Balbino Clemente Núñez (6 September 1896 - 28 March 1941), better known as Balbino, 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

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 ...

. He was part of the first-ever team fielded by

Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues ...

in 1923. His brother

Juanito Juanito is a given name or nickname, meaning "Little Juan" or Johnny. Notable people with the name include: Professional footballers * Juan Ignacio Gomez Taleb (born 1985), Argentinian forward * Juan Díaz Sánchez (1948–2013), Spanish forwa ...

was also a footballer.

Club career

Born in

Vedra Vedra is a municipality in the Spanish province of A Coruña in the autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma ...

, Galicia, he spent most of his career at his hometown club Fortuna de Vigo, playing for them until it was merged with

Real Vigo Sporting Real Vigo Sporting Club, was a Spanish football club based in Vigo, Galicia, founded in 1905. Background Vigo was one of the cities through which football entered the Iberian Peninsula, thanks to British sailors and workers. The first demonstr ...

in 1923, to form

. The presentation match of this new team was held at Coia on 16 September 1923, in a meeting between an A and a B team formed with the players from the club, taking advantage of the large team available that they had. Balbino played for the B side that was captained by his brother

, in a 0-2 loss to the A team captained by Luis Otero. The first match against another club came a few days later, on 23 September 1923 against

Boavista F.C. Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista (), is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers (thus the "FC" being appended – the British way as oppos ...

, in which he was part of an 8-2 victory. On 10 April 1924, he played a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

for Celta against the Uruguay national team that would go on to win the

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The op ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He won three Galician Championships with Celta in 1923-24, 1924-25 and 1925-26.

International career

He received his only cap for Spain on 18 December 1921 at

Campo de O'Donnell Campo de O'Donnell was a multi-use stadium in Madrid, Spain. The stadium should not be confused with Campo de O'Donnell (Atlético Madrid), which shared the same name and was situated away on the same boulevard. It was initially a field (campo) ...

, in a 3-1 win over

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. Being a player of

, he was summoned to play for the Galicia national team, and he was one of the eleven footballers that played in the team's first-ever game on 19 November 1922, a 4-1 win over a Castile/Madrid XI in the quarter-finals of the

1922-23 Prince of Asturias Cup Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

, an inter-regional

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...

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 ...

. Balbino helped the team reach 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 cont ...

, in which he opened the scoring early in the game, but eventually lost 1-3 to Asturias national team, courtesy of a second-half brace from

José Luis Zabala José Luis Zabala (14 December 1898 – 22 April 1946) was a Spanish Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He played in four matches for the Spain national football team in 1923 and 1924, sc ...

Honours

Club

;

Galician Championship: *Winners (3) 1923-24, 1924-25 and 1925-26

International

;Galicia

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 ...

: *Runner-up (1): 1922-23

References

1896 births 1941 deaths Sportspeople from the Province of A Coruña Footballers from Galicia (Spain) Spanish footballers Association football midfielders Real Betis players Sevilla FC players RC Celta de Vigo players Spain international footballers {{Spain-footy-midfielder-stub