Herminio Martínez Álvarez (6 January 1896 - 13 July 1976), or simply Herminio 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 lea ...

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) ** Smal ...

Club career

Born in Galicia, he began playing football at his hometown club Fortuna de Vigo in 1916. Its good characteristics became known in much of the state, which led an agent of

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, that competes in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. The club was formed on 25 January ...

to travel to

Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...

to sign him. Thus, he joined them in 1919, where he played until 1927. His retirement from football was the cause of a serious injury, the rupture of the

meniscus Meniscus may refer to: *Meniscus (anatomy), crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous structure that partly divides a joint cavity *Meniscus (liquid) In physics (particularly liquid statics), the meniscus (: menisci, ) is the curve in the upper sur ...

, which at the time was incurable. This would be the first of several misfortunes he suffered, such as the bombing of Córdoba during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

or a

thrombosis Thrombosis () is the formation of a Thrombus, blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel (a vein or an artery) is injured, the body uses platelets (thrombocytes) and fib ...

from which he would no longer recover.

International career

He earned two caps for Spain, both of which came against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

on 16 December 1923 and 17 May 1925, and both ended in victories. Being a player of

, he was summoned to play for the Andalusia national team, and he was one of the eleven footballers that played in the team's first-ever game on 19 November 1922 against a Valencia XI, the quarter-finals of the

1922-23 Prince of Asturias Cup Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the W ...

, and he helped his side achieve a 2-1 win, but they were knocked out in the semi-finals by Galicia and in the following campaign they lost in the semi-finals again, this time to a Castile/Madrid XI, losing 1-2 with Herminio being the author of Andalusia's consolation goal.

References

1896 births 1976 deaths Footballers from Vigo Spanish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Sevilla FC players Spain men's international footballers {{Spain-footy-forward-stub