Colour in the Levante UD logo for free

About this drawing

Every big city needs an underdog, and in Valencia the Levante UD crest belongs to that team. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest soccer club in the Valencian region, born near the waterfront among dockworkers and fishing families. The name itself comes from the sunrise. Levante means east in Spanish, and it is the word used for this stretch of Spain's Mediterranean coast.

The club went through a merger in 1939, just after the Spanish Civil War. Two local teams, Levante FC and Gimnastico FC, had both been badly weakened, so they joined up to survive. That is where the UD comes from, short for Union Deportiva, and it is also where the blue and deep red colors come from. The stylized bat on top is a nod to the symbol of the city.

One of the strangest chapters came in 1937, in the middle of the war. Levante won a tournament known as the Free Spain Cup, played in the territory held by the Republic. For decades the win sat in a kind of historical limbo, with people debating how it should count. Today the team plays at the Ciutat de Valencia stadium, close to the old bed of the Turia River. It shares a city with a much richer neighbor, so supporters happily embrace the role of the plucky local side.

• soccer
• team crests
• spain
• underdogs