The surprise of the year, Girona is a galaxy of Manchester City

Girona's trajectory this season in LaLiga, leader alone for a few weeks and now co-leader with Real Madrid, has often been compared to that of Leicester, which won the Premier League in 2016. That year, the English team also surprised the planet football by competing face to face with the giants of the Premier League, just as Girona is doing now.

In this sense, the coach who achieved that milestone, Claudio Ranieri, wanted to comment on the recurring comparison between both teams. The current coach of Cagliari, from Serie A, denies similarities between both teams. Girona is breaking the traditional equation of LaLiga of Spain, the one that is well recognized for having the trophy dispute between Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico de Madrid for several years.

But in this 2023-24 season, the albirrojos are breaking out at a pace that is no longer a surprise. After 14 games, Girona has similar numbers to the top winner in Spain and the Champions League, the almighty Real Madrid, 35 points, 11 wins, two draws and just one defeat. 

LaLiga is played over 38 days and the first four places obtain a direct place in the Champions League, so if the championship ended now, the usual teams, Real, Barca and Atleti, would be qualified, along with Girona as an unexpected guest. But this scenario is not so unexpected if you take into account that 47% of Girona's ownership is owned by City Football Group, the emporium that led Manchester City to win its first Champions League this summer and that controls 10 other teams on three continents. It is a winning DNA at the service of a modest team.

The purchase of Girona

The purchase of ownership of Girona by the City Football Group came in 2017, a few weeks after having achieved the first promotion in its history to LaLiga, Spain's top division. But he has not received much capital to build his staff since then. It has been 56.2 million euros since then, a far cry from the more than 1,000 million euros that the big brother of the City Football Group, Manchester City, has spent in the last decade within the Premier League.