Rayo Cantabria, formerly known as Real Racing Club de Santander "B" is the reserve team of Racing de Santander, a Spanish football team based in Santander, in the autonomous community of Cantabria. Founded in 1926 as a separate club, affiliated with Racing de Santander from 1951 and incorporated formally into the professional club's structure in 1993, the team currently plays in Segunda Federación – Group 1, holding home games at '' La Albericia'', with a capacity of 1,000 spectators.

History

Rayo Cantabria was founded in 1926 as Gimnástica de Miranda, later being renamed Sociedad Deportiva Rayo Cantabria. Having competed independently in the Cantabrian Regional Championship, in 1946 they were promoted to the third tier of Spanish football, the old Tercera División, for the first time; the following campaign, they faced the biggest local club Racing de Santander (or ''Real Santander'' as they were known at the time), Rayo being relegated and Racing promoted. In the

1950–51 Tercera División The 1950–51 Tercera División was the 15th edition of the Spanish third tier. Format 100 teams in 6 geographic groups participated this season. The winners and runners up of each group progressed to the Promotion play-offs. They formed two gro ...

season, Rayo came up against the Racing youth team, Juventud RS with both entering the relegating playoffs; Juventud went down and folded soon after, and from that time Rayo became the Racing farm team. They went on to spent 20 consecutive years at the third level, coming close to promotion on a few occasions, also performing the important task in developing young local players, some of whom (including Paco Gento, Marquitos, Ico Aguilar,

Pedro Zaballa Pedro Zaballa Barquín (29 July 1938 – 4 June 1997) was a Spanish Association football, footballer who played for FC Barcelona between 1961 and 1967, and scored the 2000th goal for Barcelona in La Liga. He played for CE Sabadell FC, CE Sabadel ...

, Vicente Miera and Nando Yosu) went on to great success. They temporarily disassociated from Racing in the 1968–69 and 1969–70 seasons when both were in the same division. After league restructuring in the mid 1970s, Rayo played just one further season at the third level (now

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

) – that was in 1987–88, and they were relegated. Further elite players produced via a spell in the team included Tuto Sañudo, Juan Carlos, Manolo Preciado, Pedro Munitis and José María Ceballos. In 1993 the original Rayo was dissolved in a national move to formally absorb affiliated teams into the professional clubs' structure, and ''Racing de Santander B'' took its place.El Racing B volverá a ser el Rayo Cantabria
(Racing B will be Rayo Cantabria again), Aqui Hay Pelotas, 20 June 2019 (in Spanish) A new Rayo Cantabria, who started playing as an independent club in the regional leagues from 1993, was also affiliated to Racing for four seasons, from 2003–04 to 2006–07.Rayo Cantabria
La Futbolteca (in Spanish) Racing B have since played nine seasons in Segunda B, lasting no more than two years in any single spell at that level; they would usually meet Dep. Rayo when relegated back to the fourth tier, and finished below their 'sibling' club on three occasions. In 2018, previous manager Ángel Meñaca was recognised by the city of Santander for his lifetime efforts and contributions towards the running of both the original Rayo up to 1993 and the 'new' Rayo from then on. In summer 2019, Racing de Santander successfully applied to have their B-team renamed as Rayo Cantabria going forward; the other Rayo club had been removed from the league a year earlier due to unpaid debts.

Club names

*''Gimnástica de Miranda'' (1926–1931) *''Rayo Sport de Miranda'' (1931–1941) *''Sociedad Deportiva Rayo Cantabria'' (1941–1993) *''Racing de Santander B'' (1993–2019) *''Rayo Cantabria'' (2019–)

Season to season

* As a ''farm team'' * As a ''reserve team'' ---- *10 seasons in

*2 seasons in Segunda Federación *57 seasons in Tercera División

Current squad

From Youth Academy

Out on loan

Current technical staff

Players

Honours

* Tercera División (3rd tier): 1960–61 * Tercera División (4th tier): 1986–87, 1994–95, 1998–99, 2004–05 * Copa Federación de España: 1998–99

Related teams

* Deportivo Rayo Cantabria

References

External links

Racing de Santander official website

Futbolme team profile
{{Segunda Federación Group 1 Racing de Santander Spanish reserve football teams Football clubs in Cantabria Association football clubs established in 1926 Sport in Santander, Spain 1926 establishments in Spain