On 19 April, Barcelona lost 1-0 at home to Cadiz. Paving the way for today's Real Madrid victory.
Cadiz is also a city with a story. Today's football geography, let's walk into Cadiz together and learn the story behind this team and the city.
Cadiz is a city with a story
Cadiz is located in the famous Andalusian region of southern Spain. In terms of fame, Cadiz may be far inferior to the capital Madrid, Barcelona, even in Andalusia, Cádiz is not as famous as the capital Seville, but Cadiz is a city with a story.
Cadiz is one of the oldest cities in Spain, and as early as 1000 BC, the Phoenicians from the eastern Mediterranean built the city here based on walls. Its original name was Gadir, meaning walled city. As a result, Cadiz is considered one of the earliest established cities in Western Europe.
Since then, greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans have established bases here. The Carthaginians, in particular, occupied the area in the 6th century BC and established naval bases here. Later, when the Romans established a republic, Rome and Carthage fought many wars in order to compete for hegemony in the western Mediterranean region.
During the Punic Wars of the 3rd century BC, Hannibal, the leader of Carthage, used the city as a base to conquer the entire southern part of the Iberian Peninsula and then used it as a base to fight against the Romans. The Romans were beaten to the bitter end.
The Romans, led by Scipio, recaptured Cadiz, repelled and destroyed Carthage, and established themselves as hegemons in the western Mediterranean. After capturing the city, the Romans established naval bases here to develop trade. As a result, Cadiz gradually prospered. Especially during Octavian's reign, Cadiz was the most prosperous city outside the Apennine Peninsula.
The Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans were here, bringing a wide variety of style architecture to the area.
However, after the fall of the Roman Empire, a Group of Visigoths of the Germans occupied the site and destroyed most of its buildings. The city gradually went downhill. Visigothic rule here did not last long. In the 7th century AD, Muhammad founded Islam and unified the Arabian Peninsula in the Arabian Peninsula.
The Arabs, who had gradually become stronger, built up huge Arab armies and established powerful Arab states. The Arab Empire began its expansion into Asia, Africa and the European continent. In 711 AD, they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and occupied the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula. The word Cadiz, some say, comes from Arabic. The city has gradually integrated into Arab culture for more than 5 centuries of Arab rule.
In 1262, King Alfonso I of Castile regained sovereignty over the city and gradually advanced forward, recovering a large amount of land. In 1492, Spain drove the Arabs out of the Iberian Peninsula and unified Spain.
In 1492, in order to find a new passage to open the door of wealth to the east, King Elizabeth of Spain funded the Italian navigator Columbus to sail west to find India, but accidentally "discovered" the American continent. This is the world's most remarkable geographical discovery. Columbus's second and fourth great geographical discoveries officially set sail from Cadiz.
After the Great Geographical Discovery, Spain colonized most of the American continent. Cadiz flourished as an important trading port on the American continent and in Europe.
Since then, with the decline of the Spanish Empire, Cadiz has not been spared. But this history deserves the pride of the people of Cadiz. Today's Cadiz, with its architecture, sunshine and the beautiful Gulf of Cadiz, attracts tourists to stop and visit.
Cadiz Football: Although the fame is not big, there is an old acquaintance of the Chinese Super League
After talking about the city of Cadiz, let's talk about Cadiz Football Club.
Founded in 1910, the club was founded in 1910 and in terms of seniority, the team's history in Spain predates the history of the Bat Legion Valencia. However, this team has a record inferior to Valencia.
Because their time in the top league can be said to be countless. Their best record in the top flight is also 12th. Such a record is not only far inferior to Sevilla in andalusia, but also has a certain gap compared with Real Betis and Granada.
The last time the team appeared in La Liga was 14 years ago, and for some time since, Cadiz has been out of La Liga. This situation did not change until the 2019-20 La Liga season. In the 2019-20 season, they rode to the top of the La Liga table, just a stone's throw away.
At the beginning of 2020, fate played a joke on this team. Due to the covid-19 pandemic, the Spanish league had to be shut down. Many people are worried about whether Cádiz's road to promotion will come to an abrupt end. When the epidemic was somewhat under control, the Spanish league restarted.
Finally, on July 13, Cadiz rival Zaragoza lost 2-4, and Cadiz completed the promotion two rounds in advance, reappearing in La Liga after 14 years. The team waited too long for this moment.
There is an old acquaintance of the Chinese Super League who once settled here. This man is the former Beijinger and (disbanded) foreign aid Augusto Fernandez.
The former Argentina international is from argentina's century-old river plate academy and has played for Saint-Etienne, Saasfield, Celta, Atletico Madrid and Beijing Renhe. Especially for Chinese Super League fans and Argentine fans, Augusto is an unavoidable topic.
He represented the Blue and White in the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Copa America, but he always passed the champion and fell just one step away from the championship.
In addition, the Argentina international also has experience playing in the Chinese Super League. In 2018, Augusto signed a contract with Beijing Renhe. In the two seasons of Man and Man, he always fought hard for the team until the last moment. Especially in the 2019 season, Augusto was absent for a long time due to injury. Beijingers also fell into the relegation zone early because of the lack of main backbones.
Even so, as the core of the team, he still stood up to encourage the team and cheer for the team. In particular, in the 29th round of the match against SIPG, he was replaced early due to a muscle adductor injury. But he told the doctor: "This may be my last ball in the people, and I will die on the battlefield." Who can not be moved by such heartfelt remarks?
Today, Augusto has retired, but this experience is worth remembering.