Naz Majeed 

When you think about successful Spanish sides, you often think of the European royalty that is Real Madrid, the Cruyffian ideals of Barcelona, or Atletico Madrid’s heroic determination.

Some might remember Valencia upsetting the heavyweights under Rafa Benitez, winning La Liga in 2001/02 and 2003/04, or Deportivo doing the same in 1999/00, or perhaps Sevilla’s European “threepeat”.

A name that is often glossed over, however, is Malaga, and not many remember how for a short time, they threatened to upset the apple cart, their aspirations to become a European footballing heavyweight collapsing almost as quickly as they had risen to prominence.

In the summer of 2011, the footballing world watched on with rapt attention as Malaga embarked on a spending spree. Ruud van Nistelrooy, Martín Demichelis, Nacho Monreal, Jérémy Toulalan, Joaquín, Isco, and Santi Cazorla all arriving before the start of the season.

Demichelis was meant to provide the experience and consistency at the back, while Van Nistelrooy would add a killer touch in the final third, after Salomon Rondon had finished the previous season with a respectable 14 goals.

It was in midfield though where envious glances were cast, with Cazorla in particular seen as a major coup. The former Villarreal playmaker had been integral in helping his side qualify for the Champions League on multiple occasions, and Malaga’s prising him away from El Madrigal (as it was known at the time) meant that Malaga had added genuine talent to their ranks while weakening a direct rival.

Isco, meanwhile, had been making waves as a 19-year old in Valencia’s reserves and was plucked from the Mesalla after Malaga met his low release clause.

 Qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in their history (despite losing four of their last nine league games), and Malaga had arrived at the grandest stage in European football.

Javier Saviola and Roque Santa Cruz were added to the team, alongside the American defender Oguchi Onyewu, once of AC Milan. Ruud van Nistelrooy would retire from playing, but most damaging to Malaga was the sale of Santi Cazorla to Arsenal.

The deal taking Cazorla from Malaga to Arsenal was painful for their fans to take, not only because he was by far their best player in what had been their best season to date, but also because the Gunners would take him from Malaga for less than what they paid Villarreal for him in the first place.

This was due to the Malaga hierarchy - and the financial investigators at UEFA - realizing that the club was close to running afoul of financial fair play rules, and needed an injection of cash or be at risk of being punished. Selling their crown jewel, then, was their best short-term fix.

Here a strange existential dilemma was presented to Malaga. Their spending pattern, mentality, and approach to things were that of a big club, a side that wanted to be taken seriously and to be seen as a giant, but with no significant recent European pedigree to speak of, they were placed in Pot 4 in the Champions League draw.

With no protection against being grouped against any of the big sides in the competition, Malaga was drawn into a difficult Champions League group, alongside AC Milan, Zenit St-Petersburg, and Anderlecht. 

They started their European adventure hosting Zenit, and it took only three minutes for Isco to score a dazzling solo goal, the midfielder still being called “Francisco Alarcon” by some commentators and pundits in the infancy of his career.

The Brazilian forward Hulk would almost level the scoring for Zenit soon after, smashing the woodwork, but even on the first matchday, Malaga’s endgame was set in their minds, and Saviola doubled their lead before a quarter of an hour had been played, before Isco would make it comfortable in the second half with a powerful drive.

Topping Group C after Milan and Anderlecht drew, Malaga would then travel to the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium in Belgium, and this time it was the Portuguese Eliseu who would bag a brace, the first a 20-yard volley and the second a delicate lob over the Belgian goalkeeper.

The two goals would bookend a Joaquin penalty, and Malaga was on the forefront of every story now, two impressive wins with no goals conceded and sitting third in La Liga, though the stories of their financial difficulties had begun to resurface once more.

Max Allegri’s Milan was up next, and while by now the side had lost Andrea Pirlo, Thiago Silva, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, they were still European royalty, with players with big game temperaments and the experience at the highest stage. But awarded a soft penalty before half time, Malaga threatened to continue their incredible Champions League odyssey, only for Joaquin to hit the bar.

Joaquin did score in the second half, and with Malaga in the lead Allegri would throw on Alexandre Pato and Bojan in an attempt to find a goal, but even with a flurry of chances late on, could not find a way to stop Malaga going 5 points clear at the top of Group C. 

Put to the test, Malaga passed with flying colours, topping their group with 3 wins and 3 draws to qualify for the knockout stage.

They were dreaming now, with the wind in their sails, chest puffed and believing they could beat anyone. With Ajax, Manchester City, Chelsea, and Benfica already eliminated, there was a real thought that big-spending Malaga would go deep into the competition, and after beating 2004 Winners Porto in the Round of 16 (thanks to another sparkling Isco performance), they would reach the Quarter-Finals, drawn against Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund.

Malaga would hold the free-scoring Germans, who had Robert Lewandowski in fearsome form, to a goalless draw in the first leg in Spain, before travelling to the Signal Iduna Park a week later for what would be the biggest game of the club’s history, and another opportunity to stamp their mark on the continent, with the world watching.

This was what all their hopes and dreams, all the spending and struggles, all the money and mayhem had led to. Pellegrini would lead his team out, and against the famous Yellow Wall, Malaga’s hearts would break.

The game had been relatively tepid for the first 20 minutes before Isco would find Joaquin, who made it 1-0 to the Spanish side with a deflected shot. Lewandowski made it 1-1 before half time, set up beautifully by Marco Reus, and with that goal most assumed, Dortmund would flood past Malaga, aided as they were by their phenomenal home support, matching the passion shown by Klopp on the sidelines.

Joaquin would test Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller early in the second period when left one-on-one, but as time ticked on, Malaga grew into the game, as Dortmund’s anxiety at being behind on away goals became all but palpable.

Mario Gotze and then Reus would see their chances saved brilliantly as Dortmund chased a winner, but in the 81st minute the substitute Eliseu would score for Malaga instead, replays showing how he was clearly offside when poking the ball into an unguarded net. In an age before VAR, though, the goal stood, and as it stood, Malaga was going through.

Four minutes of stoppage time was the signal from the fourth official, and in the first of those minutes, the Malaga defence would misjudge a flighted free-kick, and after a scramble, it was Reus who would finally score, though even at 2-2 it was still Malaga who would qualify.

Barely two minutes later though, Lewandoski would swing another ball into the box, where several Dortmund players would be in offside positions, and as it broke to Felipe Santana - still offside - the Scottish matchday officials would allow play to continue, and Dortmund would lead 3-2 with no time left on the clock.

Disbelievingly, Referee Craig Thomson would then not add any time for the two Dortmund goals in stoppage time, blowing his whistle as Malaga tried to pour forward, angering the Spanish team even more.

Leading 2-1 with less than 10 minutes to go, it had appeared as if Malaga had sealed their destiny as European giants, with a giant-killing. But in the most dramatic of circumstances, Klopp and Dortmund would turn it around, and the would-be giants were now faced with a different gigantic dilemma.

Deeper investigations from UEFA had uncovered further irregularities in Malaga’s finances, throwing the entire project into disarray. Having already sold their prized asset (and Nacho Monreal, again to Arsenal, in January), Malaga would find it next to impossible to raise the funds to balance their books, and so had to rely on the flow of Champions League prize money to rouse their ebbing ambitions.

They would only manage a sixth-place finish in La Liga and fail to qualify for the Champions League in 2013/14. Europa League football beckoned, and while a far less glamorous prize, it would perhaps be a better stepping stone for Malaga and allow them a more gradual rise to the top once more.

It was seen as a necessary stage in their development, having to acclimatize themselves to the rigours of continental football, despite their barnstorming run and sudden end against Dortmund.

Then, the final hammer blow, as UEFA would ban Malaga from entering any European competition for two years due to their financial misdemeanours. An appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport followed, as always, but CAS would uphold the ban (reduced to a single season) and Malaga would find themselves cast adrift from the glittering lights of continental competition just as quickly as they got there.

Sevilla would be the ultimate beneficiaries of this, but with the ban in place, a mass exodus began at La Rosadela.

Pelelgrini would be first out the door, snapped up by Manchester City. Joaquin would move to Fiorentina, Toulalan to Monaco, and Demichelis to Atletico Madrid.

Isco, who had become their star player after Cazorla’s departure, would join Real Madrid for less than what they would pay Real Sociedad for Asier Illarramendi and less than a third of what Real would spend on Gareth Bale in the same window.

Once basking in the spotlight, Malaga were now all but penniless, the scraps of their brief success picked apart ruthlessly and relentlessly.

It is a sad state of affairs, the fate of Malaga, though in some ways it is not a tale unique to the situation. Leeds United, Parma, and Fiorentina had fallen apart famously in recent seasons as well, even before the disaster of Malaga’s squad collapse.

They might have been 5 minutes away from a Champions League Semi-Final, but saw their dreams shattered, and as Pellegrini lifted the Premier League trophy with Manchester City, Malaga would finish in eleventh in La Liga, picking up 17 losses in their 38 league games. A cautionary tale for those with lofty ambitions, and a reminder to any aspiring side that the best-laid plans always have room to be dashed.

Malaga, known as Los Albicelestes, or the Sky Blues, flew too high, too fast, and with their head in the clouds, too close to the sun and have never fully recovered from the trauma of crashing down to earth.