Features
VIE 18.09.2015
Osasuna and the city of Pamplona want to taste again the sweetness of Liga BBVA. After a season away from the world´s best football competition _ the club played 14 consecutive seasons in Liga BBVA, to date _ the club from Navarra is confident that the home footballers can get the team back to the highest level.
The first choice of the club, the manager, is a statement of intent: in charge of managing the ship is Enrique Martin, one of the men that left a footprint wearing the shirt of CA Osasuna. In his nine courses in the club he played more than 250 games with the "Rojillos" -never played for another team- being one of the key men in the 80s.
And Enrique Martin, knowing that the group chemistry is a key factor for sporting success, wanted to surround himself with home players with a great passion for Osasuna.
The last lineup presented by the team from Pamplona against Leganes included eight players who started their careers at the club. If we look at it from the start of the season, the coach has used 12 homegrown players in the first four games of Liga Adelante, from a total of 19 players lined up by CA Osasuna. This is a remarkable percentage of homegrown players (63%).
Within this large group we can find a kind of experienced players who already know the first team, as the Flaño brothers, Oier or Roberto Torres.
What is brand new is a generation of players that took advantage of Enrique Martín´s trust, and take roots at the top of the club. Names like Berenguer (1995), Buñuel (1998), David Garcia (1994), Olavide (1996) Unai (1992), Maikel (1991) and Jose Garcia (1997) are already regulars in the calls.
Mikel Merino (1996) is perhaps the jewel in the crown, a box to box midfielder with great vision who was chosen in the best XI of the UEFA European U-19 Championship, won by the Spanish National Team this past summer.
In short, CA Osasuna and Enrique Martin have set a squad with a strong sense of identity, with which they hope to celebrate next June 2016 the return to Liga BBVA.
© LALIGA - 2015