Founded in 1900 in Barcelona, Espanyol currently play their home games just outside the city at the RCDE Stadium, which holds up to 40,000 spectators.

A friend of the club founder owned a textile business and happened to have an abundance of yellow material left over from a job.

[4] Blue and white were chosen in homage to the colours appearing on the shield of the great Sicilian-Aragonese Admiral Roger de Lluria, who sailed the Mediterranean protecting the interests of the Crown of Aragon in the Middle Ages.

[4] The club was successful from the very beginning, winning the first Campionat de Catalunya in 1903 and subsequently playing in the first Copa del Rey in 1903.

[6] In the 1910s, they won the Campionat de Catalunya three times, in 1911–12, 1914–15 and 1917–18, winning later largely thanks to their backline led by Ricardo Zamora.

[10] Paco Flores' Espanyol won the 2000 Copa del Rey Final 2–1 against Atlético Madrid at Mestalla, a first cup win since 1940.

[11] Six years later, under Miguel Ángel Lotina, the club won again, this time 4–1 against Real Zaragoza in Madrid, with goals by Raúl Tamudo, Luis García (two) and Coro.

They won all their group games, before dispatching Livorno, Maccabi Haifa, Benfica, and Werder Bremen to reach the final.

In the final, held on 16 May at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Espanyol fell to fellow La Liga side Sevilla, losing 3–1 in a shootout following a 2–2 draw.

On 9 June 2007, Tamudo became Espanyol's highest-ever goalscorer after surpassing the 111 goals scored by Rafael Marañón, and ended the night with 113.

In January 2009, former Espanyol defender Mauricio Pochettino was hired as manager with the club in the relegation zone – his first senior job.

[16] Six days later, Espanyol captain Daniel Jarque died from a cardiac arrest aged 26 in the Florence neighbourhood of Coverciano, where the club was at the time after playing several fixtures in Italy.

[22] Espanyol won promotion back to La Liga at the first attempt on 8 May 2021 following a 0–0 draw against Zaragoza, with four matches to spare in the 42-game season.

In the first half of the 20th century during the Miguel Primo de Rivera dictatorship (1923–1930), FC Barcelona was seen as a symbol of Catalan identity.

[28] On numerous occasions RCD Espanyol has complained of unfavourable and sometimes directly offensive treatment towards the club in favour of FC Barcelona by some Catalonian public media like TV3.

[20][21] From 1923 until 1997, Espanyol played their home games in Estadi de Sarrià in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district of Barcelona.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.

In March 2017, the Association of Supporters and Shareholders of RCD Espanyol boosted a project for recovering the sporting sections of the club, but this time without any economic link with the football team.