Mensajero

Toni Robaina wore the red and black for Mensajero in 2021–22. That continuity matters more here than most places: this is the oldest football club on La Palma, its roots reaching back to 1916 before the formal founding on 6 January 1922.

The decade that defines the club ran from 1992 to 2002, ten straight seasons in Segunda División B, the third tier of Spanish football. A 0-0 draw at home was followed by a 3-1 defeat away, enough to put them out, but the resistance drew praise from Atlético's own president.

What followed was less kind. Financial trouble pushed the club down through the regional leagues by 2005–06. Recovery came in stages: back to Tercera División by 2008, to Segunda Federación by 2021, with Tercera División and Tercera Federación group titles won along the way in 2014–15 and 2022–23.

The Derbi Palmero against SD Tenisca carries a weight the results alone don't explain; a 1983 meeting between the two is still cited among the most violent in Spanish football history. Mensajero play at the Nuevo Estadio Silvestre Carrillo, 6,000 capacity, in the red shirt and black shorts the Rojinegros nickname describes. It is the same shirt Toni Robaina's father once wore, and the son wore it back to where the club's story started.