance magnate who since 2024 sits at the top of La Coruña with the declared intent of relaunching it in the Spanish hierarchies. There was a need for a profound work of corporate restructuring, bringing the club’s wobbling coffers back into balance – and Escotet’s immense fortune, over 6 billion euros in total according to Forbes, certainly helped. Now, however, Depor really seems a healthy reality once again, and this return to the Liga seems the most natural consequence of so many spot-on choices.
Because economic resources count, but they must be channelled in the right way. And Depor back among the big sides has the contours of a beautiful story, even romantic in relation to the glorious past that this team – a national title, two Copa del Reys and three Spanish Super Cups between 1994 and 2003, as well as a historic Champions League semi-final – was able to savour. But today, a quarter of a century later, to do football at high levels two ingredients above all are needed: investing in infrastructure and cultivating a youth sector that is up to the task. Depor has understood it and is now beginning to capitalise on both. One step higher, among all the big sides that it has not met on the pitch for a while. Decidedly for too long.