With three matchdays left in the season, CD Castellón sits in the promotion playoff spots. But you wouldn’t know it from the mood around the club. I look around and hear nothing but complaints. I see too many people trapped by poorly managed ambition. I truly believe that from this historic season, we are not learning everything we should.
Hardly anyone at the club, among the fans, or in the wider community has experienced what we are living through now. Objectively, both on and off the pitch, this is the best season for Castellón since 1990. Those who lived through something similar did so in a football world completely different from today’s. So the first lesson is to recognize that we are all beginners in this. There is no instruction manual. We are all learning.
We should be learning, for example, that promotion is not won in a sprint but by enduring. Everything takes time, and no one gets promoted in February, March, or April, because those months don’t decide finals—no matter what pundits or headlines say. Especially not in this unforgiving division, where suddenly nothing is as it seems or as it was. Other teams that have been through this and suffered in previous years may have handled it better than us, precisely because they learned that lesson. We could acknowledge that.
We should also make an effort to force ourselves to enjoy this entire process. That would be a collective victory: learning to enjoy the journey. The best season since 1990—I emphasize that—cannot be lived through anxiety, frustration, and bitterness. I know it’s not easy, because a sweet taste was placed on our tongues, but it was a trap. Calm, in fact, should be what sets us apart from our rivals. The absence of urgency should be our advantage, but we are losing that optimal state, sometimes overacting, sometimes impatient, sometimes too intense.
I repeat: 1990. It’s easy to say, but it’s a long time ago. So long ago that none of Castellón’s direct rivals have been waiting that long for a return. None fell as low, nor for as many years, nor as recently. None of them have climbed back from such a remote point. I regret to inform you that Castellón is nobody, in 2026, neither to the Federation, nor to LaLiga, nor to the referees. One day we will be, if we continue to grow, but not yet. Today we compete with a handicap: we need one more goal where others need one less. And it shows.
From very far away, Castellón also lacks the financial backing of a bank, an overwhelming fanbase for the division, or a youth academy that makes a difference. Castellón has a project—already much more than it has had for decades—but it is still less than what others, who have long since escaped us, have. We have been climbing back, thanks to Voulgaris year after year, but I insist: we come from very far away.
We should learn to trust as well. I can sense that the club is taking notes to ensure next season is better than this one, and I can sense it—and even trust it—because that has always been the case since 2022. The commitment to continuous improvement is already a hallmark of the Immortal, which is not satisfied with just surviving: it also demands growth and living. And focusing on the future should not make us underestimate what this team has done and will continue to do until the end, whatever that end may be. Even if in football it’s easy to get used to winning—so easy that this season, at one point, the astonishing stopped astonishing us.
Finally, timidly, a piece of advice: we should learn to dream. To set aside a moment each night, in bed, to imagine what a promotion would be like—with whom, how, and so on. It’s May, and we still have that right intact. The mere fact of being able to do so is already a reward. The fuel—this year, next year, or the year after—to keep pushing. And learning.
