Carlos Ruiz Herrero (born 7 June 1948), known simply as Carlos, 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He spent 11 seasons in

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 ...

with

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

, appearing in 275 competitive games and scoring 115 goals.

Club career

Born in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

Biscay Biscay (; eu, Bizkaia ; es, Vizcaya ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilbao. B ...

, the third of ten sons in a large family, Carlos played for eleven seasons with

, plus one with the reserves, having been signed in 1969 from

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 ...

neighbours

CD Getxo Club Deportivo Getxo is a Spanish football team based in Getxo, Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1927 it plays in División Honor Bizkaia, holding home matches at ''Campo Municipal de Fadura'', with a 3,500-seat ...

. On 12 September 1970 he made his debut for the first team, playing the dying minutes of the 1–1 home draw 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. Founded ...

. In the following years, Carlos continued to be used regularly by the club, although he was not always an undisputed starter. In the 1974–75 season, however, he scored a career-best 19 goals in 32 games (winning the

Pichichi Trophy In Spanish football, the Trofeo Pichichi is awarded by the sports newspaper '' Marca'' to the top goalscorer of each La Liga season. Named after the Athletic Bilbao striker Rafael "Pichichi" Moreno, the trophy has been awarded annually since the ...

in the process), for a tenth place in

; on 18 May 1977 he netted the goal to put his side 2–1 up at home against

Juventus FC )''I Bianconeri'' (The White and Blacks)''Le Zebre'' (The Zebras)''La Signora Omicidi'' (The Killer Lady)''La Gheuba'' (: The Hunchback) , founded = as Sport-Club Juventus , ground = Juventus Stadium , capacity = 41,507 , owner = Agnelli ...

in the campaign's

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 ...

of the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

– his last of five during their continental run – but the Italians won the trophy on the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

. Carlos still enjoyed two seasons in double digits until he left Athletic, including 1977–78 with 16 goals, but also had to deal with several injuries. He retired from the game in the summer of 1982 at the age of 34 after a spell with

RCD Español 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 ...

, amassing top flight totals of 234 matches and 83 goals.

International career

Carlos was never

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

by Spain at senior level, but did play for the under-21 side once, in a match against

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

played in

Elche Elche ( ca-valencia, Elx) is a city and municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. According to 2014 data, Elche has a population of 228,647 inhabitants,Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero The Estadio Martínez Valero is a stadium located in the Spanish city of Elche in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community. It is the home stadium of Elche CF, a team that is currently playing in La Liga. Its name pays tribute to the late pre ...

Later life

Having studied

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

at the University of Bilbao at

Leioa Leioa ( es, Lejona) is a municipality in Biscay, Basque Country, in northern Spain. It is located south of Getxo and Berango delimitating east and south with Erandio, Portugalete and Sestao. Today it is part of the Bilbao conurbation. Its populat ...

(now part of the

University of the Basque Country The University of the Basque Country ( eu, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, ''EHU''; es, Universidad del País Vasco, ''UPV''; UPV/EHU) is a Spanish public university of the Basque Autonomous Community. Heir of the University of Bilbao, initially ...

during his playing career, Ruiz subsequently went into practice as a

doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

specialising in the treatment of athletes. He performed roles assisting various sports teams, including basketball club

CB Cajabilbao Club Baloncesto Caja Bilbao was a professional basketball club based in Bilbao, Spain. History Caja Bilbao was founded in 1983 and promoted to Liga ACB in 1987, where it remained during five years.handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

and women's football. In 2011, Ruiz was part of the team behind the unsuccessful campaign of Fernando García Macua to be re-elected as club president of Athletic Bilbao.

Honours

Athletic Bilbao *

Copa del Generalísimo 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 ...

: 1972–73; runner-up 1976–77 *

: runner-up 1976–77 Individual *

: Top scorer 1974–75

References

External links

*
Athletic Club Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruiz, Carlos 1948 births Living people Footballers from Getxo Footballers from Bilbao Spanish footballers Association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players CD Getxo players Bilbao Athletic footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers RCD Espanyol footballers Spain under-21 international footballers Pichichi Trophy winners University of the Basque Country alumni 20th-century Spanish physicians 21st-century Spanish physicians