(Football new) On March 2nd 2001, RC Celta were named the best club in the world. The team from Galicia had enjoyed such a strong February that they topped the monthly ranking compiled by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS).
It had indeed been a good month, with the club reaching the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup and the semi-finals of a Copa del Rey in which they’d finish runners-up, but this was not unusual for RC Celta at that time. In fact, the club was enjoying a golden era, with quality players ensuring the fans at Balaídos had plenty to cheer about.
Current RC Celta player Kevin Vázquez was one of those fans and the European nights that the club participated in made an impact. As he recalled: “The EuroCelta era was the golden era of RC Celta. It was really nice for my generation, coming back when we first went out and watched football. When I was five or six years old, we were right in the middle of it. They played against great European teams, stood up against them and beat them with great players like [Aleksandr] Mostovoi, [Valery] Karpin, Gustavo Lopez, Mazinho… It was incredible to experience those years here.”
Between 1998 and 2004, RC Celta qualified for European competition every season. The continental adventure began on May 15th 1998, when a 2-0 victory at home to Mérida on the final day of the campaign clinched sixth place and a ticket to the UEFA Cup. Los Celestes had participated in UEFA competition only once before, back in 1971, when they lasted just one round before being knocked out by Aberdeen, so this qualification was a big deal. It was celebrated as if it were a title, with an open top bus parade and thousands of fans packing the streets. “I haven’t slept because we were celebrating all night,” club captain Patxi Salinas proudly declared to the fans the following day.
When RC Celta entered the 1998/99 UEFA Cup, they lasted a lot longer than their previous participation, going all the way to the quarter-finals, where they lost to Marseille. The next year, they reached the same stage and also fell at the hands of French opposition, this time to RC Lens.
In the summer of 2000, EuroCelta enjoyed a UEFA Intertoto Cup triumph, defeating Russian side Zenit 4-3 in the final to pave the way for another UEFA Cup run, the one that included their moment atop the IFFHS monthly rankings. This time they faced FC Barcelona in the quarter-finals and were knocked out on away goals after a 4-4 split, but did later gain some revenge against the Catalan side by winning their Copa del Rey semi-final tie. Despite taking an early lead in that final, Real Zaragoza fought back to win 3-1.
Although RC Celta didn’t make it past the third round of the UEFA Cup in either the 2001/02 or 2002/03 seasons, the best was yet to come. They finished the 2002/03 LALIGA EA SPORTS campaign in fourth place, with this joint-highest ever finish earning a ticket to the 2003/04 Champions League. In a group containing AC Milan, Ajax and Club Brugge, the Spanish side came second to set up a Round of 16 tie with Arsenal, although that was where this European adventure ended. The team was even relegated to Spain’s second tier, as the balancing act of juggling midweek competition with domestic games took its toll.
Although RC Celta bounced back up and remained a consistent performer in LALIGA EA SPORTS over the next several years, even returning to the newly formatted UEFA Cup in 2006/07, the EuroCelta era was over, as most of the players that formed that team had moved on.
Those players’ legacy lives on in the memories of the supporters, though, including Kevin Vázquez. Asked who his favourite player from that time was, he replied: “Mostovoi was pure talent and grit on the pitch, but I’d go with Gustavo López. He was a wide player who put in a lot of crosses and, when I was a kid, I viewed myself a bit like him. We’re totally different now, but I liked watching Gustavo López a lot.”
It’s clear that the golden generation that was EuroCelta inspired many young Galician footballers of the future. Kevin Vázquez hadn’t broken through yet when Los Celestes reached the Europa League semi-finals of 2016/17, coming one chance away from advancing to the final, but several other local lads formed part of that squad, such as Sergio Álvarez, Hugo Mallo and Iago Aspas.
The chance to replicate the famous European nights of the golden generation from the turn of the century was an objective for all these players throughout their careers, as the EuroCelta phenomenon remains a very important story in the history of the city of Vigo.
