Fernando Villaverde Lavandera (30 March 1894 – 23 June 1937), also known as Villaverde I 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

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 ...

. His brothers, Saturnino and Senén, were also footballers and also played for Athletic Club de Madrid.

Club career

Born in

Gijón Gijón () or () is a city and municipality in north-western Spain. It is the largest city and municipality by population in the autonomous community of Asturias. It is located on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea in the Bay of Biscay, in the cent ...

, he began his career in the youth ranks of his hometown club La Sportiva, a leading Gijón team in the early 20th century. At La Sportiva, he stood out for his goalscoring ability, which eventually drew the attention of

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting (although in an international context this can lead to confusion with Sporting Clube de Portugal) is a Spanish football club from Gijón, P ...

, who signed him in 1910. In his first year at the youth ranks of Sporting, he excelled, receiving the distinction of best child player in 1911. He was thus, promoted to the first team in 1911, and eventually, he was named the team captain. In 1915, he signed for Athletic Club de Madrid, but after two seasons he returned to Sporting. In the first-ever

Asturian derby The Asturian derby ( ast, Derbi asturianu, es, Derbi asturiano or ''Derbi astur''), is the name given to any association football match contested between Sporting de Gijón and Real Oviedo, the two biggest clubs in Asturias. The rivalry is we ...

between Sporting de Gijón and

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo is a Spanish football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926 as a result of the merger of two clubs who had maintained a large sporting rivalry for years in the city: ''Real Stadium Club Ovetense'' and ''Real Club De ...

(named Real Club Deportivo Oviedo at the time) held on 25 January 1920, it was Fernando who scored the opening goals, thus netting the first goal of one of Spain's biggest rivalries. Despite his great goalscoring form, a broken tibia and fibula would end his sports career in 1920, when he was only 26 years old. In the same year, a match between two Asturian teams was held in Gijón in his honor, in which he acted as

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

. He also served as a referee in the first-ever game of the Asturias national team on 4 June 1922, which ended in a 3–7 loss to

St Mirren F.C. St Mirren Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Paisley, Renfrewshire, that competes in the Scottish Premiership after winning the 2017–18 Scottish Championship. Founded in 1877, the team has two nicknames, ''the ...

International career

In 1917, he was summoned to play for the Cantabric national team, a side consisting of players from the provinces of

Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in nor ...

and

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

. He and his brother Senén, were a member of the team that participated in the

1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...

and

1918 This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide. Events Below, the events ...

editions 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 ...

, 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 ...

. In the 1918 tournament, he scored one goal against the Centro team, a Castile/Madrid XI, in a 2–3 loss.

Honours

International

; Cantabric *

: **Runner-up (1):

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Villaverde, Fernando 1894 births 1937 deaths Spanish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Footballers from Gijón Sporting de Gijón players Atlético Madrid footballers