On the morning of 4 April, at the Nou Sardenya in Barcelona, Deportivo Alavés thrashed CE Europa 0-4 and sealed their return to Liga F with two matchdays to spare. The same result that took the Gloriosas back to the elite confirmed the Catalan side’s relegation. Two opposite shores of a division that lets almost no one through unscathed, showing how much the sport has grown since the times of the pioneers.
Because to understand this promotion you have to go back to May 2025. The Gloriosas had reached the final sprint of that season level on points at the top, and ended up losing everything twice: first automatic promotion, on head-to-head record, to Alhama; then the play-off semi-final against Cacereño, who went through 4-3 on aggregate.
There are few crueller ways to be left on the wrong shore.
The response was a season of remarkable solidity: runners-up with 56 points from 26 matchdays, 44 goals scored and just 15 conceded, the meanest defence in the whole of Primera Federación. Four defeats all season, and only one away from Vitoria.
By the time promotion was sealed, young goalkeeper Sofía Fuente had kept 13 clean sheets and conceded just 13 goals in 23 appearances. Like other rising stars in Spain, such as Vicky López, youth is no barrier to impact. Up front, Carmen Sobrón led the Alavés scoring charts.
The regular-season title went to Barcelona B on the final matchday. But the champions’ status as a reserve side turned the Gloriosas’ second place into automatic promotion. This time there were no play-offs. This time they were not needed.
𝐁𝐔𝐄𝐋𝐓𝐀𝐍 𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐀!!! ✊
— Deportivo Alavés Gloriosas (@AlavesFem) April 4, 2026
¡¡SOMOS EQUIPO, CT Y AFICIÓN DE @LigaF_oficial!!!
¡A disfrutarlo juntxs!!
#LigaFMoeve #GoazenGloriosas pic.twitter.com/pHFD41pc6b
Andrea Esteban’s project
The architecture of this return has names attached.
Andrea Esteban retired as a player at 23 after a series of knee injuries and operations. She then joined Valencia’s coaching staff and went on to manage their first team. In 2023 she got the call from Dafne Triviño, the Gloriosas’ sporting director, to start a project in Primera Federación.
The first season ended in ninth place with 32 points. The club chose to keep faith. A year later, the Gloriosas finished second with 56 points, level with Alhama, but lost automatic promotion on head-to-head record and fell in the play-off semi-finals to Cacereño.
The third season completed the job.
Andrea Esteban has been named Primera Federación’s best coach for the second year running and has extended her contract until 2027. Alongside her, Dafne Triviño, whom Esteban herself has singled out as one of the great architects of the project.
Nine years of Gloriosas
Alavés’s women’s team was officially born on 11 June 2017, with roots in the groundwork laid by CD Gasteizko Neskak. Their first life in the elite was short: promotion in 2021, a solid mid-table campaign in 2021/22 and a painful relegation in 2022/23.
Both of their promotions, in 2021 and 2026, were sealed away from home.
They now return to a Liga F more demanding than the one they left behind, where even established teams like Granada are undergoing major rebuilding. The team will face next season on a newly promoted club’s budget, backed by one idea: solidity as a starting point, and a project that was never improvised.
The club has already celebrated the return with Gloriosas Astea, a week of activities around women’s football in Vitoria.
«BUELTAN GARA!!!» — “we’re back” in Basque — wrote the players that Saturday in April.
They are back. And the hard way, which is how you learn the most.