Been Here Before: The Castellón Players With Unfinished Promotion Business
Four Castellón players know exactly what a promotion battle feels like — and they're determined to finally get over the line this time.
Four of Pablo Hernández’s squad have been down this road before — and for at least one of them, it ended in heartbreak. Now they’ve got another crack at it.
The Bigger Picture
Castellón are sitting pretty in the automatic promotion spots in Segunda División with 15 games still to play, and this Saturday they’ve got a proper six-pointer against Racing de Santander — the only side above them in the table. Win that, and they leapfrog them. Simple as.
But while plenty of this squad are having their first real taste of a promotion scrap at this level, four players in particular know the feeling all too well.
The One Who Got There
Salva Ruiz is the man with the winner’s medal. He went up with Mallorca back in 2018-19 — and the mad thing is, Mallorca themselves had only just come up from Segunda B. So he’s done the full climb. He knows what the finishing line looks like.
The Three Who Were Robbed
The other three? They’ve all been agonisingly close — and each story’s got its own twist:
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Alberto Jiménez got to the play-off final with Tenerife in 2016-17. They beat Cádiz in the semis, went into the second leg of the final with an advantage, and still lost to Getafe. Gutting.
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Diego Barri was pushing for automatic promotion with Albacete in 2018-19, spent chunks of the season in the top two, then fell into the play-offs — where he ran straight into Salva Ruiz’s Mallorca. Talk about a small world.
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Jeremy Mellot had his shot with Tenerife in 2021-22. They knocked out Las Palmas in the semis — always a tasty result on the island — but then came unstuck in the final against a Girona side who, as we all know, had some serious momentum about them around that time.
Why Saturday Matters
Three near-misses and one success story, all in the same dressing room, all chasing the same dream. There’s a proper narrative here, and it’s the sort of thing that either weighs on you or drives you on — and from where Castellón are sitting in the table, it looks like the latter.
The visit of Racing de Santander isn’t just another match. It’s a chance to put daylight between themselves and their closest rival, with the added spice of knowing a win sends them top. For the players who’ve been here before and come up short, you’d imagine that motivation doesn’t need much stoking.
Seconda División promotion races don’t half throw up some brilliant storylines — and this one’s shaping up nicely.