RC Celta de Vigo

Real Club Celta de Vigo (Galician pronunciation: [reˈal ˈkluβ ˈθeltɐ ðɪ ˈβiɣʊ]; lit. 'Royal Celtic Club of Vigo'), commonly known as Celta Vigo or just Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed Os Celestes (The Sky Blues), the club was founded in August 1923 as Club Celta, following the merger of Real Vigo Sporting and Real Fortuna. The club's home stadium is Balaídos, which seats 24,870 spectators.

The club's name is derived from the Celts, a people who once lived in the region. Celta have a long-standing rivalry with fellow Galician club Deportivo La Coruña, with whom they contest the Galician derby.

Celta have never won the league title nor Copa del Rey, although they have reached the final three times in the latter. The club finished in their best-ever position of fourth in 2002–03, qualifying for the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League, where they were eliminated by Arsenal in the round of 16. In the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League, Celta reached the semi-finals for the first time, losing to Manchester United. In 2000, Celta were one of the co-winners of the UEFA Intertoto Cup.

RC Celta de Vigo was formed as a result of the ambition of Vigo's teams to achieve more at national level, where the Basque sides had been their bête noire in the Spanish Championship. The idea was to merge both Vigo-based teams, Real Vigo Sporting and Real Club Fortuna de Vigo, to create a more powerful team at national level. The standard-bearer of this movement was Manuel de Castro, known as "Handicap", a sports writer for the Faro de Vigo who, from 1915, began to write in his articles about the need for a unitarian movement. The slogan of his movement was "Todo por y para Vigo" ("All by and for Vigo"), which eventually found support among the managers of both clubs. It was backed unanimously when De Castro himself presented the motion at the assembly of the Royal Spanish Football Federation in Madrid on 22 June 1923.

On 12 July 1923, the merger was approved at the annual general meetings of Vigo and Fortuna, held at the Cine Odeón and Hotel Moderno, respectively. At the last general meeting of Fortuna and Vigo, which approved the formation of the new club and was held on 10 August, the members decided on the name and colours of the team. Among the various names proposed were Club Galicia, Real Atlético FC, Real Club Olímpico, Breogán and Real Club Celta. The latter two names were the most liked and in the end they decided on Club Celta, an ethnic race linked to Galicia. The first president of Celta was Manuel Bárcena de Andrés, the Count of Torre Cedeira. This assembly also decided on the squad, which totaled 64 players and included some important players from Fortuna and Vigo, and was managed by Francis Cuggy. Their first match was a friendly against Portuguese side Boavista, which Celta won 8–2.

In January 1927, Celta won the 'Copa del Rey Alfonso XIII' trophy after defeating the English sailors team 4–1.

In 1947–48, Celta ranked fourth, the club's joint highest ever finish, and reached the Copa del Generalísimo final, where they lost 4–1 to Sevilla FC. Local striker Pahiño, who took the Pichichi Trophy for 21 goals in 22 games that season, subsequently moved to Real Madrid.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Celta were dubbed "EuroCelta" by the Spanish press as a result of their European performance. This included a 4–1 aggregate win against Liverpool in a run to the quarter-finals of the 1998–99 UEFA Cup. In the next season's edition they again reached the last eight, with a 4–0 second leg win over Juventus and a 7–0 home win against Benfica (8–1 on aggregate). Domestically, the team reached the 2001 Copa del Rey final, losing 3–1 to Real Zaragoza in Seville.