Agustín Gajate Vidriales (born 23 March 1958) is a Spanish retired

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. Not a skilled player (he was nicknamed ''Zapatones'' (Big shoes)), he excelled in man-marking, and played for

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

's first team for 15 years.

Club career

Gajate was born in

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...

. A

youth graduate, he played solely for the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

club, making his first-team debut on 1 January 1978 away against

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the Spa ...

(1–0 win, 90 minutes played); he appeared very rarely for the back-to-back

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

champions – only four matches – as he his favoured position was occupied by another youth graduate,

Alberto Górriz Alberto Górriz Echarte (born 16 February 1958) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played mainly as a central defender. His main asset was his heading ability, and he often scored from set pieces. He spent his entire career with Re ...

, but gradually carved a starting XI niche in place of veteran

Inaxio Kortabarria Inaxio Kortabarria Abarrategi (born 31 July 1950) is a Spanish former footballer who played as a central defender. Club career Kortabarria was born in Mondragón, Gipuzkoa. During his career he played solely for Real Sociedad, making his first-t ...

, going on to form an effective centre-back partnership with Górriz. After only missing a total of three games from 1986 to 1988 (adding five goals) as Real won the

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

in one season and finished league runners-up in the other, Gajate retired in June 1992, having appeared in 364 top-flight matches, 469 overall.

International career

Gajate played three times for the Spain under-21 team, also appearing at the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

the nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

exited in the group stage after three draws.

Honours

Real Sociedad *

: 1980–81, 1981–82 *

: 1986–87 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gajate, Agustin 1958 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from San Sebastián Men's association football central defenders La Liga players Tercera División players Real Sociedad B footballers Real Sociedad footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spain men's under-23 international footballers Spain men's amateur international footballers Olympic footballers for Spain Footballers at the 1980 Summer Olympics Basque Country men's international footballers

Club career

International career

Honours

See also

References

External links