On October 15, 1905, the Civil Governor of Seville officially announced the creation of Sevilla F.C. The first president of the club was D. José Luis Gallegos. In 1908, the team played its first official game, against Recreativo Huelva. In 1914, the team won its first Copa de Sevilla (Seville Cup). In 1935, Seville won the first of its three Spanish Cup trophies, beating CE Sabadell 3-0. After the Spanish Civil War, Sevilla won the first Copa del Generalísimo (the second Spanish Cup win of the club), beating Racing de Ferrol by a score of 6-2.
The 1939-40 season also brought Sevilla very close to its first La Liga championship. The league had just returned after the Spanish Civil War, and Sevilla had some incredible games, beating FC Barcelona 11-1, Valencia CF 10-3 and Hércules CF 8-3. However, in the last game of the season, Sevilla could only manage to tie Hércules 3-3, thus giving the title to Atlético Aviación. In 1942-1943, Sevilla took second place in the league again but fell to third the next year. After a transitional year, in 1945-1946, Sevilla won its first and only La Liga title, due to a mesmeric season from the powerful striker Richard Stansfield, who managed to notch up an impressive 29 goal tally. In 1948, Sevilla captured its third and last Copa del Rey, defeating Celta Vigo 4-1 at Chamartin Stadium.
Sevilla FC also have a long tradition of European football, being the first Andalusian club to play the European Cup (now known as the UEFA Champions League) in the 1957-58 season. Sevilla have appeared in the Cup Winners Cup once, and has won two UEFA Cups (in 2006 and 2007) and the 2006 UEFA Super Cup.
Having finished 6th in the 2004-2005 season, Sevilla secured a place in the first round of the 2005-2006 UEFA Cup. After advancing through the first round and the group stage of competition, Seville beat Russian side Lokomotiv Moscow to advance to the round of 16. On March 9, Sevilla FC lost 1-0 to French club Lille OSC in the first leg of their home-and-away match, but on March 16, at home in Seville’s 50th game in European competition, Sevilla won 2-0 to advance to the quarterfinals. In these matches, which took place against FC Zenit on March 30, 2006 and April 6, 2006, Sevilla beat Zenit 5-2 on aggregate and advanced to the semifinals. In the semis, Seville knocked out the strong German side Schalke 04 after 180 goalless minutes, with Antonio Puerta scoring the decisive goal in the extra time of the return leg.
On May 10, 2006, in the 2006 UEFA Cup Final, Sevilla FC broke a 58 year drought on trophies and became the first Andalusian team to win a European final. Sevilla defeated Middlesbrough F.C. 4-0 in Eindhoven to win the their first UEFA Cup, in the largest UEFA cup victory in history. One goal came from Luis Fabiano, two from Enzo Maresca, and one by Frédéric Kanouté. At that time, Sevilla was the only European team which had played in the three major competitions (the European Cup, Cup Winner’s Cup and UEFA Cup) and had never lost any game (out of 27) when playing on their home stadium.
Having convincingly won the 2005-2006 UEFA Cup, Sevilla booked a place in 2006 UEFA Super Cup, a one-off game which pits the UEFA Cup winners and the Champions League winners of the previous year against one another. At the Stade Louis II in Monaco on August 25, 2006, Sevilla beat the defending Champions League title-holders FC Barcelona 3-0 — thanks an early goal by the Brazilian Renato Dirnei, a goal just before the half by Kanouté, and a penalty converted by Maresca in the second half stoppage time — to pick up its second European trophy (and its second in three months).
Sevilla FC finished 5th in La Liga in the 2005-2006 season, and by virtue of this (and also by having won the competition the previous year), Sevilla qualified for the first round of the 2006-2007 UEFA Cup. Seville won that matchup against the Greek side Atromitos, Kepa Blanco, the current West Ham United FC striker, scoring Sevilla’s first in the first leg in Athens at the Peristeri Stadium after a skirmish just inside and outside the 18-yard box and which resulted in Sevilla midfielder Sergio Valente, more commonly known as Duda, crossed into the danger area from the left wing, and Kepa Blanco was on hand to smash home a powerful header past the static Christostomos Mihailidis. 0-1 to Sevilla. Then, Duda made it two to nil with a half-volley that squeezed through the arms of Mihailidis and int the back of the net. Atromitos narrowed Sevilla’s lead to only one goal with a good volley by Georgios Korakakis in the 64th minute, but it was too late for real action by the Greek side. In the second leg at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan in Seville Sevilla had the advantage, at their home stadium with 2 away goals and a away win. Sevilla gladly took advantage of it. Sevilla had been helped though. Vasilios Apostolopoulos in the 3rd minute, and Dimitrios Ioannoy in the 9th minute. Both of them turned in Sevilla crosses from both wings. Luis Fabiano, became only the second team to defend the UEFA Cup title, following Real Madrid, who achieved this feat in 1985 and 1986.
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