From the long-awaited return to Primera to bankruptcy

Levante prepared to storm the First Division with Pedro Villarroel, the club’s main shareholder, as President and with Mijatovic and Amato as figureheads for the 2002-2003 financial year. However, the promotion to first division, which broke with more than forty years of famine, placed Antonio Blasco at the top of the institutional representation while on the pitch this role was personified in the enormous figure of Alberto Rivera with a penalty in Xerez that scaled up the granota squad. It was in June 2004. Manolo Preciado was the leader of a group that still lives on in the memory of Levante fans. It was a period of good and bad times with the team falling back to Second Division in the 2004-2005 season.

In the clarity of the third millennium, Levante Femenino maintained its hegemony on the national scene. Cup titles enhanced their record. In the 2001-2002 financial year they won the Cup and the League. Levante entered history by owning the Copa de La Reina after winning it three times in a row. Likewise, the team reached Europe, although they did not manage to pass the first phase of the European Cup. The departure of Antonio Descalzo meant the arrival of Josep Alcácer on the bench. With the Valencian coach, Levante maintained its hierarchy with the conquest of the Copa de La Reina in the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 seasons. The last victories came with Félix Carvallo on the bench. The centre-back exchanged his boots and for a seat on the bench as Head Coach. He gained titles in Copa de La Reina in the 2006-2007 season and the Super League in the 2007-2008 season.

Levante stepped on the inaccessible threshold of the First Division with relative normality. In the 2005-2006 season the club returned to the elite league and spent two seasons among the greats of the competition. However, economic problems overshadowed the challenges achieved on the pitch. The economic crisis caused the departure of Pedro Villarroel and a recession from an institutional perspective with several failed attempts to buy the club. From an administrative perspective, the club was submerged in a bankruptcy process that led to the entry of Francisco Catalán as general director as a step prior to his naming as president. The Cent Anys Foundation became the guarantor of the club’s survival. This situation coincided with the centenary of the institution created by José Ballester. The culmination of the finale for the hundred years of existence concluded with the return to the First Division after an unforgettable victory against Castellón (3-1 in Orriols) on an unforgettable afternoon.

Luis García was the coach who returned the club to the edge of the First Division. The return from the bankruptcy process during the 2010-2011 financial year was in line with the achievement of staying up in the top division, a heroic feat for the team with the smallest budget of the twenty Clubs that made up the list of the league competition. That course marked the farewell of Luis García after three seasons characterized by success.