The History of UE Cornellà: From 1923 to the Messi Era

From a factory team founded by electric-cable workers in 1923 to a fifth-division club owned by Lionel Messi in 2026 — the full story of Unió Esportiva Cornellà.

Before there was a Catalan football pyramid, before Primera División existed in the form we know it, and more than a quarter-century before FC Barcelona won its first European title, a works team was already kicking a ball around on a strip of ground beside the Llobregat river. That team was called FC Cables Eléctricos. It is the reason UE Cornellà exists today.

The story that follows spans more than a hundred years: a factory team, a civil war, a merger of four neighbourhood clubs, a Copa del Rey night at the Santiago Bernabéu, and one of the quieter great youth academies in Catalan football. Most of that history was written long before April 2026, when Lionel Messi bought the club and put it on front pages around the world. This is how Cornellà got to that point.

1923: A team of cable-factory workers

The club's first name was FC Cables Eléctricos. It belonged to the electric-cable factory that today operates as Pirelli and General Cable. The exact founding date has been lost, but the club is known to have existed before April 1923 — making it older than most of its current rivals in the Catalan football pyramid.

On April 15, 1923, the club changed its name to Atlético Cornellà FC. In this early period it was a multi-sport entity: alongside football it ran cycling and athletics sections, and the honorary presidency was held by Just Oliveras — a name still visible on the streets of Cornellà today. The team trained on rough ground beside the Llobregat river, on the same patch of land where the Nou Municipal stadium now stands.

Republic, war, and the 1951 refoundation

The Second Spanish Republic in 1931 brought a reorganization of Catalan football, and with it another name change — to CF Cornellà. Then came the Civil War, which paused football across the country and left the club, like most Catalan institutions, scrambling to rebuild afterwards.

The modern UE Cornellà was born in 1951 out of a merger of four local clubs: CF Cornellà, Acadèmia Junyent, Atlético Padró, and — added in 1968 — the Escola Sant Miquel youth teams. The refoundation was driven by four men whose names appear on every official club history: Constanci Pérez as executive coordinator, Pere Junyent as president, Tomás Anguera as vice-president, and Jaume Puig as treasurer. The green-and-white colours of today's first team date from this period.

The long climb up the pyramid

For most of the 20th century, Cornellà was a regional club — drifting between Primera Regional, Preferente, and the early 1990s spent slowly rebuilding under coach Paco Pérez. The turning point came at the end of that decade. In 1999-2000, under Ramon Maria Calderé, the first team debuted in Tercera División and immediately broke the club's points record with 68 points.

The early 2000s were less stable: a drop back to Primera Catalana in 2002, a return to Tercera a year later, and then a decade of mid-table consolidation in Spain's fourth tier. From 2008-09 onwards, Cornellà started flirting with the promotion play-offs. Under Jordi Roger — who would become the defining coach of the club's modern era — the team finished 2nd in 2012-13 and then champions of Tercera División in 2013-14, earning the first promotion to Segunda División B in the club's history.

A night at the Bernabéu

Cornellà's first season in the third tier (2014-15) is remembered in the town for two things. First, survival — Óscar Muñoz sealed the club's permanence with a goal in the final matchday against Lleida Esportiu. Second, and more famously, the Copa del Rey run that ended in the round of 32 against Real Madrid.

The first leg was moved to Espanyol's RCDE Stadium to accommodate the demand. The second was played at the Santiago Bernabéu — a competitive fixture, against the ten-time European champions, involving a club that twelve months earlier had still been in Tercera División. Cornellà lost the tie, but for a few weeks the club was on front pages from Madrid to Buenos Aires.

The last decade: play-offs, promotion, and back again

Between 2017 and 2020 the club reached the promotion play-offs three times in a row — each time falling short. Promotion finally came in 2020-21 under Guillermo Fernández Romo, when Cornellà climbed into the newly-created Primera RFEF. Three seasons in Spain's third tier followed: 14th, 11th, and then an 18th-place finish in 2023-24 that sent the club back down to Segunda Federación. A 14th-place finish in 2024-25 brought a further relegation, leaving Cornellà in Tercera Federación Group 5 — the fifth tier — at the moment of its most unlikely new chapter.

The academy that always punched up

Even when the first team was losing ground, Cornellà's youth system was not. The club itself ranks its academy third in Catalonia behind only Barcelona and Espanyol — and the list of alumni makes the claim hard to dismiss. Jordi Alba arrived as a cadet from Barcelona, played through the Cornellà youth system, and was signed by Valencia before winning the Champions League and a European Championship. Keita Baldé moved on to Lazio and Monaco. Arsenal signed centre-back Ignasi Miquel as a teenager. Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya, Real Betis winger Aitor Ruibal, and current Barça defender Gerard Martín are all former Cornellà players still active at the top level.

By the club's own count, more than 50 players have moved from Cornellà to professional football in a recent three-year period — to Barcelona, Espanyol, Villarreal, Atlético and Real Madrid, Arsenal, Lazio, and beyond. This is the part of the club's identity that Messi's acquisition is most visibly built around: the official statement announcing the deal put youth development front and centre.

April 16, 2026: the Messi era begins

The announcement came on a Thursday afternoon. Lionel Messi — eight-time Ballon d'Or winner, Argentina's 2022 World Cup captain, Inter Miami forward, and FC Barcelona's all-time top scorer — had acquired 100% of UE Cornellà. Financial details were not disclosed. Fabrizio Romano confirmed it within minutes on X; the mayor of Cornellà de Llobregat, Antonio Balmón, called it a "great day" for the town.

The club's own statement framed the deal around "a long-term vision and a strategic plan that combines ambition, sustainability, and a strong connection to local roots" — and pointed specifically to Messi's existing youth work, including the Messi Cup U16 tournament held in Miami in late 2025. For Messi, it was his first step into solo club ownership, after a prior partnership with Luis Suárez in Uruguayan side Deportivo LSM.

For Cornellà, it is the largest moment in a century-long history — but also, in a way, a continuation of it. A club that began in a cable factory, survived the civil war through a neighbourhood merger, played a competitive match at the Bernabéu, and built one of the quieter great academies in Catalan football is now owned by arguably the greatest player the game has ever seen. The next chapter is being written on the same ground beside the Llobregat where it all began in 1923.