During the 2005–06 Spanish football season,

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

competed in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

Season summary

Valencia opened a new chapter in its history with the appointment of Spanish high-rated coach

Quique Sánchez Flores Enrique "Quique" Sánchez Flores (; born 5 February 1965) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a right-back. He began his professional career with Valencia in 1984, going on to amass La Liga totals of 304 games and 16 g ...

, who had been successful managing Getafe. The most significant player during the season was new striker

David Villa David Villa Sánchez (; born 3 December 1981) is a Spanish former professional association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker. Regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation, Villa is th ...

, signed from

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

in the summer, who netted 25 goals over the full season but losing the topscoring battle of

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Samuel Eto'o Samuel Eto'o Fils (; born 10 March 1981) is a Cameroonian Association football, football administrator and former Football player, player who is the current president of the Cameroonian Football Federation. He is often regarded as one of the ...

with 26 strikes, which was a near low-record. Valencia ended a league season finished 3rd place, just a single point behind

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

and secured UEFA Champions League third qualifying round in the following season. To make matters worse, Valencia had endured a worst

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

run, being beaten 1–0 later eliminated in the final UEFA Intertoto Cup by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

club

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

and thus failed to qualify for

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. This was only their earliest exit from European competitions for the first time. Most notable new players also include Dutch veteran

Patrick Kluivert Patrick Stephan Kluivert (; born 1 July 1976) is a Dutch football coach and former player who is currently the head coach of the Indonesia national team. As a player, he played as a striker for Ajax, Barcelona and the Netherlands national te ...

, Spanish young defence starlet

Raúl Albiol Raúl Albiol Tortajada (born 4 September 1985) is a Spanish professional association football, footballer who plays as a central defender. He spent most of his career with Valencia CF, Valencia, Real Madrid CF, Real Madrid and Villarreal CF, Vi ...

, Brazilian Edu and Juan Mora.

First-team squad

:''Squad at end of season''

Left club during season

Results

La Liga

Copa del Rey

Quarter-final

Intertoto Cup

Third round

''Valencia won 2–0 on aggregate.''

Semi-final

''Valencia won 4–0 on aggregate.''

Final

''Hamburg won 1–0 on aggregate.''

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:2005-06 Valencia CF season Valencia CF seasons

2005–06 La Liga 2005 in the Valencian Community 2006 in the Valencian Community