Alfonso Sena Manterola (5 October 1886 - 6 August 1958) was a Spanish

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 ...

who played as a defender for Real Sociedad. He is one of the most important figures in the amateur beginnings of Real Sociedad from San Sebastián, having been the fundamental head behind the foundation of its predecessors,

Club Ciclista Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Club (magazine), ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands a ...

in 1908, and of Real Sociedad itself on 1909. His brothers, Miguel and Gregorio, also played for Real Sociedad.

Biography

Born in San Sebastián, he began his career in 1904, aged just 18, at his hometown club San Sebastián Recreation Club, which had just been founded to become the very first football club in San Sebastián. Together with Juan Arzuaga, he was part of the Recreation side that played in the 1905 Copa del Rey. In 1906, he left Recreation Club to join his older brother at Unión Vizcaino, and in that same year, the best players from Vizcaino and Athletic Club came together to form Bizcaya, which was specially created to take part in the 1907 Copa del Rey, and the Sena brothers were elected into the team, where Alfonso formed a defensive partnership with his former Recreation Club teammate, Juan Arzuaga of Athletic. On 24 March 1907, he made his competitive debut for Athletic (Athletic Bilbao counts the matches played by Bizcaya as its own) at the 1907 Copa del Rey, in a 3–2 win over Madrid CF, and Sena faced them again in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

, but this time they lost 0–1, courtesy of a late goal from

Manuel Prast Manuel Prast Rodríguez de Llano was a footballer who played as a striker for Madrid FC between 1904–1908 and 1912–1914. He was a historical member of Madrid FC, playing a pivotal role in Madrid's four back-to-back Copa del Rey titles betwee ...

. After the Bizcaya team was discontinued, Alfonso returned to Recreation Club. In the end of 1907, a conflict between the club's members caused the team to split with several players (including the Sena brothers, Domingo Arrillaga and Bonifacio Echeverría) leaving the club to create a new team in 1908, the San Sebastian Football Club. To participate in the

1909 Copa del Rey The 1909 Copa del Rey was the 7th staging of the Copa del Rey, the Spanish football cup competition. The competition started on 4 April 1909, and concluded on 8 April 1909, with the final, held at the O'Donnell, in Madrid, in which Club Ciclista d ...

, this team had to play under the umbrella of another local club, Club Ciclista de San Sebastián, under whose name they presented themselves in the tournament, and against all odds, Club Ciclista won after beating Español de Madrid 3–1 in the

, in which Alfonso featured alongside his brother, Miguel. A few months after this victory, the players who had won the tournament together with José Berraondo founded the Sociedad de Football (now known as Real Sociedad) on 7 September 1909, definitively disassociating themselves from the Cycling Club. Sociedad participated in the 1910 Copa del Rey (UECF) using again the umbrella of another local club, the Vasconia Sporting Club, and this group proved their worth again by reaching the final (UECF), which they lost 0–1 to Athletic. In 1913, in another edition marked by two parallel tournaments, Sociedad also played in one of the two Cup finals, this time against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Found ...

, who needed three games to beat them. He remained loyal to Sociedad until his retirement in the mid-1910s.

Honours

Club Bizcaya *

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 footb ...

: Runner-up

1907 Events January * January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000. February * February 11 – The French warship ''Jean Bart'' sinks off the coast of Morocco ...

Club Ciclista *Copa del Rey:

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Jan ...

Real Sociedad *Copa del Rey: Runner-up

1910 Events January * January 13 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; live performances of the operas '' Cavalleria rusticana'' and ''Pagliacci'' are sent out over the airwaves, from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York C ...

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not venture for the rest of the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sena, Alfonso 1886 births 1958 deaths Spanish men's footballers Men's association football defenders Footballers from San Sebastián Real Sociedad footballers