That Fantastic Rafa Benítez Valencia Team
Today, it's hard to imagine Valencia CF as a champion team, given that in recent years, thanks to Peter Lim's management, the club has been in a difficult sporting and financial situation. However, the Valencian club has had several successful eras, and today we'll discuss the latest, which dates back more than two decades. Beyond a star player, they had a manager who, at that time, was making a name for himself at the top level: Rafa Benítez.
Valencia's Mestalla stadium
History of Valencia CF
The club was founded on March 1, 1919, by a group of young players who played football for local clubs that had disappeared. It quickly became a dominant team in the Valencian Community and in 1923 earned the right to participate in its first national tournament, the Copa del Rey. This gave it a showcase throughout Spain, which helped it gain more fans and allowed it to build the Mestalla stadium.When the first Spanish national league was played in 1928, Valencia CF started in the second tier, achieving promotion in 1931. Between the 1940s and 1950s, they enjoyed one of their most successful periods (perhaps their most), winning seven titles during the presidency of Luis Casanova. In the early 1960s, they would take their prestige to a new level by winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup twice in a row. In the following two decades, two more emblematic Valencia teams would arrive, the first with Alfredo Di Stefano in the dugout and the second with Mario Alberto Kempes as the main figure.
The late 1990s saw the start of a golden era for the club, first with Claudio Ranieri in charge, winning a Copa del Rey and the UEFA Intertoto Cup. At the end of the 1998-99 season, Ranieri had already announced his departure and Hector Cuper, then manager of RCD Mallorca, succeeded him. Upon Cuper's arrival, he won the Spanish Super Cup against FC Barcelona, and in his two seasons in charge, he reached the UEFA Champions League final, something the club had never done before. Unfortunately, they lost both times, the first against Real Madrid and the second, on penalties, to Bayern Munich.
Rafael Benítez - here while managing Real Madrid
Benítez before Valencia
Rafael Benítez (usually called just Rafa Benítez) had a playing career in the second, third, and fourth tiers of Spanish football after developing at Real Madrid. Alongside his playing career, he also studied for a degree in physical education. At 26, he retired and began his coaching career with Real Madrid's youth teams, where he rose through the ranks to the reserve team (Real Madrid B). After a decade, he decided to leave Real Madrid to coach first Real Valladolid and then Osasuna, Extremadura, and Tenerife. In the first two he had brief and not very good steps, although in the last two he achieved promotion for the clubs to the first tier.A Historic Team
When Cuper left Valencia for Inter Milan in 2001, Valencia decided to invest in Rafa Benítez thanks to Javier Subirats, the club's director of football at the time. The board was unconvinced by this move, so much so that they made Subirats sign a document acknowledging his responsibility for Benítez's appointment. On July 4, 2001, the Spanish manager was officially presented at Mestalla, amid a climate of doubt surrounding his appointment, as critics felt he lacked the experience or track record to join Valencia.Benítez's first game in charge was against Real Madrid's and their famous Galacticos, which also was Zinedine Zidane's first game for Real, and the match ended in a surprising 1-0 win for Valencia. Despite this good start, by Matchday 16, the team was only in eighth place in La Liga, having lost only two matches but drawn in nine matches. The manager's position was in doubt, and at halftime of the following match against Espanyol, they were losing 2-0. At that point, it was rumored that the board would sack Benítez. However, in the second half, the team staged a stunning comeback, turning the game around in just 21 minutes.
From that match on, Valencia would win 15 matches during the rest of the season, becoming champions in the fourteenth against Malaga. The team was characterized by not being a high-scoring force, but they didn't concede many goals either, demonstrating that they were a fairly solid unit. The fact that Ruben Baraja, a midfielder, was the team's top scorer with 7 goals indicates that the "few" goals scored by Valencia were fairly evenly distributed among the players. After being crowned La Liga champions for the first time in 31 years, Valencia had a somewhat poor 2002-03 season, as the club focused largely on maintaining the team that had won the previous season, albeit in a year with four competitions. They finished fifth in the Spanish league and qualified for the UEFA Cup.
The season that followed
The following season, the club would strengthen its squad and bring in some players with a suitable profile for Benítez's needs, who provided greater depth to the squad. In this league, Valencia mostly held second place despite having a great season and a fairly consistent showing. However, they were up against Real Madrid, who ultimately suffered a resounding defeat, allowing Benítez's team to take first place. In this way, the manager repeated his achievements in 2002, and you might even say he outdone it, as also the UEFA Cup title was added to La Liga title.Valencia reached the final of the UEFA Cup after defeating rivals such as Maccabi Haifa, Besiktas, and Girondins de Bordeaux. Their opponents in the final were José Anigo's Olympique de Marseille, which featured star players such as Fabien Barthez, Mathieu Flamini, Philippe Christanval, and Didier Drogba. Benítez's team won 2-0 with goals from Vicente and Mista, completing a historic double and winning Valencia's last international tournament to date.
At the end of the 2003-04 season, Benítez left Valencia to coach Liverpool, effectively ending the latest club's golden era. Claudio Ranieri returned to the club replacing Benítez, but this time without the same success as his previous stint (he didn't even finish the season).