Rayo Vallecano wants to save the descent accompanied by Radamel Falcao

For the new season, Rayo Vallecano maintains his commitment to Andoni Iraola and to last season’s bloc as 17 players, including Colombian Radamel Falcao, continue to dream of a new historic job, whose main goal remains permanence.

The Vallecano team, accustomed to starting almost from scratch and preparing practically new rosters year after year, maintains a commitment to continuity for the current exercise without being the usual selling club left without its most decisive footballers.

Andoni Iraola continues to be Macedonian international goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski, Albanian right-back Iván Balliu, central defender Alejandro Catena, left-back Fran García, midfielders Santi Comesaña and Óscar Valentín, wingers Isi Valentín and Álvaro Garcíar, and Argentine midfielder all players who were re-evaluated last season and whose name to strengthen higher-level teams has sounded stubborn.

Radamel Falcao will also remain in the squad. Last season, the Colombian aroused enormous enthusiasm among Rayo fans, who saw his new idol, despite being hampered by injuries, score six times in his 926 minutes of play. This campaign, at the age of 36, he will remain a reference to take into account in the team’s attack, although the sports management is looking for a companion who can overshadow him, aware that with his age he is not all offensive responsibility on him.

A player who wants to defend himself in attack hopes to be Sergio Camello. The 21-year-old attacker, on loan from Atlético de Madrid, comes to Vallecas with the aim of having continuity in the First Division and making a name for himself among the elite of Spanish football to confirm the good performance he made with Mirandés last season, with the one who scored fifteen goals in Second.

Rayo’s other three reinforcements so far are goalkeeper Diego López, French central defender Florian Lejeune and winger Salvador Sánchez Ponce, ‘Salvi’.

Of all, Rayo’s dedication to Diego López, who at 40 will continue to compete at the highest level at the age of 40 after the last six seasons with Espanyol as the undisputed starter. In the Madrid team he will have to compete for a place in the eleven with Dimitrievski, who starts out as the favorite to occupy the three colors, as seen in the preseason, and whom Rayo did not want to rent in this market of summer, always referring to the EUR 50 million of his termination clause.

Rayo’s goal is clearly defined: to stay in the First Division and if possible without too much effort. Apart from that, the illusion of doing well in the Copa del Rey is perpetuated with the still recent memory of the last edition, in which it reached the semi-finals and only one goal from Betis in the added time of the second leg deprived of participation the last.

For Andoni Iraola, it is the third season at the helm of Rayo. Since his arrival in 2020, the results of his work have been clear with the promotion to First in 2021 and the permanence in the top tier and the dispute of the cup semi-finals in 2021-2022. All this is marked by the personal stamp with which the Basque coach has endowed his team, which has been able to adapt his showy playing condition to his tactics from the start, with an improvement in defensive solidity and greater verticality in attack compared to the previous ones. stage of Paco Jemez.