While the Canaries’ two top men’s clubs continue to lick their wounds after the humiliation of their respective relegations, the region’s best women’s football club continues to receive plaudits for its latest success.
UD Tenerife, who are from the south of the island and played under their sponsor’s name of Costa Adeje Tenerife this year, have notched up a milestone in playing in the Spanish top flight for ten consecutive seasons, rubbing shoulders with giants of the women’s game in Spain such as Barcelona and Real Madrid. The side finished the season in an impressive sixth spot in the 16-team premiership and took several notable scalps to show once again they are a force to be reckoned with in women’s football.
The club was only formed in 2013 and quickly established itself as the top women’s team in the Canaries, winning promotion to the premiership two seasons later. Under chairman Sergio Batista, it has become one of the most respected in the league and its reputation has served to attract a host of top names not just from Spain but much further afield also, including current players Linnea Laupstad (Norway) and Nigerian international Rinsola Babajide, who has played for England at junior level also.
Although narrowly missing out on European football next year, UD Tenerife’s achievement in making it a tenth season in a row in a league with much bigger budget sides was rightly marked by the Tenerife authorities in the form of an official reception in Santa Cruz, with island president Rosa Dávila and other senior officials turning out in force to pay a deserved tribute to the club.
Dávila heaped praise on the players and club management, who she said “had shown over the last ten years that no dream is impossible to achieve if you have a close-knit squad, a board that believes in its project, and fans that never let you down. We will carry on working together so that UD Tenerife Costa Adeje Egatesa continues to be a source of pride for our island and an example of sporting excellence”.
