Tile money and a six-time champion: how a 50,000-person town turned the Valencian Community derby into a contest with Mestalla

There was no rivalry until 1997. Valencia CF — six-time La Liga champions, 2004 UEFA Cup winners, two-time Champions League finalists at the turn of the century — had spent decades sharing a region with Villarreal CF and barely sharing a division. Then a tile baron called Fernando Roig, having failed to take over Valencia from his brother Francisco, bought Villarreal instead. Twenty-eight years and a Europa League trophy later, the 50,000-person town with the Pamesa Cerámica fortune has caught up with the Mestalla giant — on the pitch, in Europe, and in head-to-head meetings.