Seven Promotions Across Salva Sevilla's Career

Those who have experienced promotions from a lower football league to a higher say the feeling is similar to winning a first-tier title, and just like winning a first-tier title, achieving promotion is something some players retire without having achieved.

Salva Sevilla, Real Betis and Sergio Busquets, Barcelona

Salva Sevilla, here in Real Betis, in a duel during a match with Sergio Busquets, Barcelona

Hence, the story of our protagonist today is so striking and worth telling, as Salva Sevilla, a name that many will recognize from Spanish football, achieved seven promotions over his 20 years as a professional football player.

Sevilla Atlético - 2007

Salvador Sevilla López was born in 1984 in the Andalusian town of Berja in the Almería province. His professional career began at the now-defunct Polideportivo Ejido, a club located near the area where Salva was born and raised. In 2003, he made his first-team debut in the Copa del Rey against UD Lanzarote, under the guidance of Quique Setién, scoring two goals. A few days later, he also made his Second Division debut against Ciudad de Murcia. The following season, at the age of 20, he went on loan to Atlético Madrid to play for their reserve teams.

In 2005, he signed for Sevilla Atlético (Sevilla CF's second team), which at that time was in the Second Division B (that was the name of the current First Federation, that is, the third tier of Spanish football). He continued playing in the Seville team's reserve team the following season, 2006-07, and that season the he achieved his first promotion. With Sevilla Atlético he would stay one more season in the Second Division and proved himself on this level of football, which led UD Salamanca to sign him to continue playing in the Spanish second tier.

At Salamanca, he would perform well, always considering that he was more of a combination striker, assist maker, and playmaker than a scorer, even so he scored 19 goals in 77 matches during his two seasons at the club.

Real Betis fans celebrating a Salva Sevilla goal

Real Betis - 2011

After the relegation from La Liga in 2008-09, Real Betis had come close to an early promotion by finishing fourth, with the same number of points as the second and third-place teams (Hercules and Levante, respectively) but with a worse record in head-to-head matches. Betis, in their second attempt at promotion, signed Salva Sevilla. However, there was a controversy because Salva had agreed to sign with Córdoba, but the Seville club's interest was so big that they decided to pay compensation to the Córdoba club in order to release the player to sign for them instead.

That first year, Betis would return to the First Division after winning the second tier with relative ease, in addition to being the first professional title for the player from Almería. He would spend the next three years playing for Betis in the First Division, even reaching European competition (Europa League) in 2013-14. In the First Division, he lost some of the prominence he had had in the year of promotion, and in the summer of 2014, when his contract with the Andalusian club was expiring, he left for RCD Espanyol as a free agent.

Mallorca - 2018, 2019 and 2021

In the Catalan team he would continue playing in the First Division although with a more secondary role, which made him, after 3 seasons with the blue and white club, decide to sign for RCD Mallorca, which was in the Second Division B (third tier), in one of the most important signings in the category and one of the most surprising in Spanish football. His debut with the club wasn't what he expected, as he came on in the final minutes of a Copa del Rey match against Lleida Esportiu. The match went to penalties, and Salva missed the decisive penalty, sending Mallorca to the elimination stage. However, far from being a bad omen of things to come, it was simply a small blemish on what ended up being a great season for the club, which finished top of Group 3 and also surpassed Mirandes and Rayo Majadahonda in the play-offs. This was Salva's second professional title and his third promotion in his career.

The following season Mallorca finished fifth in the Second Division. The first and second-place teams were promoted directly, and a play-off was held between the teams ranked third and sixth. In the semifinals, Mallorca defeated Albacete 2-1 on aggregate and faced Deportivo in the final. In the first leg of the final, the Galician team won 2-0, but surprisingly, Mallorca secured a 3-0 victory in the second leg (with a goal from Salva Sevilla) that elevated them to the First Division.

Their return to the top tier was brief, as Mallorca finished second-to-last that same year and were consequently relegated to the Second Division. However, as an elevator, they would only remain in the second league for one season and returned to the top tier after finishing second in the 2020-21 season. At this point, Salva had earned five promotions in his career, with three of them being with Mallorca.

Deportivo Alavés - 2023

In 2021-22, he would play his final season in La Liga and end his successful time at Mallorca, signing for the newly relegated Deportivo Alavés in the summer of 2022. His time in the Basque Country would be short, lasting only a year, but during this year he was leading the team back up to La Liga yet again, his sixth promotion.

Deportivo La Coruña - 2024

2023-24 would be his last season as a professional footballer, and he would decide to play it for a historic team like Deportivo La Coruña, which was going through one of its worst moments in history, playing in the third tier of Spanish football. And as expected, Salva would close his career not only with a promotion to the Second Division (his seventh) but with another title, in this case, the First Federation title.

His unique playing style made a significant contribution to his team's performance, making him a player who drew attention even on pitches in the Spanish First Division, not least due to his gray hair in the final stages of his career. After retiring he returned to his home grounds and became team manager for Almería.