La Liga de las Estrellas

On 24 May 1998 Villarreal sealed promotion to the Primera División for the 1998–99 season, which started with an intimidating match against giants Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabéu. After a difficult season, Villarreal were again relegated to the Segunda División for the 1999–2000 season, in which they finished third, again earning promotion to La Liga de las Estrellas, the Primera División, where they have remained up to the present day.

Early years

The club was founded in 1923 and played in regional leagues until the Spanish Civil War, during which Spanish football went into a hiatus. After the war, the club played in various regional leagues as well as the Tercera División until the 1970–71 season, when Villarreal first played in the Segunda División for two consecutive seasons, at the end of which the club was relegated to the Tercera División once again. After playing in the Segunda División B for a few seasons in the late 1980s, Villarreal managed to solidify themselves as a Segunda División club starting with the 1992–93 season.

Villarreal

Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or just Villarreal, is a Spanish Primera División football club based in Vila-real, a city in the province of Castellón. The team plays at the 25,000-seat El Madrigal stadium. The team earned its nickname of Yellow Submarine due to its yellow home uniform and being a low-profile team in mass media terms that often emerges to score unexpected wins against the "big ships" of the league, mainly Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Valencia CF.