Sporting de Alcázar de San Juan returns to the Copa del Rey after almost 34 years of absence, when the local club faced Maradona and Sevilla in the 1992-93 season. Next Tuesday, October 27, at 9:00 p.m., the city team will host Málaga CF at the Manuel Delgado Meco stadium, in a direct elimination phase that returns Alcázar football to a national stage that it had not set foot on for decades.
Football in Alcázar has roots that date back to the end of the 19th century, when the railway and the arrival of new forms of leisure promoted the creation of sports clubs and societies. The Gimnástica, founded in 1972, became the main sporting reference in the city, developing much of its career in the Third Division and approaching the Second B on several occasions. The 1991-92 season marked a turning point, when the young coach Joaquín Caparrós arrived as coach and coordinator of the future Municipal Sports School, with the aim of building a sustainable football structure and generating a local youth academy.
Caparrós described that experience as “very pleasant on a professional and personal level”, highlighting the joint work with the board and the importance of the football school. Although Gimnástica reached a promotion phase to Second B for the first time, it did not achieve promotion. At the end of the season, Caparrós moved to Balompédica Conquense, handing over to Esteban Castellanos, who had been his second coach. Castellanos took over as coach in the 1992-93 season and led the team to the historic Copa del Rey campaign.
Gimnastico eliminated Toledo, Valdepeñas and Eibar before facing Carlos Bilardo's Sevilla, with Diego Maradona as the centerpiece. The first match, played at the Municipal, ended 0‑2 in favor of Sevilla, but the presence of the Argentine idol generated unprecedented enthusiasm in the city. The second leg, held on December 30, 1992 at the Pizjuán, saw Maradona score one of the five goals for Sevilla, who won 5-0 and closed the match with a 7-0 aggregate. Despite the defeat, the experience left an indelible mark on the players and the community, who felt proud to have seen their team compete against the elite of Spanish football.
The most emblematic memory of that campaign is the photograph in which the Gimnástica, directed by Castellanos, surrounds Maradona in the Sánchez-Pizjuán stadium. The image symbolizes the bravery and local spirit of the club, which, with a squad mostly born in Castilla-La Mancha, managed to star in one of the most memorable nights in the history of Alcazareño football. Now, with the arrival of Málaga CF, Sporting de Alcázar has the opportunity to revive that legacy and demonstrate once again that the city's football can compete at the national level.