1997–98 Real Zaragoza season
# 1997–98 Real Zaragoza season

The 1997–98 season was the 63rd season for Real Zaragoza in its history. The club competed in La Liga and Copa del Rey.

## Summary

During summer Alfonso Solans in his 6th season as President, reinforced the squad with several players such as midfielders Nordin Wooter from AFC Ajax, Jose Ignacio from Valencia CF, Roberto Acuña, Defender Gary Sundgren and forwards Yordi and Pier. Meanwhile, the club transferred out Gus Poyet to Chelsea FC after 7 years, youngstar forward Fernando Morientes and Dani were sold to Real Madrid. Also, forwards Higuera and Miguel Pardeza along Nayim left the club after several seasons.

In his 2nd season as head coach Luis Costa did fix the defensive line with decent performances of Sundgren, on the midfield the Dutch midfielder Nordin Wooter was a total flop being surpassed as starter by Jose Ignacio on the right wing, on the contrary, the other midfielders Kily Gonzalez, Santiago Aragon and Roberto Acuña did cover in a decent way the departures of Gus Poyet and Nayim. Costa found troubles at the offensive line with new arrivals Yordi and Pier delivering poor performances -prompting the arrival of Paulo Jamelli during Winter-, the team only reached the mid-table spots even far away to play the upcoming 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup finishing in a 13th spot. The season is remembered by the match won by the squad against Real Madrid 0-2 at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium after 13 seasons only the 2nd league victory over there in its club history.

Meanwhile, in Copa del Rey the squad advanced to the semifinals only to be defeated by FC Barcelona.

## Squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | GK | ESP | Juanmi |
| 2 | DF | ESP | Alberto Belsué |
| 3 | DF | ESP | Jesús Solana |
| 4 | DF | ESP | Luis Cuartero |
| 5 | MF | ESP | Jesús García Sanjuan |
| 6 | DF | ESP | Xavier Aguado |
| 7 | MF | NED | Nordin Wooter |
| 8 | MF | ESP | Santiago Aragon |
| 9 | FW | ESP | Pier |
| 10 | MF | ESP | Ander Garitano |
| 11 | FW | ESP | Yordi |
| 12 | FW | BRA | Paulo Jamelli |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 13 | GK | ESP | José Belman |
| 14 | MF | ESP | Marcos Vales |
| 15 | DF | BRA | Gilmar |
| 16 | MF | ESP | José Ignacio |
| 17 | MF | RUS | Vladislav Radimov |
| 18 | MF | ARG | Kily Gonzalez |
| 19 | FW | ARG | Gustavo Adrián López |
| 20 | MF | PAR | Roberto Acuña |
| 21 | DF | ESP | Miquel Soler |
| 22 | DF | SWE | Kari Juhani Sundgren |
| 22 | MF | ESP | Iñigo Rodriguez |
| 25 | GK | AUT | Otto Konrad |
| 26 | FW | ESP | Jesús Seba |
| 28 | DF | ESP | Antonio García Torres |
| 29 | DF | ESP | Jose Angel Ferrera |
| 31 | DF | ESP | Javi Suárez |
| 33 | MF | ESP | Luis Helguera |

### Transfers

In :

| Pos. | Name | from |
| - | - | - |
| DF | Gary Sundgren | AIK Fotboll |
| MF | José Ignacio | Valencia CF |
| MF | Roberto Acuña | CA Independiente |
| FW | Pier | Real Betis |
| FW | Yordi | Atletico Madrid |
| MF | Nordin Wooter | AFC Ajax |
| MF | Marcos Vales | Sporting Gijon |

Out :

| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| - | - | - | - |
| MF | Gus Poyet | Chelsea FC | |
| FW | Fernando Morientes | Real Madrid | |
| FW | Dani García | Real Madrid | loan ended |
| FW | Francisco Higuera | | end of contract |
| MF | Nayim | Logroñes CF | |
| FW | Miguel Pardeza | Puebla FC | |
| DF | Quique Sanchez Flores | | retired |
| MF | Oscar | Las Palmas | |
| FW | Loreto | Cordoba CF | |
| GK | Bosca | Talavera | |

**Winter**

In :

| Pos. | Name | from | Type |
| - | - | - | - |
| FW | Paulo Jamelli | Kashiwa Reysol | |

Out :

| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| - | - | - | - |

### La Liga

**League table**

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 11 | Valladolid | 38 | 13 | 11 | 14 | 36 | 47 | −11 | 50 |
| 12 | Deportivo La Coruña | 38 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 44 | 46 | −2 | 49 |
| 13 | Zaragoza | 38 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 45 | 53 | −8 | 48 |
| 14 | Racing Santander | 38 | 12 | 9 | 17 | 46 | 55 | −9 | 45 |
| 15 | Salamanca | 38 | 12 | 9 | 17 | 46 | 46 | 0 | 45 |

* 1 2 RAC: 8 pts; SAL: 4 pts → SAL 2-0 TEN; TEN: 4 pts → TEN 2-0 SAL

**Position by round**

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Ground | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A |
| Result | L | D | W | D | D | D | L | W | D | L | L | W | W | W | L | W | D | L | D | W | L | D | L | W | W | L | D | W | L | L | D | D | L | L | W | W | D | L |
| Position | 13 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 13 |

## Statistics

### Players statistics

| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | La Liga | La Liga | Copa del Rey | Copa del Rey |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| 1 | GK | ESP | Juanmi | 36 | -43 | 31 | -37 | 5 | -6 |
| 2 | DF | ESP | Alberto Belsué | 36 | 2 | 28+1 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
| 6 | DF | ESP | Xavier Aguado | 41 | 6 | 31 | 5 | 9+1 | 1 |
| 15 | DF | BRA | Gilmar | 31 | 0 | 21+4 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 22 | DF | SWE | Sundgren | 36 | 1 | 30+1 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| 16 | MF | ESP | José Ignacio | 41 | 4 | 32+1 | 0 | 8 | 4 |
| 20 | MF | PAR | Roberto Acuña | 37 | 4 | 30 | 3 | 7 | 1 |
| 8 | MF | ESP | Santiago Aragon | 36 | 6 | 20+6 | 5 | 6+4 | 1 |
| 18 | MF | ARG | Kily Gonzalez | 38 | 7 | 28+3 | 6 | 6+1 | 1 |
| 9 | FW | ESP | Pier | 37 | 6 | 22+8 | 1 | 6+1 | 5 |
| 19 | FW | ARG | Gustavo Adrián López | 27 | 3 | 13+9 | 1 | 3+2 | 2 |
| 25 | GK | AUT | Otto Konrad | 12 | -24 | 7 | -16 | 5 | -8 |
| 3 | DF | ESP | Jesús Solana | 32 | 0 | 22+2 | 0 | 6+2 | 0 |
| 21 | DF | ESP | Miquel Soler | 30 | 2 | 17+7 | 2 | 5+1 | 0 |
| 12 | FW | BRA | Paulo Jamelli | 21 | 5 | 16 | 4 | 4+1 | 1 |
| 11 | FW | ESP | Yordi | 39 | 5 | 14+16 | 5 | 4+5 | 0 |
| 10 | MF | ESP | Ander Garitano | 23 | 10 | 14+4 | 7 | 3+2 | 3 |
| 17 | MF | RUS | Vladislav Radimov | 32 | 2 | 13+11 | 2 | 7+1 | 0 |
| 14 | MF | ESP | Marcos Vales | 28 | 1 | 12+11 | 0 | 4+1 | 1 |
| 4 | DF | ESP | Luis Cuartero | 20 | 0 | 11+4 | 0 | 3+2 | 0 |
| 7 | MF | NED | Nordin Wooter | 15 | 1 | 5+9 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | MF | ESP | Jesús García Sanjuan | 4 | 0 | 1+2 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 13 | GK | ESP | José Belman | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 | MF | ESP | Iñigo Rodriguez | 2 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 26 | FW | ESP | Jesús Seba | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 28 | DF | ESP | Antonio García Torres | 1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 29 | DF | ESP | Jose Angel Ferrera | 1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 31 | DF | ESP | Javi Suárez | 2 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 |
| 33 | MF | ESP | Luis Helguera | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| | FW | ESP | Javi Peña | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 |

* Source: https://www.bdfutbol.com/en/t/t1997-9839.html
