Rayo Cantabria, formerly known as Real Racing Club de Santander "B" is the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league syst ...

, a

Spanish football team The Spain national football team ( es, Selección Española de Fútbol) has represented Spain in international men's football competitions since 1920. It is governed by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the governing body for football i ...

based in Santander, in the autonomous community of

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the ea ...

. 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 Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segunda División'', and the semi-professional ''Segunda Di ...

, for the first time; the following campaign, they faced the biggest local club

(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 In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

. 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,

Vicente Miera Vicente Miera Campos (born 10 May 1940) is a Spanish retired football player and manager. A former football defender, he appeared in 139 La Liga games over ten seasons and scored two goals, mainly at the service of Real Madrid. Later, he embar ...

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 Fo ...

) – that was in 1987–88, and they were relegated. Further elite players produced via a spell in the team included Tuto Sañudo,

Juan Carlos Juan Carlos I (;, * ca, Joan Carles I, * gl, Xoán Carlos I, Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 Novem ...

, Manolo Preciado,

Pedro Munitis Pedro Munitis Álvarez (born 19 June 1975) is a Spanish retired footballer who played mainly as a forward, currently a manager. He was one of the shortest players in La Liga, and was best known for his fighting spirit. His professional career w ...

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 Segunda Federación, previously called Segunda División RFEF, also officially known as Segunda B-Segunda Federación, is the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system containing 90 teams divided into five groups. It is administered by t ...

*57 seasons in

Current squad

From
Youth Academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

Out on loan

Current technical staff

Players

Honours

(3rd tier): 1960–61 *

(4th tier): 1986–87, 1994–95, 1998–99, 2004–05 *

Copa Federación de España The Copa Real Federación Española de Fútbol, popularly known as the Copa Federación (Federation Cup) or Copa RFEF, is a Spanish football competition for teams from the Segunda División B, the Tercera División and sometimes from the Preferent ...

: 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