L'Escala

Seven hundred seats fit around the pitch at the Estadi Municipal de L'Escala. Blue and garnet shirts have carried the club through more than a century there, long enough that the name on the door has changed twice: Club de Fútbol La Escala until 1982, then Fútbol Club La Escala, and only from 1984 the Catalan form, Futbol Club L'Escala, that stands today.

The club's supporters go by Els Escalencs, the word for anyone from the town itself, which leaves little distance between the team and the place it plays for. That closeness sharpens whenever AE Roses comes to town.

For most of its history L'Escala moved through the lower rungs of Catalan football without much fuss — a regional title in 1982, another step up two decades later. The climb picked up pace from 2013, when the club won its Tercera Catalana group, then Segunda Catalana twice within five seasons, in 2014 and again in 2019. The 2022–23 season settled the argument: L'Escala took the Primera Catalana group and, with it, promotion to the Tercera Federación, the fifth tier of Spanish football and the highest level the club has reached.

700 seats, one ground, one climb through five divisions to get there.