Francisco Javier Aguilar García (26 March 1949 – 11 May 2020) was a Spanish professional
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
forward.
Club career
Born in
Santander
Santander may refer to:
Places
* Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain
* Santander Department, a department of Colombia
* Santander State, former state of Colombia
* Santander de Quilichao, a m ...
, Aguilar started his career with local
Racing de Santander
Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league syst ...
,
making his senior debut at 19 and helping the
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 ...
ns to achieve promotion to the
Segunda División in 1970. The following year, he signed with
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' ...
powerhouse
Real Madrid alongside teammate
Santillana,
[ finishing his first season with 31 matches (28 starts) and six goals as the team won the national championship; he added three in only four appearances in 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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
, but they were eliminated in the second round.
Safe for two seasons, Aguilar was regularly used during his spell, winning five leagues and 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 footb ...
– including the double in the 1974–75 campaign – and appearing in 190 competitive games.[ In the summer of 1979 he joined ]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, ...
, playing regularly but only managing to score on six occasions during his spell.
Aguilar retired from football in June 1983 at the age of 34, after two years with another club in Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
, second-tier Rayo Vallecano
Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. Rayo was founded on 29 May 1924, and currently compete in La Li ...
(12 goals from 36 appearances in his first).[ Over ten seasons, he amassed top-flight totals of 190 matches and 40 goals.
]
International career
In one year and a half, Aguilar played three matches 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 ...
.[ He made his debut on 24 November 1971 in a ]UEFA Euro 1972
The 1972 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Belgium. This was the fourth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 14 and 18 June 1972.
Only four ...
qualifier
In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...
against Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
in Granada, replacing Real Madrid teammate Amancio Amaro
Amancio Amaro Varela, (born 16 October 1939), commonly known simply as Amancio, is a Spanish former football player. Nicknamed ''El Brujo'' (The Magician) he played outside right for Deportivo de La Coruña, Real Madrid, and the Spain nationa ...
at half-time
In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...
and scoring the fifth goal in an eventual 7–0 rout.
Death
Aguilar died on 11 May 2020 in Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
aged 71, due to cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
.[
]
References
External links
*
*
*
Madridista stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aguilar, Francisco
1949 births
2020 deaths
Spanish footballers
Footballers from Santander, Spain
Association football forwards
La Liga players
Segunda División players
Tercera División players
Racing de Santander players
Real Madrid CF players
Sporting de Gijón players
Rayo Vallecano players
Spain under-23 international footballers
Spain international footballers
Spanish football managers
Segunda División B managers
CD Logroñés managers
Deaths from cancer in Spain