Racing Santander

Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D., better known as Racing de Santander, Real Racing Club or simply Racing, is a Spanish football club based in the city of Santander (Cantabria). It was founded on 23 February 1913 as "Santander Racing Club". In the 2026-27 season it will play in the Primera División of Spain, after 14 seasons of absence.

It was legally constituted on 14 June of that same year. In 1922, King Alfonso XIII granted it the title of "Real" (royal), which allows it to carry the crown on its crest. It is the only Cantabrian team to have played in the Primera División of Spain, in which it has spent a total of 44 seasons.

Among its achievements are a league runner-up finish in the top category (1930-31) and two Copa del Rey semi-finals (2007-08 and 2009-10). After finishing in sixth place in the 2007-08 season, Racing played in the UEFA Cup for the first time in its history. It is also worth noting that, in its early years, it was the virtual champion of the unfinished Liga Máxima within the Liga Española de Foot-ball—held in the 1927-28 season and a forerunner of the later unified league competition—since it held the highest number of points when the tournament was prematurely brought to an end.

In 1929 it became one of the ten teams taking part in the inaugural edition of the Primera División of Spain. Its honours include three Segunda División titles, one Primera Federación title, four Segunda B titles and three Tercera titles, plus overall championships in the Segunda, the Primera Federación and the Tercera. Its reserve team, Rayo Cantabria, has also won the Copa Federación once.

It occupies 16th place in the all-time table of the Primera División and 20th in that of the Segunda. It has one Pichichi Trophy in the Primera, won by Salva Ballesta in 1999-2000, and three more in the Segunda: those of Abel Fernández (1962-63), Santillana (1970-71) and Quique Estebaranz (1988-89). It also has two Zarra Trophies in the Segunda División, won by Peque in the 2023-24 season and Andrés Martín in the following season. Three of its members have become Olympic medallists throughout its history: Francisco Pagaza, silver in Antwerp 1920; Ismael Ruiz Salmón, silver in Sydney 2000; and Ezequiel Garay, gold in Beijing 2008. Between the first of these and the last appearance, by Pedro Munitis at Euro 2000, a total of seven players have worn the Spain national team shirt while on the books of the green-and-whites. Of the twenty-six Cantabrians capped by the Spanish national team, nineteen were products of the Racing youth system and one more played for the team afterwards.

At the institutional level, Racing has been legally constituted as a sociedad anónima deportiva (sports limited company) since 1992, after the conversion regulations came into force, which that year affected practically all sports clubs in Spain. It is identified by its white and green colours, from which it takes the nickname "verdiblancos" (green-and-whites), together with the black used in its shorts. It is also called "montañeses" (highlanders) because of its origin.

It has played its home matches since 1988 at the stadium known as the Campos de Sport de El Sardinero, which was inaugurated with a match against Real Oviedo that the visitors won 0-2, with Carlos Muñoz as the first scorer in the new ground, adjacent to the old stadium of the same name that was inaugurated in the same year the club was founded.