Buy Racing Santander tickets for the 2026/27 season and you are buying into a return that took fourteen years, two relegations, a bankruptcy and one of the most extraordinary acts of protest in modern football. Racing were last in La Liga in 2011/12. Between then and now they fell to the third division, watched their board collapse and were saved by their own supporters buying shares.
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They came back as champions. Racing won the second division in 2025/26 with 82 points and 90 goals, more than anyone else in the division, then sealed promotion on 17 May with a 4-1 win over Real Valladolid at El Sardinero. Sergio Canales, who left the club for Real Madrid in 2010 as a teenager, came home in June at 35 and called it the most important thing he has done in football.
El Sardinero holds around 22,200 and the club has capped season passes at 18,500, with new memberships closed. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid visit Santander for the first time since 2012. This page covers what seats cost, which fixtures clear first, how the ground works and what the squad looks like after a summer that reshaped it.
Racing sell to their abonados first, and this season that group is capped at 18,500 in a stadium of roughly 22,200. Renewals ran through to 18 July, seat changes followed the week after, while the conversion window for existing sympathisers closed at the end of that month. New memberships are not being accepted at all. Everything left after that process is what the general public and every visitor to Cantabria are competing for.
The arithmetic leaves somewhere in the region of three and a half thousand seats per fixture, and those seats have to cover the away allocation, hospitality, corporate commitments and general sale. For a routine Saturday against a mid-table side that is workable. For the first visit of Real Madrid to El Sardinero in fourteen years it is not, and no amount of refreshing a club sale page changes the underlying supply.
A verified resale marketplace works from the other direction. Season pass holders who cannot make a particular fixture release their seat, and those seats appear steadily rather than in one window that opens and closes in an afternoon. That suits anyone planning a trip to the north coast around a specific date, anyone outside Spain without an abono and anyone who decides late in the week that they want to be there.
1BoxOffice has operated as a verified secondary marketplace since 2006, which covers Racing's last La Liga season, the fall through two divisions and the climb back. Listings come from sellers whose inventory is checked before it goes live, and the transaction is covered rather than left to trust between strangers.
At a ground where almost every seat is spoken for before the season starts, that protection carries more weight than it would somewhere with routine availability. A failed ticket for a fixture in Santander is not a minor inconvenience if you have flown into Bilbao and driven an hour along the coast for it.
Santander is a city of around 170,000 people on the Cantabrian coast, and Racing are the only club it has ever had in the top division. There is no second team, no neighbouring rival splitting the support and no competing loyalty. The whole region funnels into one ground.
That was true through the years in the third tier as well, which is the part that matters. Racing kept filling El Sardinero when there was nothing to win. Now there is, and the demand pattern below is the result.
The practical consequence is that where you look for a seat matters more than how early you start looking through club channels. The supply that reaches general sale was fixed the moment the abono cap was set.
Racing's own pricing gives a useful baseline. The season pass for 2026/27 runs from £270 or so in the Preferencia Sur to around £570 in the Tribuna Oeste for an adult, with seniority discounts for members of twenty-five and fifty consecutive seasons and reduced rates for juniors. Divide those across nineteen home fixtures and the per-match cost for a member is modest.
Single-match pricing behaves differently, because the supply reaching the market is what members choose to release rather than what the club chooses to sell. Racing Santander tickets for a routine fixture sit at sensible money. For the three visits that have not happened since 2012, they do not, and the reason is arithmetic rather than opportunism.
Position matters at a ground where the west stand is covered and considerably more expensive than everything else. The Tribuna Oeste carries the highest prices and the central view, the Preferencia opposite offers a comparable angle for less, and the two ends behind the goals sit at the lower end of the range.
| Type of Ticket | Typical Price Range (GBP) |
|---|---|
| La Liga, standard fixtures | £30 – £75 |
| La Liga, high-demand fixtures | £95 – £220+ |
| Copa del Rey | £20 – £60 |
| Hospitality and VIP | £200 – £550+ |
Prices reflect typical resale ranges and may change as demand and availability shift.
Yes, and this season it is the only route for anyone who was not already an abonado. Racing capped season passes at 18,500 and stopped accepting new memberships before the campaign began. The renewal, seat-change and conversion windows all closed in July. There is no queue to join and no application to submit.
The abono itself is a long-term arrangement rather than a product. The club runs seniority tiers for holders of twenty-five consecutive seasons and fifty consecutive seasons, which tells you how these seats are held and why they rarely come free. Family subscriptions and junior rates extend the same logic down a generation.
What the secondary market does is separate attending from belonging. A pass holder who cannot make a Wednesday fixture releases the seat and it becomes available to anyone, with no Spanish address, no membership number and no waiting. The seat is identical. The difference is only in how you reached it.
Racing's season pass survived what almost nothing else at the club did. Through the bankruptcy in 2011, the fall to the third division in 2013 and the years when supporters were buying shares to keep the institution solvent, the abono base held. That is the reason there is a club to buy a ticket for at all.
The 2026/27 campaign opened with renewals in June and closed the doors on new memberships. Seniority is formally recognised, with an Oro tier for holders of fifty consecutive seasons and a Plata tier at twenty-five, and there are junior and infantil bands plus a family subscription. Wheelchair spaces were relocated to the Preferencia Sur with a 50% companion discount.
| Abono Area | Typical Season Price Range (GBP) |
|---|---|
| Preferencia Sur, adult | £265 – £290 |
| Ends and general Preferencia, adult | £290 – £420 |
| Tribuna Oeste, adult | £540 – £580 |
| Junior and infantil bands | £40 – £160 |
| Oro and Plata seniority holders | Reduced against the adult rate for their area |
These are club prices converted from euros and set for a full season rather than a single fixture. They are included as context on what a released seat represents to the person releasing it, since an abonado giving up a match is giving up part of something they renewed in July and intend to keep for decades.
The current Campos de Sport de El Sardinero opened in August 1988, replacing a ground that had stood on roughly the same site since the club's earliest years. It is a straightforward four-sided stadium of around 22,200 seats, the largest in Cantabria, and the differences between areas are about cover, elevation and noise rather than about whether you can see.
| Stand or Area | Best For | Price Bracket | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tribuna Oeste, central | The clearest view of the match | Highest | Main stand on the halfway line, covered and raised. Directors' area and hospitality sit within it. Roughly double the price of the lowest-priced area on a season pass. |
| Tribuna Oeste, wings | Cover at a lower price | High | Same stand, angled view towards one goal. Retains the roof and the elevation. |
| Preferencia, east side | Value against sightline | Mid | Facing the main stand across the pitch. The most contested general-sale area because the view is comparable and the price is not. |
| Preferencia Sur | The lowest-priced seated area | Lower | Where the season pass starts on the price list. Wheelchair spaces and companion seating were relocated here for 2026/27. |
| Behind the goals | Atmosphere and organised support | Lower to mid | The ends carry the singing and the flags. Closer to the action than the ticket price suggests and the loudest part of the ground on a full night. |
| Upper areas and corners | Availability when nothing else exists | Lower | The last seats to go and often the only ones released for high-demand fixtures. Check the listing description for the specific block. |
Racing's away support is drawn from across Cantabria and travels in numbers that outstrip the size of the region. The northern fixtures are close enough to be day trips and the Madrid and Barcelona journeys are treated as events in their own right after fourteen years without them.
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Typical away allocation | Around 5% of the host stadium's capacity, adjusted by the home club and local safety authority. Larger for the northern fixtures, smaller where a flight is involved. |
| Where you will be sitting | Upper-tier corner or end blocks at most La Liga grounds. Segregation is standard and the block is set by the host rather than chosen by the buyer. |
| Access requirements | Spain has no national away-supporter card. Photo ID matching the ticket name is requested at several grounds, and some clubs restrict specific away fixtures to their own members. |
| The short-haul fixtures | Bilbao is around an hour and a half by road, San Sebastián and Vitoria a little further, and Oviedo and Gijón sit along the same coast. These clear among Racing's own support first. |
| Getting there | Santander has an airport with limited routes, so most travel goes through Bilbao or by road along the A-8. Rail connections southward are slow, which is why coach travel dominates for the Madrid fixtures. |
El Sardinero is small enough that no seat is genuinely poor and varied enough that the choice still matters. The gap between the main stand and everything else is the widest on the price list, and it buys cover and elevation rather than a fundamentally different view.
| What You Want | Best Option | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Atmosphere | Behind either goal | Where the organised support gathers with drums and flags. A ground that stayed full through the third division does not need a big occasion to make noise. |
| View of the match | Tribuna Oeste, central blocks | Halfway line, covered and raised enough to read the shape of the game rather than follow the ball. The most complete view available. |
| Family-friendly | Preferencia, east side | Calmer than the ends, a full view across the pitch and a mid-range price. Junior and infantil rates on the season pass concentrate families in these areas. |
| Premium experience | Hospitality within the Tribuna Oeste | Catering, lounge access and a padded central seat in the only fully covered stand. |
| Lower-priced option | Preferencia Sur or the upper corners | The bottom of the club's own price list and the area most likely to have inventory when the rest of the ground has gone. |
Football has been played at El Sardinero since 1913, the year the club was founded as Santander Racing Club by a group of young men in a city that had no organised team. King Alfonso XIII granted the Real prefix in 1922. The original ground hosted international football by 1927, which for a provincial stadium of that era was unusual and says something about how quickly Santander took to the game.
The current Campos de Sport opened on 20 August 1988, built on the same site and owned by the city rather than the club. Capacity now sits at around 22,200, which makes it the largest stadium in Cantabria and the 29th largest in Spain. It is not an architectural landmark in the way that some recent Spanish rebuilds are. It is a functional four-sided ground that has been full for most of its existence, including through seasons when the football did not merit it.
The name comes from the district, and the district comes from the beach. El Sardinero is Santander's seafront neighbourhood, a stretch of sand and belle époque hotels that was a royal summer resort before it was a football address. The stadium sits a short walk inland from the water, which makes it one of the few grounds in Spanish football where a pre-match routine can reasonably include swimming.
What the ground lacks in modern facilities it makes up for in proximity. The stands are close to the pitch, the bowl is compact and the noise from the ends carries. On the night Racing beat Manchester City 3-1 in the UEFA Cup in December 2008, with Robinho in the visiting side, El Sardinero produced an atmosphere that the English coverage spent more time on than the football. Individual fixtures are listed on the Estadio El Sardinero tickets page.
Getting there is straightforward. The stadium is roughly three kilometres from Santander's centre, along the bay and past the Magdalena peninsula. City buses run the route in fifteen to twenty minutes, the walk takes forty to fifty along the seafront and is worth doing at least once, and a taxi is a short fare. Parking near the ground on a matchday is limited, and the surrounding streets are residential.
Pre-match happens in the centre rather than at the stadium. Santander's old quarter around the Plaza de Cañadío and Calle Peña Herbosa is where supporters gather, and the Cantabrian bar culture runs to rabas, anchovies and the local sidra. Afterwards the crowd disperses back the same way. It is a slower and more coastal version of a Spanish matchday than the inland cities offer, and it is one of the better reasons to choose this fixture over another. Block layouts are set out on the El Sardinero seating plan.
Hospitality at El Sardinero is concentrated in the Tribuna Oeste, where the club's boxes, lounge space and premium seating sit alongside the directors' area. The scale is modest compared with the rebuilt grounds elsewhere in La Liga, which is a function of a 1988 stadium owned by the city rather than a lack of demand.
Packages reach the resale market in smaller numbers than standard seating, because corporate holders release less often than individual members. The ranges below reflect what they typically cost when they do appear.
| Package | What It Includes | Typical Price Range (GBP) |
|---|---|---|
| Premium seating | Padded central seat in the Tribuna Oeste with lounge access before the match and at half time. | £200 – £330 |
| Hospitality with catering | Pre-match meal, drinks throughout and a seat in the covered main stand. | £260 – £420 |
| Private box | Enclosed box within the Tribuna Oeste with hosted service, sold by the season more often than by the match. | £350 – £550+ |
| High-demand fixture hospitality | The same packages for Barcelona, Real Madrid or Atlético Madrid, released in very small numbers and priced accordingly. | £450 – £850+ |
The process takes a few minutes and is the same for a routine fixture as for the visit of Barcelona. What differs is timing. For the three or four matches that Cantabria has waited fourteen years to see, starting early is the only meaningful advantage available.
Step1
Find the fixture
Work from the home and away lists at the foot of this page rather than searching by date. Each fixture has its own page, so you land on the inventory for that specific match instead of a general listing.
Step2
Set up your account
You can create an account before browsing or at checkout. Doing it first is faster when a fixture is moving, and your delivery details are stored ready for when you find the right seats.
Step3
Choose your stand
Decide between the Tribuna Oeste, the Preferencia and the ends before filtering on price. The gap between the main stand and everything else is the widest on the price list, and it buys cover and elevation rather than a different match.
Step4
Read the listing properly
Check the block, row and any note about restricted view, seating together or delivery method. El Sardinero is an older ground and cover varies between areas, which matters on the Cantabrian coast in February.
Step5
Confirm the quantity
Sellers list in set quantities and splitting a pair is not always possible. If you need four seats together, filter for four rather than assuming two listings of two will place you next to each other.
Step6
Check the total before you commit
The checkout shows the full amount including fees and delivery before payment. Compare that figure across listings rather than the headline seat price, which is where the real difference usually sits.
Step7
Pay securely
Checkout runs over an SSL-encrypted connection and the 150% money-back guarantee attaches at the point the order is confirmed. Written confirmation follows immediately.
Step8
Follow it through to delivery
Use the track order page to follow the status through to the tickets reaching you. For fixtures booked months ahead, tickets are often released closer to the date, which is normal rather than a problem.
For the fixtures where supply is the binding constraint, having an account ready and a stand chosen in advance puts you in a materially better position than working it out at the point of purchase.
Every home match at El Sardinero this season is difficult, because 18,500 of roughly 22,200 seats are held by season pass holders. The gap between difficult and effectively impossible is worth knowing before you fix a date.
| Fixture Type | Why It Moves Fast |
|---|---|
| Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid | The first league visits to Santander since 2012. Season pass holders release almost nothing for these dates and the general-sale pool is measured in hundreds. Anyone in Cantabria under twenty-five has never seen them play a league match in the city. |
| The northern fixtures | Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Alavés and Osasuna all travel well and the away allocation fills before it is advertised. Bilbao is ninety minutes down the A-8, which turns the fixture into a regional occasion. |
| Deportivo La Coruña | Two clubs promoted together after long absences, both former La Liga fixtures brought down by financial collapse. The meeting carries a shared history that neither set of supporters needs explained. |
| The first home match of the season | The first La Liga fixture at El Sardinero in fourteen years. Whatever the opponent, this one goes. |
| Anything with survival riding on it | A promoted club's spring fixtures carry weight that the calendar cannot predict in August. When the final weeks matter, members stop releasing seats, which removes the main source of resale supply. |
The delivery method is stated on every listing before you buy. Check it at the point of purchase rather than afterwards, particularly if you are travelling from outside Spain and a postal delivery would not reach you in time.
Gates open well before kick-off and the crowd arrives along the bay in a steady stream rather than one surge, which keeps the queues moving. Thirty to forty minutes ahead is enough for a routine fixture. For the visits that have not happened since 2012, an hour gives you time to reach your block and watch a ground fill that has waited fourteen years for the occasion.
Entry is by scanning at the turnstile and the gate printed on your ticket corresponds to your block. Check it before you set off, because El Sardinero's perimeter is not quick to walk around once the crowd builds. Photo ID matching the booking name is worth carrying, and if you are entering on a mobile ticket, download it in advance rather than relying on signal outside the ground.
Small bags and handbags are permitted subject to search. Large rucksacks are refused and there is no storage at the stadium, so anything that will not fit under your seat should stay at the hotel. Bottles, cans, glass, flares and pyrotechnics are prohibited, along with professional cameras carrying detachable lenses. Sealed water bottles under half a litre are generally accepted.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. |
| Founded | 23 February 1913 as Santander Racing Club, granted the Real prefix by Alfonso XIII in 1922 |
| Nicknames | Los Racinguistas, Los Verdiblancos and Los Montañeses, the mountaineers |
| Stadium | Campos de Sport de El Sardinero, opened August 1988, capacity around 22,200 and owned by the city |
| Head coach | José Alberto López, in charge since December 2022 |
| Ownership | Majority stake held since July 2023 by Sebastián Ceria and Manolo Higuera, with Higuera as president |
| Record appearances | José Ceballos, 460 matches |
| Record goalscorer | Enrique Larrinaga, around 120 league goals |
| League | La Liga, 20 clubs, a first top-flight season since 2011/12 |
| Best league finish | Runners-up in 1930/31, level on 22 points with champions Athletic Bilbao |
Racing were one of the ten clubs that started La Liga in 1929 and finished second in it two years later. They have spent more than forty seasons in the top division, more than most clubs in Spain, and they have never won a major trophy. The century in between contains a bankruptcy, a boycott that made international news and a recovery funded by the people who watch them.
Racing's opening two decades were the most successful in their history and nothing since has come close. A founder member of the national league, second in it within two years and a regular fixture in the top division through the 1930s, all from a city with a fraction of the population of its competitors. The runners-up finish in 1930/31 remains the ceiling, and it was achieved on the same points as the champions.
The second half of the century was spent moving between the divisions with occasional spikes of something better. Beating Johan Cruyff's Barcelona 5-0 in February 1995 is the result Cantabria still measures visitors against. Salva Ballesta's Pichichi in 1999/2000 was the first individual honour of any weight the club had produced, and Pedro Munitis, who made 365 appearances and scored 84 goals, went from the Racing academy to Real Madrid and the Spain squad.
Sixth place in 2007/08 sent Racing into Europe for the only time in their history, and the group-stage win over Manchester City in December 2008, with Robinho and Kasper Schmeichel in the visiting side, remains the night El Sardinero is still measured against. Three years later the club was insolvent. Ahsan Ali Syed's purchase in 2011 accelerated rather than arrested the collapse, and two relegations in two seasons took Racing from La Liga to the third tier.
What happened on 30 January 2014 is the part that outsiders remember. Unpaid for months and with a board that would not resign, the Racing players walked out for the second leg of a Copa del Rey quarter-final against Real Sociedad, linked arms in the centre circle and refused to kick a ball. The tie was abandoned, the club was disqualified and banned from the competition, and the president was removed the following day. He was later given a prison sentence for fraud and embezzlement.
The recovery took twelve years and it was funded from the stands before it was funded by anyone else. Supporters bought shares while Higuera reduced the debt, and only once the club was viable did outside money arrive, with Ceria and Higuera completing a purchase in July 2023. José Alberto has now been in charge for three and a half years, longer than anyone at the club in a generation, and the side that went up scored more goals than any other in the division.
| Legend | Role | Contribution | Milestones |
|---|---|---|---|
| José Ceballos | Goalkeeper | Played more matches for Racing than anyone in the club's history, across a period when the side moved repeatedly between the divisions. The kind of career that only happens at a club a player never wants to leave. | 460 appearances, a club record |
| Quique Setién | Midfielder and later head coach | Made 369 appearances as a player and returned decades later to manage the club, which makes him the clearest link between Racing's different eras. Went on to coach Real Betis and Barcelona, carrying a possession-based approach he first developed here. | 369 appearances |
| Pedro Munitis | Forward, academy to first team | Came through the youth system, scored 84 goals in 365 appearances across two spells and moved to Real Madrid in 2001 before returning. Played for Spain at the 2002 World Cup while a Racing player in all but contract. | 365 appearances and 84 goals |
| Salva Ballesta | Forward, 1999 to 2000 | Scored 27 league goals in a single season to win the Pichichi, the first Racing player ever to take the award. One season, one extraordinary return and a place in the club's history that longer careers have not displaced. | Pichichi winner in 1999/2000 with 27 goals |
| Enrique Larrinaga | Forward, 1930s | The leading scorer in the club's league history, from the era when Racing were founder members of La Liga and finished second in it. His goals belong to the only period in which this club challenged for a national title. | Around 120 league goals |
| Manolo Higuera | Former player and president | Took over the running of a bankrupt club, cut the debt and oversaw the years when supporters bought shares to keep Racing alive. Returned as president in 2023 after acquiring the club with Sebastián Ceria, and is the reason there is a team in La Liga to write about. | President through the recovery and again from 2023 |
Racing have never won a major national honour, which is unusual for a club with more than forty La Liga seasons behind it. What the cabinet holds is second and third division titles and a runners-up medal from 1931. The counts below have been cross-referenced against club publications and independent football records.
| Competition | Titles |
|---|---|
| La Liga | Runners-up in 1930/31, level on points with the champions |
| Segunda División | 2, in 1949/50 and 1959/60, plus the 2025/26 title |
| Primera División RFEF | 1, in 2021/22, the inaugural edition of the competition |
| Segunda División B | Multiple titles, most recently in 1991 |
| Tercera División | 3 |
| Copa del Rey | Semi-finals in 2007/08 and 2009/10 |
| UEFA Cup | Group stage in 2008/09, the club's only European campaign |
| Cantabrian Championship | 13 |
The 2025/26 second division title is the most recent addition and the one that matters most to anyone buying a ticket this season. Racing took 82 points from 25 wins, seven draws and ten defeats, and scored 90 goals, more than any other club in the division.
Racing's rivalries follow the coast. Cantabria sits between the Basque Country and Asturias with no other top-flight club of its own, which means the fixtures that carry an edge are the ones with the regions on either side. The one genuine local derby is with a club three divisions below them.
The fixture Racing supporters point to first, and the one the historical record supports. Bilbao is ninety minutes east along the A-8 and the two clubs have been meeting since the earliest years of Spanish football, with Athletic holding a clear advantage across the series. The 1930/31 season is the connecting thread: Racing finished second in La Liga on 22 points, level with Athletic, who took the title. Nothing in the ninety-five years since has brought Racing that close to a Basque club at the top of the table, and this season is the first opportunity in fourteen years to try again.
The derbi cántabro, contested since 1913 and the only fixture in the region that qualifies as a local derby. Torrelavega is twenty-five minutes inland and Gimnástica have spent most of their history in the lower divisions, which means competitive meetings have been rare and treated accordingly when they happen. There is no league fixture in 2026/27 and there has not been one for many years, but the derby is part of how Racing supporters describe themselves rather than something that needs a date in the calendar.
Not a hostility so much as a mirror. Deportivo were La Liga champions in 2000 and Racing finished sixth in 2008, and both then fell out of the top flight through financial collapse and spent years in the lower divisions before climbing back. They were promoted together in 2026. Supporters on both sides recognise the shape of the other's decade, which gives the fixture a weight that the head-to-head record does not.
The opponent on the night that defines El Sardinero's European history. Racing beat City 3-1 in the UEFA Cup group stage on 18 December 2008, with Robinho, Kasper Schmeichel and Pablo Zabaleta in the visiting side and City managed by Mark Hughes in the first season of their new ownership. It remains the only time Racing have beaten a club of that standing in European competition, and for a club whose entire continental history amounts to one campaign, it carries the weight that a whole European era would elsewhere.
The only European tie Racing have ever won. The Finnish club were eliminated in the first round of the 2008/09 UEFA Cup, with Racing completing the job 1-0 at El Sardinero on 2 October 2008 to reach the group stage. It is not a glamorous entry in the record, but it is the entirety of Racing's knockout success in Europe and it is why the Manchester City night happened at all.
| Season | Summary |
|---|---|
| 2021/22 | The Primera División RFEF title in the competition's inaugural season, and promotion out of the third tier after a nine-year absence from the second division. It was the first tangible result of the recovery that began with the 2014 boycott, and it was achieved by a club that supporters had funded through share purchases to keep it solvent. |
| 2022/23 | A difficult first season back. Racing finished twelfth on 54 points from fourteen wins, twelve draws and sixteen defeats, scoring 39 and conceding 40. Iñigo Vicente led the scoring with seven. The season involved a change in the dugout, with José Alberto López arriving in December and beginning the work that would define the next three years. |
| 2023/24 | Seventh on 64 points from eighteen wins, ten draws and fourteen defeats, with 63 scored and 55 conceded. Racing missed the play-offs on goal difference from Real Oviedo, who finished sixth on the same points total. The attacking numbers were already among the strongest in the division and the defensive ones were not, which was the pattern for the next two seasons as well. |
| 2024/25 | Fifth on 71 points from twenty wins, eleven draws and eleven defeats, scoring 65. Racing reached the promotion play-offs and lost the semi-final to Mirandés across two legs, with El Sardinero full for the first leg. It was the closest the club had come to La Liga since relegation and it ended against a club from a town of 40,000. |
| 2025/26 | Champions. Racing took 82 points from twenty-five wins, seven draws and ten defeats, scoring 90 goals, the highest total in the division. Andrés Martín led the scoring with 23 and Iñigo Vicente contributed nine goals and 21 assists. Promotion was sealed on 17 May with a 4-1 win over Real Valladolid at El Sardinero. Barcelona ended the Copa del Rey run 2-0 in the round of 16 on 15 January. |
José Alberto goes into La Liga with the side that went up and four additions of genuine top-flight standing. Sergio Canales returned in June from Monterrey, sixteen years after leaving the academy for Real Madrid, and slots into a midfield alongside Iñigo Vicente, whose nine goals and 21 assists last season were the creative engine of the promotion. Julen Agirrezabala arrived from Athletic Bilbao to compete in goal.
The defence was rebuilt with permanent deals for Pablo Ramón from Espanyol and Facundo González from Juventus, alongside Pedro Felipe from the same club. Asier Villalibre's loan from Alavés was made permanent. Suleiman Camara left for Slovan Bratislava for a reported 1 million euros. The squad averages under 24, which for a promoted side is young enough to be a genuine question rather than a talking point.
| No. | Player | Position | Role in the 2026/27 Squad |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lars Eriksson | Goalkeeper | Swedish keeper competing for the first-choice role |
| 13 | Julen Agirrezabala | Goalkeeper | Signed from Athletic Bilbao and the most experienced option in the position |
| 4 | Manu Hernando | Centre-back | The most consistent defender of the promotion season and the organiser of the back line |
| 5 | Pablo Ramón | Centre-back | Signed permanently from Espanyol after a loan spell |
| 16 | Facundo González | Centre-back | Uruguayan defender, purchase option exercised from Juventus |
| 22 | Pedro Felipe | Centre-back | Brazilian defender arriving from Juventus for the top-flight campaign |
| 2 | Álvaro Mantilla | Right-back | Academy-developed full-back established in the side |
| 17 | Jorge Salinas | Left-back | Young defender who attracted interest from larger clubs during the summer |
| 30 | Carlos Sánchez | Defender | Squad depth across the back line |
| 6 | Iñigo Sainz | Midfielder | Holding midfielder in front of the defence |
| 8 | Gustavo Puerta | Midfielder | Colombian international and a driving presence through the centre |
| 20 | Sergio Canales | Midfielder | Returned from Monterrey in June, takes penalties and set pieces and came through this academy |
| 10 | Iñigo Vicente | Attacking midfielder | Nine goals and 21 assists in the promotion season, the creative centre of the team |
| 14 | Maguette Gueye | Midfielder | Senegalese midfielder adding physical presence |
| 29 | Andrés Vallecillo | Midfielder | Academy graduate competing for minutes |
| 34 | Diego Díaz | Midfielder | Young midfielder promoted into the senior group |
| 11 | Andrés Martín | Forward | Top scorer with 23 goals in the title season and the focal point of the attack |
| 9 | Juan Carlos Arana | Forward | Quick centre-forward competing for the starting role |
| 12 | Asier Villalibre | Forward | Signed permanently from Alavés after his loan, scored in the promotion-sealing win |
| 21 | Yassir Zabiri | Forward | On loan from Rennes with room to grow into a top-flight role |
| 7 | Giorgi Guliashvili | Winger | Georgian attacker offering directness from wide areas |
Squad numbers reflect the registrations published at the start of the campaign and may shift before the window closes. The academy has supplied a meaningful share of this group, which at a club that spent the last decade paying down debt was less a philosophy than the only option available.
Yes. Racing capped season passes at 18,500 for 2026/27 and closed new memberships before the campaign started, so joining is not an option this season. A verified marketplace gives you seats released by pass holders who cannot attend, with no Spanish address and no membership required.
Racing were last in La Liga in 2011/12, so Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid have not played a league fixture in Santander since 2012. With 18,500 of roughly 22,200 seats held by pass holders, the general-sale pool for those three dates is very small.
The players refused to play a Copa del Rey quarter-final against Real Sociedad on 30 January, linking arms in the centre circle in protest at a board that had not paid them and would not resign. Racing were disqualified and banned from the competition, the president was removed the next day and later jailed for fraud, and supporters bought shares to keep the club alive.
El Sardinero is about three kilometres from the centre, past the Magdalena peninsula along the bay. City buses take fifteen to twenty minutes, the seafront walk takes forty to fifty and is worth doing once, and a taxi is a short fare. Parking near the ground is limited on matchdays.
Once. Sixth place in La Liga in 2007/08 earned a place in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup, where Racing eliminated FC Honka of Finland and then beat Manchester City 3-1 at El Sardinero in December 2008 before going out at the group stage. It remains the club's only continental campaign.
A club that its own supporters bought shares in to keep alive, back in the top division for the first time since 2012 with the academy player who left for Real Madrid at nineteen wearing the number twenty at thirty-five, is a better afternoon than a promoted side's league position will suggest. 1BoxOffice has been a verified marketplace for live event tickets since 2006, with every order carrying a 150% money-back guarantee. Choose your fixture below and take a seat while there is one to take.
Sources: Official Racing Santander website at realracingclub.es, LaLiga, UEFA, Transfermarkt, StadiumDB, El Diario Cantabria and Wikipedia.
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