Foundation and club culture Espanyol was founded on 28 October 1900 by
Ángel Rodríguez Ruiz, an engineering student at the
University of Barcelona. The club's original home was in the well-off district of
Sarrià; Espanyol was the first club in Spain formed exclusively by Spanish fans of the game, with the other early clubs having links to Britain or central Europe. File:RCD Espanyol campions 1904.jpg|CD Espanyol de Barcelona, Catalan champions in 1904 File:RCD Espanyol 1912.jpg|RCD Español in 1912 with Español A friend of the club founder owned a textile business and happened to have an abundance of yellow material left over from a job. In 1910, the club changed its name to the
Club Deportivo Español and at the proposal of
Eduardo Corrons, the club's number one partner for many years, the club agreed to choose blue and white stripes as shirt colours and as the central colours of the club badge. Blue and white were chosen in homage to the colours on the shield of the great Sicilian-Aragonese Admiral
Roger de Lluria, who sailed the Mediterranean protecting the interests of the Crown of Aragon in the
Middle Ages. In 1906,
Club Español de Football had to suspend its activities due to a lack of players, since most of them were university students who enrolled to study at universities outside
Catalonia. X Sporting Club took advantage of this as most of the remaining Español players joined them, which meant a big leap in quality for the club, and as a result the X won the
Catalan championship three times in a row between 1905 and 1908, beating the likes of
FC Internacional and
FC Barcelona for the title. This historic side had the likes of
Pedro Gibert,
José Irízar, and
Santiago Massana. It was not until 1909 that X and Español were restructured again, when several of the former university students returned to
Barcelona with the idea of refounding
Club Español de Football, which they achieved on 27 December 1908, when X merged with the Spanish Jiu-Jitsu Club. In 1994, Espanyol created its
reserve team,
Espanyol B, currently playing in the
Segunda División B.
Two UEFA Cup finals (1988–2009) Javier Clemente was hired in 1986. In his first season, he took the team to a joint-best third place, qualifying for the
UEFA Cup. They defeated
Borussia Mönchengladbach,
A.C. Milan,
Inter Milan,
TJ Vitkovice, and
Club Brugge KV to reach the
final, losing on penalties to
Bayer 04 Leverkusen after a 3–3 aggregate draw. Two relegations followed, but the club remained in La Liga from winning the
1993–94 Segunda División until relegated at the conclusion of the 2019-20 COVID pandemic impacted season. Juli Pardo oversaw the transformation of the club into a
Sociedad Anónima Deportiva. In the wake of the accumulated debt, the club were forced to sell the
Sarrià Stadium, which was eventually demolished in 1997. Six years later, under
Miguel Ángel Lotina, the club won again, this time 4–1 against
Real Zaragoza in Madrid, with goals by
Raúl Tamudo,
Luis García (two) and
Coro. With this cup win, Espanyol entered the
UEFA Cup. They won all their group games, before dispatching
Livorno,
Maccabi Haifa,
Benfica, and
Werder Bremen to reach the
final. In the final, held on 16 May at
Hampden Park in
Glasgow, Espanyol fell to fellow La Liga side
Sevilla, losing 3–1 in a shootout following a 2–2 draw. They became the only football team in UEFA Cup history to remain unbeaten in the tournament, yet not take home the trophy.
Walter Pandiani, who would leave the club at the end of the season, was the UEFA Cup's top goalscorer that season. On 9 June 2007, Tamudo became Espanyol's highest-ever goalscorer after surpassing the 111 goals scored by
Rafael Marañón, and ended the night with 113. On 31 May 2009, Espanyol played its last match at the
Estadio Olímpico de Montjuic, a 3–0 defeat of
Málaga. Espanyol had played in the Estadi Olímpic after moving from their previous ground in Sarria. With the move, club talisman Raúl Tamudo had the unique distinction of having played in three different home stadiums with his club: Sarrià, Montjuïc and, beginning in the
2009–10 season, the Cornellà-El Prat.
Recent years (2009–present) in action during a La Liga fixture in August 2009 In January 2009, former Espanyol defender
Mauricio Pochettino was hired as manager with the club in the relegation zone – his first senior job. He won 2–1 against rivals Barcelona at the Camp Nou in February to help keep the club up; Barcelona, under
Pep Guardiola, won the
treble that season. After 12 seasons playing at the
Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc, Espanyol moved to the
Estadi de Cornellá-El Prat. The new stadium was officially inaugurated on 2 August 2009 with a match between Espanyol and
Liverpool; Espanyol won 3–0, with
Luis García scoring the first goal at the ground, followed by a
Ben Sahar double. Six days later, Espanyol captain
Daniel Jarque died from a
cardiac arrest aged 26 in the
Florence neighbourhood of
Coverciano, where the club was at the time after playing several fixtures in Italy. Since then, in the 21st minute – his former shirt number – of every Espanyol match, an ovation is made in his honour for a full minute. After Pochettino left in 2012, the club maintained their position in the top flight under a series of other managers. In January 2016, Chinese businessman Chen Yansheng took over the club by acquiring a 54% stake. In the
2018–19 season, Espanyol finished 7th, thus returning to the Europa League for the first time since their final run in 2006–07. However, the club suffered relegation for the first time since 1994 the following season, after a 1–0 loss at Barcelona. On 3 August 2020 the club published an official statement urging La Liga to suspend relegation; nevertheless relegation was not avoided. Espanyol won promotion back to La Liga at the first attempt on 8 May 2021 following a 0–0 draw against
Zaragoza, with four matches to spare in the 42-game season. Since 2022, Espanyol have been involved in a strategic cooperation with LEYU SPORTS, who became the official Asian partner of the club. On 28 May 2023, Espanyol were relegated to the Segunda División after two seasons in La Liga. Following a 4th place finish in the Segunda División, the club was promoted back to La Liga following a promotion 2–0 (2–1 aggregate) win against Real Oviedo on 23 June 2024. On October 8, 2025, Velocity Sports Partners (VSP) announced that it had completed the acquisition of a majority stake in the Spanish club. VSP is the sports investment arm of ALK Capital. ==Rivalries==