[Valencia 2026-27] Predicted Starting XI & Formation — Ryunosuke Sato Set to Start on the Left Wing in Mestalla's Final Season

On 7 July 2026, FC Tokyo midfielder Ryunosuke Sato joined Valencia CF on a permanent deal. The fee is reported at around €4m, the contract runs to the summer of 2031. In more than a century of club history, this is the first time a Japanese player has joined the men's first team. And one month on, the 19-year-old is already being named by the local press as a candidate to start on the opening day. Here we map out where Valencia stand today — through the club's identity, its recent record, its manager and its recruitment — before laying out the predicted starting XI for 2026-27.

Who Are Valencia CF — Six-Time Champions, and “Mestalla's Final Season”

Founded in 1919 and based in the port city of Valencia on Spain's eastern coast, this is a traditional heavyweight, the fourth force in the country behind Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico. Six LaLiga titles, eight Copa del Rey wins. They reached the Champions League final in two consecutive years, 2000 and 2001 (runners-up both times), and won the league in 2001-02 and 2003-04 ahead of the two giants, adding the UEFA Cup in 2003-04 for a double. Since Singaporean businessman Peter Lim took control in 2014, however, both results and finances have stagnated: it is now more than twenty years since their last league title, and they have missed European football in nine of the last twelve seasons.

And 2026-27 carries one more meaning. It is the last full season to be played at the sacred Mestalla, opened in 1923. Construction of the new stadium — the Nou Mestalla, capacity 70,044 — began in 2007 but sat abandoned for sixteen years after the financial crisis; work resumed in January 2025 and completion is scheduled for the summer of 2027. The final league match at Mestalla will be against Elche on 16 May 2027. Draw a line under the long stagnation and move into the new ground in decent shape — that is what this year means to the club.

Recent Record — 9th, 12th, 9th: Stuck One Step Short of Europe

Line up the last six seasons and Valencia's present position is clear. In 2022-23 they sank to 16th on 42 points and were dragged into a relegation fight that went to the final rounds. Since then it has been 9th, 12th and 9th — never falling into the drop zone, never reaching Europe, mired in mid-table. Last season, 2025-26, ended 9th on 49 points, just two behind seventh-placed Getafe. One more win would have done it.

Widen the lens to a century, though, and Valencia are a genuine heavyweight. They have appeared in 91 of the 95 seasons since LaLiga was founded in 1929, with six titles, six runners-up finishes and ten third places. Their six championships rank fifth all-time behind Real Madrid (36), Barcelona (29), Atletico (11) and Athletic Bilbao (8), and include a golden age in the 1940s with three crowns in 1941-42, 1943-44 and 1946-47. The link below lets you check every season's finishing position from 1929 to 2025-26 in a club-by-club matrix.

Carlos Corberan — A Local 43-Year-Old Schooled by Bielsa

In the dugout is Carlos Corberan. Born in 1983 in Cheste in the province of Valencia, and a goalkeeper who played for Valencia B, he is a local through and through. He retired at 23 to go into coaching, and after two clubs in Cyprus joined Leeds United in 2017, where working under Marcelo Bielsa as under-23 manager and first-team coach defined his career; Bielsa himself said he valued Corberan's opinion above his own. He then managed Huddersfield Town (third in the Championship and a play-off final in 2021-22), Olympiacos and West Bromwich Albion, before Valencia appointed him in December 2024 as successor to Ruben Baraja.

His football is a hybrid: Bielsa's “win it high up the pitch” defending, married to the solid 4-4-2 block associated with Marcelino. High-intensity pressing that hunts opponents rather than spaces, quick vertical transitions after the turnover, and well-drilled set pieces. This is not a side built to hold the ball and pick a defence apart; it is a pragmatic design that recovers possession in the opposition half and finishes in as few touches as possible, demanding running power and duels from its players.

Nothing showed that character better than last season's split personality. Valencia won only three of the first 19 matches (17 points, 18 scored and 31 conceded) — on its own, a relegation-level return equivalent to 18th place. From matchday 20 onwards, however, they took 32 points from 19 games (W10 D2 L7), the third-best second-half record in the division behind Barcelona (45) and Real Madrid (41). Corberan's Valencia contain both the sluggish starts and the intensity once things click, which is why this season hangs on a single question: how quickly can they get up to speed? Renewing his contract this summer, in the face of criticism, was a judgement that he can sustain that second half over a full campaign.

Summer Business — No Glamour, Free Transfers and Practicality

With the financial constraints still biting, Valencia again built their squad around free agents. The one signing they actually paid for is Ryunosuke Sato. At centre-back they landed Justin de Haas, the 193cm left-footed defender who scored six goals in 33 games for Famalicao in Portugal's top flight last season, on a contract to 2030; raised at AZ and PSV and then tested in Croatia and Portugal, the 26-year-old brings clear weapons in the air and from set pieces. In midfield, Guido Rodriguez (32) — a World Cup winner who had arrived from West Ham on a six-month deal in January 2026 — re-signed as a free agent. Mali international Aliou Dieng joined from Al Ahly, and goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski extended his contract.

The problem left unsolved is right-back. Correia, long the first choice, has gone to Venezia, leaving only the 33-year-old Foulquier. Experienced names such as Meunier were linked, but by early August no signing had materialised. Into that vacancy has stepped Miguel Monferrer (20), a right-back from the reserve side Valencia Mestalla. Up front, meanwhile, main striker Umar Sadiq picked up a small hamstring tear against Castellon in pre-season. He is expected to be available for the opener, but hardly in peak condition.

Predicted Starting XI for 2026-27 — a 4-3-3 with Sato on the Left

The basis for the prediction is simple: the eleven Corberan sent out in the final pre-season match against Stoke City (English second tier) on 1 August. Spanish daily AS called it “a very familiar starting lineup that could well be used on the opening day.” Locally it was described as a 4-2-3-1 with a double pivot and Javi Guerra at number 10, but in practice it was a front three of Sato (left), Danjuma (centre) and Rioja (right). We render it here as a 4-3-3.

Note: the squad numbers for De Haas and Monferrer had not been announced at the time of writing (Valencia's squad-number list for a new season is usually published between late August and September).

Who Is Ryunosuke Sato — A Professional at 16, in Europe at 19

Born on 16 October 2006 in Nishitokyo, Tokyo. He came through FC Tokyo U-15 Musashi and then the U-18 side, and made his professional debut in the League Cup against Cerezo Osaka in March 2023 at 16 years, four months and 20 days — the youngest starter in FC Tokyo's history. He was promoted to the first team that August, becoming the first 16-year-old to sign a professional contract with the club since Takefusa Kubo.

The turning point came in 2025, on a development loan at Fagiano Okayama. He broke out with six goals in 28 J1 appearances and, at the end of the season, won both the J.League Best Eleven-level Outstanding Player Award and the Best Young Player Award. The number he wore that year was 39 — the reason he chose the same one at Valencia. He made his senior Japan debut against Indonesia on 10 June 2025 at 18 years and 237 days, the fourth-youngest debutant in the country's history.

It has not all been smooth. He was left out of Japan's 26-man squad for the 2026 World Cup in North America. “It hurt a lot,” said the 19-year-old — who then carried that frustration into the 2026 AFC U-23 Asian Cup, scoring four goals with two assists to take both the golden boot and the MVP award. In July he chose Europe. Dribbling in off the left flank to shoot with his right, and composure in tight spaces: at 171cm he is far from big, but his ability to slice through congestion and his instinct in front of goal are what he is about.

The Battle for a Place — He Overturned the Left-Wing Pecking Order in a Month

Sato's pre-season was exactly that: a reversal of the pecking order. He debuted against Eldense in mid-July and scored immediately with a fierce strike, then started three consecutive matches — against Castellon, Derby County and Stoke City — on the left wing every time. The habit of cutting infield from the left is unchanged from his FC Tokyo and Okayama days, and Corberan is asking him for goals and chance creation. In under a month he has become a player who is counted on.

That said, the left wing is traditionally the most competitive position in this squad. Academy graduate Diego Lopez is a natural left winger who played regularly last season and has extended his contract to 2027. Danjuma is a left-sided attacker by trade and is likely to move back out there once Sadiq is fit again. Raba, Rioja and Sergi Canos, back from loan, all operate in the same area. Sato's “likely to start” status is therefore not settled but a provisional advantage, earned over a single month.

Put the other way round: if he can hold off those five and be in the side on the opening day, the 19-year-old's season opens up at a stroke. No Valencia player from Japan has ever set foot on a LaLiga pitch.

The League Opener Is at Home to Celta on 22 August

Valencia's 2026-27 season begins at home against Celta Vigo on 22 August local time (the early hours of 23 August in Japan). The Real Betis fixture that formally belongs to matchday one has been rescheduled for a later date, so for the fans filling Mestalla this Celta match is the opener. For a club whose slow starts have repeatedly decided its final position, August and September carry even more weight than usual. And a 19-year-old from Japan is preparing to stand on that starting line, on the left wing.

Note: the formation and lineup in this column are predictions by the Fomelabo editorial team. Transfer information and squad numbers may include reported or as-yet unannounced details. Positions, points and split-period records are figures compiled from Fomelabo's LaLiga table data for the full 38 rounds of the 2025-26 season.