Juanito (footballer, born 1954)

Juan Gómez González (10 November 1954 – 2 April 1992), known as Juanito, was a Spanish footballer who played as a forward.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Gómez and the second or maternal family name is González.

Juanito
Personal information
Full name Juan Gómez González
Date of birth (1954-11-10)10 November 1954
Place of birth Fuengirola, Spain
Date of death 2 April 1992(1992-04-02) (aged 37)
Place of death Calzada de Oropesa, Spain
Height 1.69 m (5 ft 6 1⁄2 in)
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
Fuengirola
1969–1972 Atlético Madrid
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1972–1973 Atlético Madrid 0 (0)
1973–1977 Burgos 104 (25)
1977–1987 Real Madrid 284 (85)
1987–1989 Málaga 71 (15)
1991 Los Boliches 5 (0)
Total 464 (125)
National team
1970–1972 Spain U18 9 (0)
1976 Spain amateur 2 (0)
1976–1982 Spain 34 (8)
Teams managed
1991–1992 Mérida
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

A player with tremendous dribbling ability whose career was overshadowed by a fierce character, he was best known for his Real Madrid years. He died in a road accident at the age of 37.[1]

Growing up he supported Real Zaragoza, but as he approached his adulthood he began supporting Real Madrid. Upon his presentation in 1977, he said: "Playing for Real Madrid is like touching the sky, Real Madrid has always been my first choice as a team and Madrid has always been my favorite as a city".[2] Over 13 seasons, he amassed La Liga totals of 350 matches and 99 goals.

Juanito earned more than 30 caps for Spain, representing the nation in two World Cups and one European Championship.

Club career

Born in Fuengirola, Province of Málaga, Juanito played as a youth with his local club before joining Atlético Madrid in 1969. While still underage, he allegedly forged his papers so he could play for the Colchoneros' under-18 team. He scored twice on his debut, but a fractured tibia ended his career at Atlético and he never played for the senior side.[2]

Juanito would revive his career at Burgos CF, helping them win the second division in 1975–76. He made his La Liga debut in a 2–1 win over RCD Español in the following season, and was eventually awarded Spanish Footballer of the Year by Don Balón.[3]

Juanito soon attracted the attention of Real Madrid, which signed the player in June 1977. He became a prominent member of the successful Real side during the late 1970s and 1980s, in a squad which also featured Santillana, Uli Stielike, Vicente del Bosque and José Antonio Camacho. Having scored ten goals in his debut season he was instrumental in helping the capital team to five league titles, two Spanish Cups and two UEFA Cups – among his personal highlights were netting twice in the 1980 domestic cup final, incidentally played against Castilla CF, the club's reserves (6–1). On 11 May 1983 he scored through a penalty in the European Cup Winners' Cup final, a 1–2 loss against Aberdeen, and, in the subsequent league campaign, he won the Pichichi Trophy after finishing as joint top goalscorer with 17 goals; during ten seasons with the Merengues he played 284 first division games and scored 85 goals, adding 55 appearances in various European competitions (17 goals).[4]

After leaving Real Madrid, Juanito played for CD Málaga for two seasons, helping the side promote from the second level in his first year, as champions – as legendary László Kubala was the manager – and scoring one of his five goals of the following campaign against former teammate Francisco Buyo,[5] before retiring in 1991 after a very brief spell with amateurs CD Los Boliches, also in his native Andalusia. He subsequently began a working as a coach with CP Mérida, leading the team to a seventh place in division two in 1991–92; however, on 2 April 1992, after watching Real play Torino F.C. in a UEFA Cup match, he was killed in a road accident in Calzada de Oropesa, Toledo, while returning to Mérida.[6]

International career

Juanito played 34 times for Spain, scoring eight goals. His debut came on 10 October 1976 in a 1978 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Yugoslavia, in Sevilla: at the 30-minute mark, he replaced teammate del Bosque in a 2–0 win;[7] in the second match with this opponent, on 30 November 1977 in Belgrade (1–0 victory), he was hit with a bottle as he was being replaced and made an obscene gesture towards the crowd.[2]

Juanito represented Spain at the 1978 and 1982 World Cups, and at UEFA Euro 1980. During the 1982 competition, on home soil, he netted a penalty against Yugoslavia in another win (2–1);[8] in 1976, he played Olympic football.[9]

International goals

[7]

No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.27 March 1977Rico Pérez, Alicante, Spain Hungary1–11–1Friendly
2.4 October 1978Maksimir, Zagreb, Yugoslavia Yugoslavia0–11–2Euro 1980 qualifying
3.24 September 1980Nepstadion, Budapest, Hungary Hungary0–12–2Friendly
4.18 February 1981Vicente Calderón, Madrid, Spain France1–01–0Friendly
5.23 June 1981Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico Mexico0–11–3Friendly
6.23 June 1981Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico Mexico0–21–3Friendly
7.28 June 1981Olímpico, Caracas, Venezuela Venezuela0–10–2Friendly
8.20 June 1982Luis Casanova, Valencia, Spain Yugoslavia1–12–11982 FIFA World Cup

Profile

Juanito was considered by most of Real Madrid fans to represent the essence of what the club is about, his spirit often being called upon before matches where the team need to make an unexpected comeback (because of all the comebacks he often led while donning the white shirt). One of these was against Celtic in the quarter-finals of the 1979–80 European Cup, with Real losing 2–0 in the first match in Glasgow: in the second leg the team managed to come from behind after scoring three times without response (the third by him), thus reaching the last four; other comebacks in this period included the downings of Inter Milan and R.S.C. Anderlecht.[10][11][12][2]

Since his death, Juanito continued to be remembered in the seventh minute of every home game, as the Ultras chanted "Illa illa illa, Juanito maravilla".[13]

During his career, Juanito was involved in several violent incidents: in 1978, he received a two-year suspension from European competitions after assaulting referee Adolf Prokop in a match against Grasshopper Club Zürich.[2] In a UEFA Cup tie against another Swiss side, Neuchâtel Xamax, he spat on former teammate Stielike. He was again banned in 1987, this time for four years – an error in communications from UEFA meant that the sanction was originally thought to be five – after deliberately stamping on FC Bayern Munich's Lothar Matthäus' face.[2][14][15][16][17]

Honours

Club

Real Madrid

Burgos

Málaga

Individual

References
  1. Murray, Andrew (25 April 2018). "Bullfighter, stamper… legend: why Juanito is an all-time Real Madrid hero". FourFourTwo. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  2. Biography at Real Madrid Fans (in Spanish)
  3. Pla Díaz, Emilio. "Spain – Footballer of the Year". RSSSF. Retrieved 4 August 2006.
  4. Juan Gómez González, ‘Juanito¹ – Matches in European Cups; at RSSSF
  5. El Málaga logró el punto más difícil (Málaga got their most difficult point); Mundo Deportivo, 5 June 1989 (in Spanish)
  6. La muerte de Juanito conmociona al fútbol español (Juanito's death sends shock waves through Spanish football); El País, 3 April 1992 (in Spanish)
  7. Juan Gómez González, ‘Juanito’ – International Matches; at RSSSF
  8. 2–1: Victoria de infarto (2–1: Heart-stopping win); Mundo Deportivo, 21 June 1982 (in Spanish)
  9. Esteban y Juanito, los espejos de Isco (Esteban and Juanito, Isco's mirrors); Málaga Hoy, 14 July 2012 (in Spanish)
  10. Vanaclocha, Carlos (14 January 2015). "El miedo escénico que nunca llegó" [The stage fright that never was] (in Spanish). El Economista. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  11. Núñez, Paola (31 August 2018). "El '7', un número que evoca el espíritu de Juanito" [The '7', a number that calls on the spirit of Juanito] (in Spanish). ESPN Deportes. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  12. Memorable UEFA Cup comebacks; UEFA, 18 February 2013
  13. Minuto 7 (7th minute) on YouTube
  14. La UEFA cierra el Bernabéu por dos partidos e inhabilita a Juanito por cinco años (UEFA closes the Bernabéu for two games and bans Juanito for five years); El País, 3 May 1987 (in Spanish)
  15. La sanción de la UEFA a Juanito es por cuatro años (UEFA's sanction to Juanito is for four years); El País, 5 May 1987 (in Spanish)
  16. Murray, Scott (23 April 2014). "Real Madrid v Bayern: the night Juanito kicked Matthäus in the face". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
  17. Hunter, Graham (11 April 2017). "Bayern Munich v Real Madrid is the European Clásico – let the Champions League battle commence". Daily Record. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
  18. Bravo, Luis Javier; Sillipp, Bernhard; Torre, Raúl; Di Maggio, Roberto. "Spain – List of Topscorers ("Pichichi") 1929–2015". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
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