How Data Is Driving Espanyol Up The La Liga Table
RCD Espanyol’s rise to La Liga mid-table stability under Velocity Sports Partners blends data-driven recruitment, academy focus and sustainable growth.
Espanyol is pushing for European qualification in La Liga only two years after promotion. NurPhoto via Getty Images Twelve months ago, Espanyol were fighting for their La Liga lives. They survived the 2024-25 season by two points, scraping safety on the final day.
This season they sit 11th with 37 points and nine games to play, comfortably clear of trouble and level on points with Osasuna in tenth. It is not a title race. But for a club that came up through the Segunda play-offs in 2024 and then spent much of last season near the bottom, it is a meaningful shift.
Velocity Sports Partners, which completed its takeover of RCD Espanyol in 2025, is making the case that the shift is not accidental. “Our goal is to return Espanyol to the status of a self-sufficient and stable club,” explains Brad Spiby, Chief Operations Officer, “and return the club to the upper echelons of Spanish soccer”. The sports investment arm of ALK Capital led by American businessman Alan Pace, completed its majority acquisition of RCD Espanyol in October 2025 in a deal reported by Yahoo Sports to be worth up to €200 million ($230.
6 million). The move ended Chinese conglomerate Rastar Group’s nine-year ownership of the club, after a prolonged period of looking to sell the club , and added Espanyol to a portfolio that already includes Burnley, where Pace has served as chairman since 2020. Pace was careful to frame the takeover as an expansion of a model rather than an imposition of one.
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