The lowdown on Unión Deportiva Las Palmas

FC Barcelona are at home to Las Palmas this Saturday and here you'll find all of the essentials on a team from the Canary Islands.

Where are they from?

Las Palmas is the capital of the island of Gran Canaria, part of the Canaries, the Spanish islands that lie off the coast of north-west Africa. With a population of 381,223, it's the ninth biggest city in Spain. Because of its location, it is much warmer than mainland Spain, and even in winter temperatures are around 20°C.

History

Unión Deportivo Las Palmas was founded in 1949 as an amalgamation of various smaller clubs in the city, and enjoyed immediate success. They took just two years to reach La Liga, and remained there almost permanently for four decades, finishing as high as second in 1969 and reaching the Copa del Rey Final in 1978.

Since they were relegated in 1988, the club's fortunes have dropped. Other than two short spells in the top flight, they spent the next few decades in the second and third divisions, but in 2015 they won their way back to the highest category. They dipped back down three years later but in 2023 won promotion yet again. 

Head to head

The 1-0 win st the Estadi Olimpic last season extended the unbeaten run against Las Palmas to 16 matches, but the visitors put up a strong fight. Despite losing a man to a red card midway through the first half, they were only beaten by a solitary goal from Raphinha. Earlier in the season, Barça also struggled to win in the Canary Islands. The home side took an early lead through former Barça man Munir but the Catalans managed to turn things around with goals from Ferran Torres and Ilkay Gundogan.

We have to go all the way back to 1986 to find the Islanders' last victory in the league, 3-0 at the old Insular stadium. And it's not since 1971 that Barça lost this fixture at home. Of 35 games in total played in the Catalan capital, Barça have only once failed to score, and that was way back in 1969-70.

Last five meetings (all la Liga)
30/03/24 Barça 1-0 Las Palmas
04/01/24 Las Palmas 1-2 Barça
01/03/18 Las Palmas 1-1 Barça
01/10/17 Barça 3-0 Las Palmas
14/05/17 Las Palmas 1-4 Barça

Form guide

After Las Palmas failed to win any of their first nine matches, the club decided it was time to part company with Luis Carrión, a man who played for Barça B around the turn of the century. The decision seems to have paid off, for under his replacement, Diego Martínez, they have won three out of five games, not only lifting them off the bottom of the table but also out of the relegation zone.

Last week they came from 2-0 down to 2-2 with Mallorca, and while a red card for the opposition boosted their chances of a spectacular comeback, they were ultimately downed by a late winner for the opposition.

Las Palmas are also still alive in the Copa del Rey after comfortably winning 7-0 away to lower league Ontiñena CF.

Did you know?

Las Palmas is one of just two teams in La Liga that Robert Lewandowski has yet to scored against. Here's his chance to do something about that statistic! Tick the islanders off the list and he only has Almería left to complete the set.

The players

Most international caps
Jasper Cillessen (Netherlands 65), Scott McKenna (Scotland 39), Oli McBurnie (Scotland 16), Adnan Januzaj (Belgium 15)

Barça connections
Dutch international goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen was at Barça from 2016–2019, but as Ter Stegen's understudy he only regularly featured in Copa del Rey matches, and proving his worth by winning the trophy two times (2017 and 2018). In search of a club where he could get more playing time, he eventually left for Valencia, and later NEC in his home country, before arriving at Las Palmas last summer.

Catalan defender Mika Mármol (below) was formerly at Barça B and played his only first team game against Getafe in 2022, coming on as a substitute for Alejandro Balde. He was then sold to Andorra, and joined Las Palmas two years ago.

Although Sandro Ramírez is from Las Palmas, he spent most of his teenage years at La Masia, and played 17 times for the senior team, the most memorable game being his hat-trick against Villanovense in the Copa del Rey. He left for Malaga and after a fine season was signed by Everton, where he failed to pin down a first team place. He's since been at a number of clubs around Spain, and is now back in his home town.

Catalan striker Marc Cardona (below) was at Barça B from 2016 to 2019, but despite several call-ups for senior duty never got to make his first team debut. He was then at Eibar, Osasuna, Mallorca and Go Ahead Eagles in the Netherlands before joining Las Palmas.

The manager

The new man in charge of Las Palmas is Diego Martínez, who never played football at the highest level and chose to start coaching while attending university. Working principally at Sevilla, he learned the ropes and impressed so much that he would eventually get jobs at Osasuna and then Granada. It was at the latter that he truly earned his name, guiding them back into the first division and into Europe for the first time ever,

He knows Barcelona from his stint in charge of Espanyol, and was also at Olympiacos in Greece before accepting the Las Palmas job just a few weeks ago.

This will be his seventh meeting with Barça, and in the first six he didn't do too badly at all. He won two games as Granada manager and also led Espanyol to a 1-1 draw at Spotify Camp Nou.