José Ramos Costa
This article may be written from a fan's point of view, rather than a neutral point of view. (April 2020) |
José Ramos Costa, born in Valencia (1926-1995), President of Valencia CF (1976-1984).
Career
After the
Costa, son of D. Juan Ramos Chiva, a 50-year Valencia directive, gave a new impulse to the club, culminated with Valencia's brightest period and highest trophy so far: the Cup's Winners Cup. With the start of the 76-77 season, Valencia began a completely different era. The Paraguayan Heriberto Herrera arrived in Valencia as a coach and the new players Castellanos, Diarte, Carrete, Botubot, Arias and especially Mario Kempes, the Argentine Superstar joined Valencia, among others.
Kempes is the most important footballer to have played for Valencia, due to his international successes (he was part of Argentina's team that won the
A dismissed coach (Heriberto Herrera), a crack like Kempes in the team, players from Valencia who were getting better like Enrique Saura or Ricardo Arias, a good performance of the new signed up players Castellanos, Carrete and Botubot, all those were the keys of the first season of Ramos Costa as president.
The Spanish-French Marcel Domingo replaced Heriberto Herrera at the head of the season and he was in charge of returning Valencia to Europe, after a five-year period of absence. Domingo, who came from training Burgos, brought three players with him, the goalkeeper Manzanedo standing out among them.
Throughout Ramos Costa's seasons, Valencia never lacked good quality players. Other footballers who arrived within these years were Daniel Solsona and Rainer Bonhof, international German player who had been world champion in 1974. Daniel Solsona, on his side, has been one of the most technical footballers to have played in Valencia.
The 78-79 season stood out for the performance in the cup competitions. The competition was not easy. The team managed by Pasieguito, who had replaced Domingo, had to test out against
After Barça, the rivals came from the Second Division, and Valencia comfortably beat
The celebration in the town of Turia was complete. But it would still be bigger the following season, again in a European competition. After the King's Cup title, Valencia played the European Cup Winners Cup. Pasieguito was again the technical secretary and
.Around 7,000 Valencian people went to
The 1980-81 season started off with the European Super Cup. No Spanish team up until that year had won this competition, that brings the winner of the European Cup and the winner of the Cup Winners' Cup.
Valencia's rival was an old acquaintance, Nottingham Forest, current European and Super Cup champions and a team with great potential. The competition was played on two legs. The English won the first leg, in the mythical City Ground, 2-1, the Valencian goal being scored by the Argentine Felman. Everything was still to be decided at the Luis Casanova. Valencia played with Sempere, Cerveró, Botubot, Arias, Tendillo, Castellanos, Saura, Solsona, Morena, Kempes and Felman. The Uruguayan Fernando Morena scored the only goal of the match and the double value of the away goal scored at the City Ground gave Valencia their first European Super Cup title.
As far as the League was concerned, in that season Valencia had a chance of winning the championship, although they did not manage to pull it off. They were fourth in the table, three points behind the leaders: Real Sociedad. One of the reasons for the average performance in the final stage of the league season played by Valencia was the departure of two of the stars of the team, Mario Alberto Kempes and Fernando Morena, who returned to their countries of origin in order to play in River Plate and in Peñarol respectively.
From that point, the social and sporting situation of Valencia Club Fútbol started to get worse. The celebration of the World Cup in Spain was a large financial burden for the club, since the upgrading work on the stadium was borne by the club. In the 81-82 season, Valencia had a secondary role and ended up in fifth position in the league. After Kempes and Morena's departure, a great player entered the team, the Danish
In the following season (1982-83), the disaster that was on its way started to be visible. The economic situation was getting worse. With
Valencia had to win the last match of the season and wait for the results of its rivals in order to avoid relegation to the Second Division and continue in the first division. In Mestalla, Valencia had to play Real Madrid, who was risking their League title. Valencia won 1-0, with a goal scored by Tendillo. The other results of that round of matches were also favourable for them: Atlético beat Racing Santander in Madrid and Celta Vigo lost in Valladolid, both by 3-1, whilst Las Palmas was beaten 1-5 at the San Mames by Athletic Bilbao, who became champions of La Liga. Valencia had amazingly survived relegation.
The following season (83-84) Ramos Costa left the presidency, which was now taken by the cardiologist Vicente Tormo.
References
- ISBN 978-1-4128-0669-5.