KFC - The Club Deportivo Leganés becomes the first football team in the world to have Colonels instead of Captains | KFC
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The Club Deportivo Leganés becomes the first football team in the world to have Colonels instead of Captains

August 27, 2021

The newly titled colonels of C.D. Leganés will wear a new bracelet throughout the 2021/22 season as a sign of their new rank

Colonel Sanders has attended the first game "in person" at the home of C. D. Leganés against Burgos C.F. to celebrate with the fans

KFC to launch a limited-edition burger to honor the fans of C.D. Leganés

MADRID, 24 August, 2021 -- The Club Deportivo Leganés has become the first football team in the world to promote its captains to colonels, in an unprecedented event in football history, carried out in partnership with KFC, the world's best-known chain of fried chicken restaurants. The presentation took place during the team's first home game this season and in front of their fans, in a very special meeting that also meant a return to Butarque for nearly 5,000 fans, after months without being able to go to the field. 

The match pitted C.D. Leganés against Burgos CF, with a final score of 0. The player who will go down in history as the first to have played as a colonel was Bustinza, who wore a bracelet with a new design, which testifies to his new rank. and that will accompany him throughout the season, as well as the title of Colonel. 

The event was attended by a very special guest: Colonel Sanders himself, who also followed the match from a box, cheering with fans. For eight years, KFC has been a sponsor of C.D. Leganés and the similarities between the values of the team and the brand is significant, since all players embody what it symbolizes to be a true colonel: determination, struggle, perseverance and the desire to excel. To celebrate this milestone with the fans, KFC has also placed a huge banner in the visiting team’s background and distributed bracelets with the new design to children who attended in the stadium. 

Additionally, to immortalize the rise from captains to colonels of Unai Bustinza, Javier Eraso and Rodrigo Tarín, C.D. Leganés and KFC have created a movie that can be seen on their social networks. The video shows the captains of the team in the dressing room, preparing to take the field and face a new season with the desire to take the team back to the First Division, supported by the rest of the players in the squad. For his part, Colonel Sanders, gives the captains his new bracelet as recognition for their promotion to colonels.

"C.D. Leganés faces the new season with renewed hope this year to return to the First Division. We wanted to promote our captains to colonels with KFC to celebrate the beginning of a new campaign with all our fans in which we hope to have more and more fans on the field. It is a tribute to the fans and players of C.D. Leganés, which makes us the first football club in history to have colonels, instead of captains,” said Víctor Marín, Marketing Director of C.D. Leganés.

“We are delighted to have been part of a unique moment in the history of football and that C.D. Leganés is the first club in the world with colonels instead of captains. An event that takes place on a day as special as this, in which many of the fans return to the field after months without being able to support the team from the stands,” said Beatriz Martínez, Brand Manager of KFC in Spain. “KFC's relationship with C.D. Leganés dates back more than eight seasons and the harmony between both entities cannot be better. We have planned a series of activations to be carried out in the coming months that begin with this promotion, to start the season with extra motivation,” added the KFC spokeswoman. 

The followers of C.D. Leganés are also in luck because KFC will launch a limited-edition hamburger to honor the fans, which will be available in its restaurants located in Leganés in early 2022. The restaurant brand is also preparing other surprises for fans of C.D. Leganés for next year, such as the Legabox, with which the team's followers will be able to get photos of the players signed in September, and throughout the season, in the restaurants of the municipality on match days in Butarque. 

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About KFC

KFC, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., is a global fried chicken restaurant brand with a successful history. It all started with Colonel Sanders, who created his original fried chicken recipe nearly 80 years ago, using a secret combination of 11 herbs and spices. Today his legacy continues intact thanks to the fact that his cooks cook and prepare the chicken by hand daily, in more than 25,000 restaurants located in more than 145 countries around the world. KFC arrived in Spain in the 70s and currently has 17 franchisees and more than 220 restaurants between Spain and Portugal. 

About C.D. Leganes

The Club Deportivo Leganés, S.A.D. has been chaired since the 2009/10 season by Ms. Victoria Pavón Palomo. She directs an entity with more than 92 years of history and that includes the management of the correct functioning of 58 football teams: 40 belonging to the School, 14 to the Youth, 4 to the Female and one to the first team that currently plays in the Liga Smartbank, playing their matches at the Municipal Butarque Stadium with a capacity for 12,454 spectators. The C.D. Leganés has a social mass of 8,200 subscribers, and a significant social and media presence, both at home and abroad. The effort, work and commitment of all its members are the main guarantee that the Club has.

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