CF Torre Levante (Spain)

Club de Fútbol Torre Levante Orriols is an amateur football club based in the east coast Spanish city of Valencia that was formed in 1976, which has an emphasis on youth football, but also had an adult side for many years, which started life in the eighth tier of Spanish football, the Tercera División Valenciana, which was the fourth level of the local game.

Torre Levante were promoted to the third-tier Segunda Regional de la Comunidad Valenciana in 1982-83, before progressing to Primera Regional in 1989-90 at their Campo Municipal Orriols home. 

Another promotion arrived in 1994-95 as Torre collected the divisional title to rise to Regional Preferente de la Comunidad Valenciana, the top flight of regional football. The side suffered relegation in 2000-01, before regaining their status in 2002-03 with a group league title.

After a collection of top five finishes, CF Torre Levante won promotion from Grupo 2 in 2012-13 to progress to the Tercera División, after defeating UD Horadada and Burjassot CF through the play-offs. Around this time, Fernando Gómez Colomer had a big part in the coaching of the club's players, with José Arastey taking over first-team affairs in December 2015.

The junior section rose to División de Honor Juvenil, the highest national ranking, while several promotions were achieved at different age levels in the regional Liga Autonómica, in a long-standing arrangement with Atlético de Madrid.

After a couple of low table finishes, Torre ended the 2015-16 and then 2016-17 campaigns in ninth position with Gerardo Reyes top scoring in the latter season. They improved to sixth position in the following campaign. However, Torre suffered a setback in 2018-19, as they were relegated to Grupo II of Preferente Valenciana under manager Cristian Castells.

Two mid-table finishes ensued, initially with Javi Guerra and then Dani Serrano managing the side, with Nico top scoring in 2020-21, a transitional season in terms of the lower leagues as they were restructured. As a result, Torre Levante were placed in Primera FFCV, which had now dropped down a level to the sixth tier of the national setup.

The team was relegated at the end of the 2021-22 campaign; it would appear that the adult side was abandoned to concentrate instead on the under-19 team, which competed in Liga Nacional Valenciana and finished thirteenth in 2022-23 as Saibou Sillah finished as top scorer, before ending near the bottom twelve months later.

A. Benedito was in prolific form in 2023-24 in front of goal before the team ended in eighth spot the following season under manager Ximo Enguix. C. Asuncion stood out up front for the team.

CF Torre Levante U19 will play in the Liga Nacional Vallenciana in the 2025-26 season.

My visit

Tuesday 9th January 2018

I’d arrived on an early morning flight from Luton to Valencia and was ready to explore the city and visit some of the smaller football clubs. The number 3 Metro took me directly from the airport to Machado, where I alighted to be greeted by bright sunshine.

Within a couple of minutes, I’d found my bearings and was walking down Carrer d’Alfauir, where I came to Campo de Futbol del Torre Levante. The ground was locked, but I got good photo opportunities through the wire fence.

It wasn’t the biggest of Tercera venues, but it was adequate and ideally located in the heart of the community. Three steps of open terrace stood behind the near goal and along one side, either side of the most impressive team benches. I’d seen smaller stands on my travels.

Two small covered stands occupied the opposite touchline, along with a clubhouse and changing rooms in the north west corner. The end bordered by Carrer de Santa Genoveva Torres was open flat standing.

Once done, I cut through Parque Orriols to take a look at the Ciutat de València stadium of La Liga club, Levante UD. Unfortunately, the stadium was fully locked, so I could only guess what it looked like inside. I headed away to take a ride to the suburb of Paterna.