Jump to content

Luis Aragonés

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 213.140.21.232 (talk) at 20:50, 25 October 2006 (→The Thierry Henry incident). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Luis Aragonés
Luis Aragonés
Personal information
Full name José Luis Aragonés Suárez
Position(s) Forward
Team information
Current team
 Spain

José Luis Aragonés Suárez (born July 28, 1938 in Hortaleza, Madrid), sometimes referred to as simply Luis, is a former Spanish footballer and current manager. He is currently the coach of Spain. Aragonés has spent the majority of his career as a player and coach at Atlético Madrid. He was a prominent player and then coach of the successful Atlético team of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The team won La Liga four times, reached the final of the European Cup and won the Intercontinental Cup. Between 1964 and 1974 he played 265 La Liga games for Atlético and scored 123 goals. Aragonés has coached the club on four separate occasions. He has also played with several other clubs, most notably Real Betis, and played 11 times for Spain, scoring three goals. Apart from Atlético he has also coached seven other La Liga.

Early career

Aragonés began his playing career with CD Getafe in 1957. In 1958 he signed for Real Madrid but never made it into the senior team. He spent most of his time at Real on loan to other clubs, including Recreativo de Huelva and Hércules CF and playing for AD Plus Ultra, the Real reserve team. In 1960 he joined Real Oviedo and made his debut in the Primera Division . Between 1961 and 1964 he played for Real Betis , making 86 La Liga appearances and scoring 33 goals.

Atlético Madrid

While at Atlético, Aragonés acquired the nickname Zapatones, meaning big boots and he was known as a free kick specialist. He was a regular goalscorer and in 1970 he shared the Pichichi with his fellow Atlético forward José Eulogio Gárate and Amancio. In 1974 he scored in the 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich as Atlético held the German team in the European Cup final before losing 4-0 in the replay. After retiring as a player Aragonés was appointed Atlético coach for the first time in 1974. He soon earned himself a new nickname, El Sabio de la Hortaleza (The Wise Man of Hortaleza).

The Thierry Henry incident

In 2004 Aragonés was appointed coach of Spain. During a training session Spanish TV crew filmed Aragonés trying to motivate José Antonio Reyes by making offensive and racist references to Reyes' Arsenal F.C. team-mate, Thierry Henry. The phrase used was "Demuestra que eres mejor que ese negro de mierda", meaning 'Show that you're better than that shitty black guy'.

The incident caused uproar in the British media with calls for Aragonés to be sacked. However these opinions were not widely supported in Spain. The national football federation declined to take any action. When Spain played England in a friendly match at the Bernabéu soon after, the atmosphere was hostile. Whenever black England players touched the ball, a signifcant proportion of the Spanish crowd began to make monkey chants, in particular to Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ashley Cole. Aragonés' remarks were widely blamed by the British press for inciting the incident.

After an investigation into the events during the match, UEFA fined the RFEF 100,000 Swiss francs/ 87,000 USD and warned that any future incidents would be punished more severely. UEFA noted that possible punishments could include suspension from major international tournaments or the closure of Spain home international matches to supporters.

Honours

Player

Atlético Madrid

Manager

Atlético Madrid

FC Barcelona

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Luis_Aragonés&oldid=83709091"