Alfredo Massana Urgellés (27 July 1891 - 24 March 1924), 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 le ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

and

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. Founded ...

. He had a great placement and vision of the game. Known as a great dribbler, he was one of the best Catalan midfielders of his time. His brother,

Santiago Massana Santiago Massana Urgellés (5 June 1889 – Unknown), nicknamed Tiago, was a Spanish footballer who played as a defender. He was best known for his height, which he imposed on his opponents. His brother, Alfredo Massana, was also a footballer. ...

, also played for Espanyol and Barcelona. He is also the grandfather of the

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

Tete Montoliu Vicenç Montoliu i Massana, better known as Tete Montoliu (28 March 1933 – 24 August 1997) was a Spanish jazz pianist from Catalonia, Spain. Born blind, he learnt braille music at age seven. His styles varied from hard bop, through afro-Cuban, ...

Club career

Born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, he began his career in 1907 at his hometown club

X Sporting Club The X Sporting Club, officially founded as Football Club X, was a football team based in Barcelona, Spain, which existed during the years 1902 and 1908. They won the Catalan football championship, Catalan championship three times in a row between ...

, where he played alongside the likes of Pedro Gibert, and helped the club win back-to-back Catalan Championships in 1906–07 and 1907–08. In 1909, the club was effectively relaunched as the

Club Deportivo Español Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''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 and enterprises ...

, the name which still stands today. At Espanyol, he stood out as an extraordinary midfielder, which earned him a move to

in 1911. He was a member of the legendary Barcelona team of the early 1910s that also included the likes of Paco Bru,

Enrique Peris Enrique Peris de Vargas (27 February 1887 - 17 February 1953) was a Spanish footballer who played as a left winger. He spent most of his career at Barcelona, with whom he played over 300 matches. Club career Born in Barcelona, he began his career ...

Romà Forns Romà Forns Saldaña (died 26 April 1942) was a Spanish footballer and manager. He made his debut as a footballer in late 1902 playing one season for Irish FC but spent the rest of his career with FC Barcelona and the Catalan XI, always as a fo ...

Carles Comamala Carles Comamala López-Del Pan (17 April 1889 – 4 August 1983) was an orthopedic surgeon by profession and a association football, football player for FC Barcelona, Barcelona between 1903 and 1911. He was a director of Barcelona in 1909–1911. ...

and Pepe Rodríguez, and together with them, he won two

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 ...

titles in

1912 Events January * January 1 – The Republic of China (1912–49), Republic of China is established. * January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens. * January 6 ...

and

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

. In the 1912 final he scored the opening goal in a eventual 2–0 win over Sociedad Gimnástica. He played for Barcelona until 1916, scoring 30 goals in 131 games and winning two Pyrenees Cups (

and

), two Copa del Rey (1912 and 1913) and two Catalan Championships (1912–13 and 1915–16). He later moved to

, with whom he won another in 1917–18. He died at the young age of 33, in 1924.

International career

Like many other

players of that time, he played several matches for the Catalan national team between 1910 and 1916, scoring two goals. On 24 July 1910, Massana went down in history as one of the eleven footballers who played in Catalonia's first-ever international game (although not recognized by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

), which ended in a 1–3 loss to a Paris XI. In May 1915, he was a member of the team that participated in the first edition of the

Prince of Asturias Cup The Prince of Asturias Cup (, ) was an inter-regional football competition contested by the regional selections of Spain – selections of players from clubs from the region in question, meaning that players did not need to be native to the region ...

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 ...

, an inter-regional competition organized by the

RFEF The Royal Spanish Football Federation ( es, Real Federación Española de Fútbol; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. It is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. It was founded on 14 October 1909 ...

Honours

Club

;

* Catalan Championships: **Winners (2) 1906–07 and 1907–08

* Catalan Championships: **Winners (2) 1912–13 and 1915–16 *

: **Winners (2)

and

* Pyrenees Cup: **Winners (2) 1912 and 1913

* Catalan Championships: **Winners (1) 1917–18

International

;

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

: **Runner-up (1):

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Massana, Alfredo 1891 births 1924 deaths Footballers from Barcelona Spanish footballers Association football midfielders RCD Espanyol footballers FC Barcelona players Terrassa FC footballers Catalonia international footballers