A village of 3,592 residents in the Tercera Federación: CD Cantoria host Almería’s reserve side this Sunday
Founded in 2017, CD Cantoria are in their first year in the Tercera Federación, the first rung of national football. This Sunday they host UD Almería’s reserve team.
Automatic translation: this article was translated with artificial intelligence from the original in Spanish. Read the original
On 5 April, more than a thousand people went to the Los Olivos stadium, in Cantoria, to watch the village team play for promotion. It was traditionally a day for picnics, as La Voz de Almería recalled, but that afternoon CD Cantoria 2017 beat Atlético de Marbella 4-1 and sealed promotion to the Tercera Federación, the fifth tier of Spanish football and the first at national level. Six months later, the team from a village of 3,592 residents, according to the 2025 padrón (the municipal register), takes on clubs from Granada, Málaga, Jaén and Melilla every week, and this Sunday, 4 October, hosts UD Almería’s reserve team.
To go up that day, Cantoria needed to win and for Cuevas to win their match in the morning. Both things happened. “There were more than 1,000 people in the stadium. It’s the day we’ve got the most people into the ground”, their coach, Ricardo Mora, told La Voz de Almería. And they weren’t only Cantoria residents: “There were people from Cuevas, even Serón, Tíjola… people from the whole district”.
A young club with local people
The club carries its year of birth in its name: 2017. In less than a decade it has gone from regional football to the national level, and it has done so in its own way: as La Comarca highlighted after promotion, a good part of its squad were players from the district and from nearby villages.
Its coach summed it up like this after promotion: “This group is something to behold. We have 18 players from the district, from neighbouring villages, and the way they train and the effort they have put in all year is worthy of admiration”.
That path earned it the Sport award at the 3rd Almanzora-Los Vélez Awards in June, organised by La Voz de Almería, Cadena SER and Los 40. When presenting the awards, the newspaper highlighted a squad “made up mostly of footballers from the district” and the club’s ability “to bring a whole municipality together”.
First steps in the national tier
The Tercera Federación got under way on 6 September, and Cantoria already know what every point costs. At Los Olivos they have drawn both their matches: against Atlético Malagueño (2-2) and against Atlético de Marbella (1-1), the same opponents as on promotion day. Away from home they have lost in Porcuna (1-0) and against Recreativo Granada (2-0). After four matchdays, they are still looking for their first win in the division.
Back in April, with promotion just secured, Mora anticipated that the step up would mean strengthening the squad without losing its essence: “Our idea is to carry on down the same path. People will have to come in who raise the level a bit, but we have our feet on the ground. We have created a club identity that is committed to the people from here and we have to carry on down this path”.
This Sunday, the challenge has a name of its own: UD Almería’s reserve team, third in the table with nine points. They are the only two teams from Almería province in a group that brings together clubs from Almería, Granada, Jaén, Málaga and Melilla.
Cantoria’s name, every weekend
For a village of its size, the Tercera is quite a showcase. This season, Los Olivos welcomes seventeen opponents, from cities such as Motril, Marbella or Melilla, and Cantoria’s name appears every weekend in the division’s results.
From elValle Actualidad, we can only celebrate that a village in the Almanzora has earned a place in national football.
