C.D. Leganés will face R.C.D. Espanyol this Sunday, an attractive duel not only because of the sporting stakes, but also because of the connection they have had over the last 25 years in terms of players: up to sixteen have worn both jerseys in the last two decades.
In the current squads, Venezuelan full-back Roberto Rosales and Periquito captain David López are the visible faces of those who have played for both clubs: Rosales played at Cornellà-El Prat in the 2018/19 season, while David did so at Butarque in Segunda División 'B' in the 2011/12 academic year. In addition to the South American, three other players with a Perico past were part of the Pepineras squads in Primera División: full-back Marc Navarro in the 2019/20 campaign, Mexican center-back Diego Reyes and goalkeeper Andrés Prieto, the latter two in 2018/19.
Rosales, David López, Raúl Arribas or Lardín wore both jerseys.
Right-back Marc Bertrán helped Leganés in the second round of the 2014/15 season, the season of their return to Segunda División ten years later. In the stage in Segunda 'B', in addition to David López another former Espanyol player joined Butarque: midfielder Iván Díaz, in the 2010/11 and 2011/12 campaigns.
In the first decade of the 21st century, goalkeeper Raúl Arribas, one of the ten players with the most games in the history of our club, arrived at Leganés from Espanyol. Alongside him played a Perica legend like Jordi Lardín, at Butarque in the 2004/05 season. In the 'Leganés of the Argentines' were the full-backs Mauro Navas and Fede Domínguez, who had also played for Espanyol, and the center-back Joaquín Macanás, who spent six years as a Pepinero after making his debut with the Espanyol first team in 1998.
Samuel Etoo, the most illustrious among the former players of both teams, who also shared coaches.
In those years, Lluís Codina, who had made his debut with Espanyol in 1993 in the Copa del Rey, also played on the Butarque sideline. The Espanyol-Espanyol connection had begun in 1997, with the arrivals of Russian center-back Andrei Moj and midfielder José Mari, both of whom had played in Sarrià. A special case is that of perhaps the most illustrious of the former players of both teams, Samuel Etoo, who was first a Pepinero and, the following year, a Perico.
Former Espanyol players have also had a place on the bench at Butarque. Both of them were coaches of the pepineros last season, in the figures of Mexican Javier Aguirre, who coached the pericos between 2012 and 2014, and Luis Cembranos, interim coach who coached three matches and who was a former Espanyol player in the nineties.
