Rayo Cantabria, formerly known as Real Racing Club de Santander "B" is the reserve team of Racing de Santander, a Spanish football team based in Santander, in the autonomous community of Cantabria.

Founded in 1926 as a separate club, affiliated with Racing de Santander from 1951 and incorporated formally into the professional club's structure in 1993, the team currently plays in , holding home games at La Albericia, with a capacity of 1,000 spectators.

History Rayo Cantabria was founded in 1926 as Gimnástica de Miranda, later being renamed Sociedad Deportiva Rayo Cantabria. Having competed independently in the Cantabrian Regional Championship, in 1946 they were promoted to the third tier of Spanish football, the old Tercera División, for the first time; the following campaign, they faced the biggest local club Racing de Santander (or Real Santander as they were known at the time), Rayo being relegated and Racing promoted. In the 1950–51 Tercera División season, Rayo came up against the Racing youth team, Juventud RS with both entering the relegating playoffs; Juventud went down and folded soon after, and from that time Rayo became the Racing farm team.

They went on to spend 20 consecutive years at the third level, coming close to promotion on a few occasions, also performing the important task in developing young local players, some of whom (including Paco Gento, Marquitos, Ico Aguilar, Pedro Zaballa, Vicente Miera and Nando Yosu) went on to great success. They temporarily disassociated from Racing in the 1968–69 and 1969–70 seasons when both were in the same division. After league restructuring in the mid-1970s, Rayo played just one further season at the third level (now Segunda División B) – that was in 1987–88, and they were relegated. Further elite players produced via a spell in the team included Tuto Sañudo, Juan Carlos, Manolo Preciado, Pedro Munitis and José María Ceballos.

In 1993 the original Rayo was dissolved in a national move to formally absorb affiliated teams into the professional clubs' structure, and Racing de Santander B took its place.El Racing B volverá a ser el Rayo Cantabria (Racing B will be Rayo Cantabria again), Aqui Hay Pelotas, 20 June 2019 (in Spanish) A new Rayo Cantabria, who started playing as an independent club in the regional leagues from 1993, was also affiliated to Racing for four seasons, from 2003–04 to 2006–07.Rayo Cantabria La Futbolteca (in Spanish) Racing B have since played nine seasons in Segunda B, lasting no more than two years in any single spell at that level; they would usually meet Dep. Rayo when relegated back to the fourth tier, and finished below their 'sibling' club on three occasions.

In 2018, previous manager Ángel Meñaca was recognised by the city of Santander for his lifetime efforts and contributions towards the running of both the original Rayo up to 1993 and the 'new' Rayo from then on.Santander premia a los jóvenes deportistas más destacados de 2017 y reconoce a Ángel Meñaca (Santander rewards the most outstanding young athletes of 2017 and recognizes Ángel Meñaca), Santander.es, 26 September 2018 (in Spanish)

In summer 2019, Racing de Santander successfully applied to have their B-team renamed as Rayo Cantabria going forward; the other Rayo club had been removed from the league a year earlier due to unpaid debts.El Rayo Cantabria se queda fuera de la competición oficial (Rayo Cantabria stays out of the official competition), El Diario Montañés, 30 June 2018 (in Spanish)El Rayo Cantabria pide amparo a ProLiga (Rayo Cantabria asks ProLiga for protection), ProLiga, 3 July 2018 (in Spanish)

Club names

Gimnástica de Miranda (1926–1931) Rayo Sport de Miranda (1931–1941) Sociedad Deportiva Rayo Cantabria (1941–1993) Racing de Santander B (1993–2019) Rayo Cantabria (2019–)

Season to season As a farm team SeasonTierDivisionPlaceCopa del Rey1938–3941ª Reg.3rd1939–40DNP1940–4141ª Reg.5th1941–4231ª Reg.1st1942–4331ª Reg.4th1943–4441ª Reg.2nd1944–4541ª Reg.3rd1945–4641ª Reg.1st1946–4733ª4th1947–4833ª13thSecond round1948–4941ª Reg.7th1949–5033ª17th1950–5133ª16th1951–5233ª3rd1952–5333ª13th1953–5433ª7th1954–5533ª5th1955–5633ª5th1956–5733ª9th1957–5833ª3rdSeasonTierDivisionPlaceCopa del Rey1958–5933ª2nd1959–6033ª7th1960–6133ª1st1961–6233ª4th1962–6333ª7th1963–6433ª9th1964–6533ª8th1965–6633ª2nd1966–6733ª5th1967–6833ª9th1968–6933ª14th1969–7033ª17thFirst round1970–7141ª Reg.4th1971–7241ª Reg.2nd1972–7341ª Reg.1st1973–7433ª18thSecond round1974–754Reg. Pref.5th1975–764Reg. Pref.2nd1976–774Reg. Pref.2nd1977–7843ª16thThird round SeasonTierDivisionPlaceCopa del Rey1978–7943ª6th1979–8043ª10th1980–8143ª18th1981–825Reg. Pref.1st1982–8343ª4th1983–8443ª17thSecond round1984–8543ª5th1985–8643ª4thSecond roundSeasonTierDivisionPlaceCopa del Rey1986–8743ª1stSecond round1987–8832ª B19thSecond round1988–8943ª3rdFirst round1989–9043ª2nd1990–9143ª5th1991–9243ª9th1992–9343ª2nd As a reserve team SeasonTierDivisionPlace1993–9443ª2nd1994–9543ª1st1995–9643ª2nd1996–9743ª2nd1997–9832ª B17th1998–9943ª1st1999–200043ª3rd2000–0132ª B17th2001–0243ª2nd2002–0332ª B11th2003–0432ª B17th2004–0543ª1st2005–0632ª B8th2006–0732ª B20th2007–0843ª2nd2008–0932ª B14th2009–1032ª B17th2010–1143ª3rd2011–1243ª3rd2012–1332ª B17thSeasonTierDivisionPlace2013–1443ª8th2014–1543ª3rd2015–1643ª3rd2016–1743ª5th2017–1843ª5th2018–1943ª5th2019–2043ª3rd2020–2143ª2021–2242ª RFEF4th2022–2342ª Fed.10th2023–2442ª Fed.5th2024–2542ª Fed.7th2025–2642ª Fed.9th2026–2742ª Fed.

10 seasons in Segunda División B 6 seasons in Segunda Federación/Segunda División RFEF 57 seasons in Tercera División

Current squad

Reserve team

Current technical staff

Players

Honours Tercera División (3rd tier): 1960–61 Tercera División (4th tier): 1986–87, 1994–95, 1998–99, 2004–05 Copa Federación de España: 1998–99

Related teams Deportivo Rayo Cantabria

References

External links Racing de Santander – official website Futbolme team profile