(Football news) Granada CF won the lower-tier LALIGA HYPERMOTION in 2022–2023 and has since been promoted to LALIGA EA SPORTS, the top division of Spanish football. Here are five things you might not know about the Andalusian team in advance of their return to top-level competition. The team has had a number of successes in the twenty-first century.

Their stadium is named after the typical houses of Granada: 

Ever since relocating from the previous Los Cármenes stadium, which was situated in a separate area of the city, Granada CF has played their home matches at the Estadio Nuevo Los Cármenes. The name of the area is derived from the characteristic city residences, also called “Carmen.” In certain of Granada’s neighborhoods, like El Albaicn, these buildings with gardens and vegetable patches are particularly prevalent.

They wear red and white because of… Atlético de Madrid:

Granada CF wears red and white when they play, not out of tradition but rather out of imitation or necessity. The club wore blue and white until 1939, but due to a paucity of materials at the time and the Spanish Civil War, they were forced to use the only shirt they could get, that of Atlético de Madrid. They have worn the red and white colors ever since, though in 1973 they opted to swap the vertical stripes for horizontal hoops in order to set themselves apart from Atlético de Madrid and other red and white clubs.

Diego Maradona once played for Granada CF in LALIGA, together with his brothers:

Only on one occasion have the three Maradona brothers played together wearing the colours of the same club, and that team was Granada CF. It was on November 15th 1987 in a friendly match at the old Los Cármenes against Swedish side Malmö. Granada CF had just signed Lalo Maradona and the contract stipulated that there would be a friendly in which Diego Armando and Hugo, who later played for Rayo Vallecano, would wear the colours of Granada CF to help raise money to pay for the transfer.

Their goalkeeper ate oranges in the middle of matches:

Gyula Alberty, a goalkeeper from Hungary who played for Granada CF in the 1941–1942 season, exhibited an odd behavior during games. One day, Alberty came out onto the field and placed a bag of oranges behind his goal. He would take an orange and squeeze it with his hands to sip its juice whenever his colleagues were attacking, indicating that his region was not in danger. The practice got so common that some supporters even started bringing oranges and other fruit to the games.

Their nickname is of Moorish origin:

The nickname Los Nazares for Granada CF stems from the time in history when the city was a Muslim-ruled area, and more specifically, it comes from the name of the last dynasty to rule the city, the Nasrid dynasty. As a result, this is a moniker rich in tradition for the team from La Alhambra, one of Spain’s most popular tourist attractions that visiting away supporters might want to check out.

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