Unión Deportiva AlmerÃÂa, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional football club based in AlmerÃÂa, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as AlmerÃÂa Club de Fútbol until 2001, when it was renamed Unión Deportiva AlmerÃÂa. The club currently plays in the , and plays their home games at the 17,400-seat capacity UD AlmerÃÂa Stadium.
The first football club in AlmerÃÂa was founded in 1909: AlmerÃÂa Foot-Ball Club. Since then, several AlmerÃÂa football clubs appeared and disappeared. One of them was AD AlmerÃÂa, a team that played in La Liga between 1979 and 1981, but disappeared in 1982, and was arguably UD AlmerÃÂa's predecessor.
In 1989, a club named AlmerÃÂa Club de Fútbol was born, but in 2001 was renamed Unión Deportiva AlmerÃÂa. On 19 January 2001 the mayor of AlmerÃÂa Santiago MartÃÂnez Cabrejas announced in the city council that the new club UD AlmerÃÂa had been formed after the merger of two city teams - Polideportivo AlmerÃÂa and AlmerÃÂa CF. But UD AlmerÃÂa was not official until 28 June 2001, when AlmerÃÂa CF approved at the General Meeting of Shareholders the renaming. After playing one season in the second division, it was relegated to the third and the fourth divisions.
After spending several seasons in the second level, AlmerÃÂa side was first promoted to the top flight after finishing runner-up in the 2006âÂÂ07 season. After some outstanding performances, as the away win against Deportivo de La Coruña 3âÂÂ0 in the first La Liga match, the team achieved a final 8th league place in 2007âÂÂ08. At the club's helm was coach Unai Emery, as striker ÃÂlvaro Negredo finished team topscorer with 13 goals.
After Emery left for Valencia CF, Gonzalo Arconada stepped in, but was sacked on 21 December 2008, after a string of poor results, albeit without ever reaching the last three. Mexican Hugo Sánchez took the job, and fared slightly better, for a final mid-table position.
In 2010âÂÂ11, AlmerÃÂa reached the semifinals of the Copa del Rey for the first time ever. In the league, however, the club was finally relegated after a four-year spell in the top flight; in November 2010, coach Juan Manuel Lillo was fired after a 0âÂÂ8 home loss against FC Barcelona (precisely the team that ousted the Andalusians in the domestic cup's last-four, with the same score, but on aggregate), and his successor José Luis Oltra met the same fate, in April 2011. He was replaced by Roberto Olabe.
After two seasons in the second level, AlmerÃÂa returned to the main category of Spanish football on 22 June 2013, after defeating Girona FC in the play-offs. After the departure of manager Javi Gracia, the club appointed their former player and manager of the reserves at the time Francisco Javier RodrÃÂguez VÃÂlchez; the team eventually managed to survive in 2013âÂÂ14, finishing 16th.
Francisco was sacked in December 2014, after only managing two points out of 24, and was later replaced by Juan Ignacio MartÃÂnez. "JIM" also only lasted until April of the following year, and even with new manager Sergi Barjuán, the club was relegated after finishing 19th.
In the 2018âÂÂ19 season, AlmerÃÂa finally escaped the tough fight for the permanence in Segunda División until the last matches as during 3 previous seasons. This time they were closer to the promotion play-offs to La Liga, and finished 10th from 22 teams participated.
On 2 August 2019, Turki Al-Sheikh became the owner of the club, replacing Alfonso GarcÃÂa Gabarrón. He appointed Mohamed El Assy as general director, Dario Drudi as sporting director, who replaced Miguel ÃÂngel Corona, and manager ÃÂscar Fernández was replaced by Pedro Emanuel. On 5 November 2019, it was announced Guti replaced Emanuel. On 26 June 2020, he was ceased and replaced by Mario Silva, who was himself replaced by José Gomes on 27 July.
In August 2021, UD AlmerÃÂa (Mohamed El Assy) and the () agreed to a lease on the operation of the municipally owned Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos for a 25-year period. In June 2022, the club achieved promotion to the first division by sealing a 1st position in the table, respectively, on the very last match day of the season, after spending seven years in the second tier.
In the 2023âÂÂ24 season, UD AlmerÃÂa started the season with record of 28 league games without a win between 11 August 2023 to 11 March 2024. At last, the club secured a victory against Las Palmas ÿn 17 March 2024. However, they were relegated to second division after a 1âÂÂ3 loss to Getafe on 27 April 2024, ending their two-year stay in top tier.
In May 2025, UD AlmerÃÂa underwent a significant ownership change, with Saudi investment consortium SMC Group, led by Mohammed Al-Khereiji, acquiring the club from Turki Al-Sheikh. On 26 February 2026, Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo acquired 25% stake in the club through CR7 Sports Investments.
Note: this list includes players that have appeared in at least 100 league games and/or have reached international status.
The following players have been selected by their country in the World Cup Finals, while playing for AlmerÃÂa.
<sup>1</sup> The shirt contained messages such as Isla del Fraile or Corredor de Vida.