“The recruitment of Luis Castro. We discussed and hesitated a lot with Franck, I should have been more vigilant. This coach (Editor’s note: today at Levante, 19th in Liga) will bring down two clubs in the same year. I shouldn’t have taken this trainer without experience. I said it again and again. We never took a coach who came from Ligue 2. This guy is nearby, he’s an educator. He can’t succeed.”. These were the words of Nantes president Waldemar Kita about Luis Castro, coach of the Canaries for the first part of the season and fired in December.
Words that have aged poorly, it is fair to say. Indeed, since then, FC Nantes has been relegated to Ligue 2. For his part, Luis Castro arrived at Levante at the end of December, when the Liga club was in a sad last position in the Spanish championship standings. In addition to being bottom, six points from the first non-relegation spot, Levante was also on a catastrophic dynamic, with a series of 8 games without a victory at the time of the Portuguese’s appointment. A distressing panorama for the Granotas, already promised to the Spanish second division…
Fifth best team in La Liga in 2026
But today, with one day remaining, the Levantinos have all the cards in hand to save themselves. Thanks to their series of three victories over the last three days, they have taken some air at the bottom of the ranking and are now fifteenth, two points above the first relegation, Girona. Better, in the calendar year 2026, Levante is the fifth best team in the Spanish championship. Maintenance is not yet mathematically assured, but a draw against Betis – who have nothing left to play – on the last day would be enough, just as a defeat could also allow them to maintain their position, in particular because several clubs from the bottom of the table will face each other on Saturday. The percentage chance of going down to D2 on the last day is estimated at 5% according to calculations. So it’s off to a good start for a Levante team that started from very far away.
And in Spain, the former Dunkirk player is praised. If he was able to count on the appearance and explosion of the nugget Carlos Espi (20 years old), author of 10 very important goals in the second part of the season, the Portuguese is considered the main architect of this turnaround. To get his team back on track, he simply resorted to the basics. High pressure on the pitch, intensity, motivating speeches in public and private, and the use of in-house solutions, namely local young people who have this little extra and decisive point of honor at the bottom of the table. Just as he did not hesitate to make certain strong choices and leave starting players with his predecessors on the bench, banking on the principle of meritocracy. Castro therefore succeeded in recreating a certain culture of winning, making it clear to his flock that maintaining it was possible.
Castro seduced everyone
“I don’t think about relegation, I don’t think we’re going to go down”hammered the coach again this weekend, after his men’s victory at home against Mallorca (2-0). He also adopted the famous posture of party to party (match after match) of Diego Simone, so famous in Spain. Words and a state of mind that he has repeated several times already, and which have found traction in the brains of his players. But not only that. Castro’s speech and methods were thus positively received by his players, but also by the press and supporters. From the outset, there was a sort of communion between the Portuguese and the Levante fanbase, very benevolent and enthusiastic from the start, and, a few months later, logically happy with the work carried out by the Lusitanian tactician.
His Levante is also quite comparable to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, all things considered obviously. A very solid and difficult team to maneuver, with lightning attacks and which also relies a lot on set pieces to score, having scored a quarter of its goals on CPA. Weighed down by its defense in the first part of the season, the team also displays good statistics in the offensive aspect, being the tenth best attack in the championship (49 goals in total) and being the eighth team which shoots the most towards rival cages (12.5 shots per match). Saturday, on the Betis pitch, Levante and Luis Castro will have the opportunity to seal the miracle. Before starting to prepare for the 2026/2027 season, if possible for the club and the Portuguese, in La Liga.
