Murcia, Jun 16 (EFE).- They have just been promoted to the Youth Division of Honor. It is the pride of a neighborhood in Murcia. Economic motor of the north zone of the municipality. It will share a category with Real Madrid and FC Barcelona and will play against Valencia, Villarreal… The team from the Ranero neighborhood is “a kind of Rayo Vallecano”, their coach Antonio Morote confesses to EFE. A movie promotion.
It will do so sharing the limelight with the transatlantic Spanish football, with Real Madrid and Barça at the forefront, and competing directly in the same group 7 with First Division entities such as Valencia, Villarreal and Levante and with the other three sets of the Community that will be their rivals and that are Cartagena, Real Murcia and UCAM.
El Ranero CF, which has worked the grassroots like few others for more than 40 years and has between three and four teams in all categories from rookies and prebenjamines to youth, in addition to having a school that integrates about 400 minors since four years, has done it again.
“It is the fourth promotion to the Division of Honor that a modest club like this has obtained and it is a great leap that obviously has its repercussions,” recalls Morote, a 38-year-old sewer worker who has been with the entity for six years and before that he worked for nine in the lower categories of Real Murcia.
After 34 games, this Murcian team finished with 73 points added in group 10 of the National League and presented a baggage of 23 wins, 4 draws and 7 losses with 83 goals scored and 29 conceded to be the most accomplished of the 18 competitors in the same.
“It was hard and complicated because only one promotes and we had to work a lot. We went up in the penultimate day and we were champions in the last one fighting until the end with the second team of UCAM. The main key to getting there was not to lose one’s head after a bad start and it will be the same to achieve the goal of remaining next season”, acknowledges the coach, who is clear about what awaits them.
“We know that we will suffer a lot and that we have a lot to gain and little to lose and, in that sense, making our field a fortress will be very important,” he says, while looking back at a time when he was already at the forefront of front of the ship: “Four years ago we went down and now, that we went back up, we are again very much with the new project.”
Establishing parallels, Morote finds them with another unique club of the elite and much loved for what it represents and for its way of understanding football. “We are at a very familiar club like Rayo Vallecano in the First Division. Here the president, Mariano Hernández, lets us work at ease and he showed it by keeping calm and that meant that we went from less to more and we finished the competition winning nine of the last ten games and drawing the other one”.
The good work they carry out in this entity has its effects. Without going any further this season there were six young players who left it to sign for First Division clubs and several footballers trained in their youth academy are professionals today. These are the cases of Pedro Alcalá, defender from Mazarron of Efesé and who accumulates extensive experience in the elite with teams such as Girona and Cádiz; and Víctor Meseguer, a midfielder from Alguazas who has just risen to the elite with Granada.
“They passed through our bases and they are two of the many soccer players from other municipalities in the Region who were here and who made the leap. We hope that many more will continue to do so and in that we carry out a job that is closely followed by scouts because there are already scouts in the lower categories,” says Morote, who in principle will continue to have five of the members of the A youth team. squad that achieved promotion since the others go to the senior category and who were the architects of the promotion: “We are happy for them even if they are not going to continue with us in the Division of Honor”.
One of those leaving for this reason is captain Francisco Javier Campos, a 19-year-old player who has also been at the Ranero for six years.
“I am very proud for having contributed to leaving the Ranero in the Youth Division of Honor. Unfortunately I will not enjoy the category after a lot of sacrifice during these campaigns but it is what it is and I am left with the fact that we leave the team at the top ”, admits this footballer who is very clear about what led them to achieve promotion. “We achieved it through perseverance, work, effort and, above all, humility”, points out this boy from Mazarrón who will continue to combine football with his studies in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences (CAFD) at UCAM.
In addition to Campos, the footballers Dani Alarcón, Hugo Miralles Álvaro, Calderón, Conejero, Manolo, Pepe, Juan Lucas, Hugo Ibáñez, Marcos, José Luis, Dani Navarro, José Miguel Chato, Miguel Gálvez, Segura, Ángel, were part of the promotion squad. Mario, Baradji and Sabo, as well as Morote and, together with him, the physical trainer Alfonso Ros, the goalkeeping coach Antonio Torres, the physiotherapist Joaquín Cutillas and the delegate Antonio Balsalobre.
BENEFITS FOR BUSINESSES IN THE AREA
The fact that Ranero CF has risen to the Youth Honor Division brings benefits to this area of the Region’s capital and that is that the number of spectators will multiply in the municipal field.
Of the around 100 spectators who saw the matches that the Murcians played at home this last year, there will be a higher influx of public in the next one and the teams that will come from abroad will bring fans and this will give more life to the neighborhood. Morote himself explains it by saying that “with all due respect, it is not the same for Valencia to come here as for another rival we had in the National League”.
This increase in spectators will redound in favor of the businesses located in its surroundings. This is how they see it in those establishments that expect to make more cash on game days.
At the La Cruz confectionery, Eva Díaz and Anabel Alcaraz serve the public and know what awaits them. “It’s perfect and, in addition to the fact that great players come from here, it will be very good for El Ranero’s businesses and, in fact, you can already see that there are more customers on the afternoons when the boys train,” says Eva.
“This comes in handy because those who accompany the soccer players and themselves when they finish come and consume. What they ask us for the most is the meatloaf”, adds Anabel.
Directly opposite, also on Duques de Lugo avenue, is the Bulevar Café, and on the other side of the bar and serving on its terrace are Claudia Baño and Juan Pedro Gonzalo.
“On match days there is more demand and we hope that there will be even more people who come to the bar as the team is in the top flight and there is more public watching football. The more public, the more clients”, indicates Claudia.
One more reason to celebrate the success of Ranero CF, one more ray of light for modest football, for a local team but with the spirit of a neighborhood club.
Manuel Tallon