Twenty years after winning La Liga, the club are battling to avoid relegation to the third tier. How did it come to this?
By Euan McTear for Copa90
“It’s like we’re a meme,” said one frustrated Deportivo La Coruña fan on TV after their 3-1 defeat at home to Real Zaragoza in December – a result that left Depor bottom of the second division with just 12 points from their first 19 games. He simply could not take it anymore. “Each week it’s getting worse and worse.” Twenty years after Depor fulfilled a dream by winning La Liga, they were 41 positions lower in the Spanish footballing pyramid and drifting towards disaster.
The story of Deportivo La Coruña’s recent history begins with a moment of ultimate joy and becomes gradually more dispiriting. The peak was on 19 May 2000. The club from Galicia in the north-west of
Spain were top of the table going into the final day of the season. They were three points clear of
Barcelona and only needed to draw at home to Espanyol – whose fans would happily welcome a title slipping through Barça’s grasp – to win their first ever league championship.