In Elda, around 40 kilometres from Alicante, a club with blue-and-maroon roots and a long fight for survival has entered Lionel Messi’s expanding football portfolio.
The Ligue 1 news
Lionel Messi has officially become the owner of CD Eldense, adding the Spanish second-tier side to his interests after taking control of UE Cornellà, the Catalan club currently playing in Spain’s fifth division.
Eldense were formed in 1921 and are regarded as the oldest football club in the province of Alicante. Based in the town of Elda, they have never played a season in Spain’s top flight across their 105-year history.
Their first recorded fixture was played on 1 November 1921 against Elda FC. Eldense wore Barcelona-style blaugrana colours, with black shorts used to separate their strip from that of the Catalan giants. The club’s founders were Barcelona supporters from a local group known as “The Stubborn Ones”, a historical connection made more striking by Messi’s arrival as owner.
The Barcelona influence can still be seen in Eldense’s badge, but the club’s history has not been a simple one. Its darkest recent chapter came in April 2017, when Eldense lost 12-0 to Barcelona B in Segunda B, then Spain’s third tier. The result remains the largest victory in the history of Barcelona’s academy side and sent Eldense down to the fourth division.
Two days after that defeat, an Eldense player alleged that four team-mates had deliberately contributed to the scale of the loss. The club lodged a complaint and asked the league to investigate possible manipulation connected to illegal Asian betting activity.
Five people were arrested, including Italian coach Filippo Di Pierro, who had been appointed only three months earlier following a takeover by an Italian investment group. Other fixtures from the same season were also suspected of possible manipulation. All defendants were eventually cleared when the case reached its conclusion in February 2026.
Eldense’s recovery on the pitch was equally dramatic. On 25 June 2023, they secured promotion to the Segunda División after three successive promotions and a 59-year wait to return to that level.
The decisive play-off against Real Madrid Castilla ended in extraordinary fashion. After a 1-1 first leg, the return match finished 3-3 after extra time. Eldense went up because of their superior regular-season finish.
Their first spell back in the second division lasted two difficult seasons, ending in 16th place and then 19th. Relegated in 2025, they returned immediately last spring. The present campaign is Eldense’s eighth season in Spain’s second tier.
The club had faced a far more serious threat only a few years earlier. In December 2019, Eldense were close to bankruptcy before local businessman Pascual Pérez and other Elda figures stepped in. Pérez, then the president and owner, settled a €200,000 tax debt early in 2020. The appointment of Manu Guill as sporting director also helped establish a new sporting direction; Guill now works at Tenerife.
Eldense play at the Nuevo Pepico-Amat, a 5,576-seat stadium opened in 2012 to replace the previous Pepico-Amat ground. It is named after the former Eldense goalkeeper who also played in the top division for Hércules and Espanyol, before later coaching in both football and basketball.
