Full name | Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona S.A.D. |
---|---|
Nickname(s) |
Nàstic Granes (Maroons) Tarraconenses |
Founded | 1886 (football team in 1914) |
Ground |
Nou Estadi, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain |
Capacity | 14,591 |
Chairman | Josep María Andreu |
Manager | Juan Merino |
League | Segunda División |
2015–16 | Segunda División, 3rd |
Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona, usually referred to as Nàstic, is a Spanish sports club based in Tarragona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Its football team currently plays in Segunda División.
The club was founded in 1886, as a result being listed as one of the oldest football clubs in Spain. It has teams competing in athletics, basketball, tennis, gymnastics, table tennis and futsal, but did not actually form a football team until 1914, with the side enjoying a three-year La Liga spell in its beginnings (1947–50).
Since 1972, the team has played home games at Nou Estadi, which seats 14,591 spectators.
The club was founded on 1 March 1886 by a group of fifteen people who met at the Cafè del Centre on Rambla Nova. The majority of the club's early members belonged to the upper middle classes and, as the club name suggests, it was initially founded to promote gymnastics. Later the club members also began to organise fencing, hiking, boxing and cycling. In 1914, the club absorbed a local football club called Club Olímpic de Tarragona and consequently formed its own football team, using the former colours of Olímpic: red, white and black. In those days, it played home matches in the Avenida Catalunya stadium.
In January 1918, Gimnàstic made its debut as a football team in the Championat de Catalunya and, by 1927, were crowned champions of its second division. In 1943–44 the team first appeared in Tercera División and, in the following season, was promoted to Segunda División.