The football club owned by former Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow returns to the 1st division in Spain

MADRID (AP) — The Spanish soccer club owned by former Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow earned a promotion Sunday to the top tier of the Spanish league.

Leganes beat Elche 2-0 to win the second division title. Their promotion comes four years after their relegation, and two years after the investment group led by Luhnow bought the modest club based in a southern district of Madrid.

Leganes finished with 74 points after 42 matches, two points more than Valladolid, the club owned by former Brazilian great Ronaldo and which had already achieved automatic promotion. Valladolid lost 2-1 at Tenerife on Sunday, missing out on the second division title.

Eibar, the other team with a chance of finishing in the top two and avoiding the promotion playoffs, beat Oviedo 4-3 but finished a point behind Valladolid. He will participate in the playoffs alongside Oviedo, Sporting Gijon and Espanyol.

Luhnow’s Blue Crow Sports group includes investors from the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Canada.

Leganes had been owned since 2008 by a local couple who took over when the club was in debt and playing in the third division.

The club was promoted to the top division for the first time in 2016. Their biggest feat came in 2017-18 when they beat Real Madrid en route to reaching the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey.

Luhnow and Astros manager AJ Hinch were suspended for a year by Major League Baseball after it was discovered the team had designed a sign-stealing scheme using electronics during Houston’s run in the title in the 2017 World Series and again during the 2018 season.

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