Eleuterio Santos Brito (9 November 1940 – 28 January 2008) 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 ...

. He spent the vast majority of his professional career with

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

, appearing in 280 official games and scoring 96 goals.

Club career

Born in

Santa Cruz de Tenerife Santa Cruz de Tenerife, commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz (), is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and capital of the Canary Islands. Santa Cruz has a population of 206,593 (2013) within its admi ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

, Santos started playing with local

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1912, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez Lóp ...

. In March 1963 he moved to

, going on to spend nine of his ten seasons with the club 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 ...

and being part of an attacking frontline dubbed ''Los Magníficos'', which also featured Canário,

Carlos Lapetra Carlos Lapetra Coarasa (29 November 1938 – 24 December 1995) was a Spanish footballer who played as a forward. He spent ten of his 11 years as a professional with Zaragoza, appearing in 279 official games (62 goals) and winning three major ti ...

Marcelino Marcelino is a surname that originated in Spain. There are also several families with the Marcelino surname in Philippines, Portugal, and the Americas (North, Central, and South). * San Marcelino, is a 1st class municipality in the province of Zam ...

and

Juan Manuel Villa Juan Manuel Villa Gutiérrez (born 26 September 1938) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Born in Seville, Andalusia, Villa joined the youth system of Real Madrid at the age of 15, and made his professional d ...

International career

Santos earned one cap for

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–1 away friendly draw against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

on 2 May 1968.

Death

Santos died in his hometown on 28 January 2008 at age 67, after a long battle with illness.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Eleuterio 1940 births 2008 deaths Spanish footballers Footballers from Santa Cruz de Tenerife Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players CD Tenerife players Real Zaragoza players CD Tudelano footballers Spain international footballers