Isidoro San José Pozo (born 27 October 1955) 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 ...

. Mainly a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

"¡Así, así, así gana el Madrid!" ("That's the way, that's the way, that's the way Madrid wins!")
El País, 27 March 2011 (in Spanish) he could also play on the other flank, and even as a

defensive 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 boundari ...

. During one full decade he represented

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' ...

giants Real Madrid, winning a total of nine major titles and amassing competition totals of 200 games and three goals.

Club career

Born 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 ...

, San José arrived in Real Madrid's youth academy at the age of 12. During the 1973–74 season, at only 18, he made his first-team debuts, playing in two rounds of the

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 ...

against

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. (), known simply as Granada, is a Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that plays in the Segunda División, after being relegated from La Liga in the 2021� ...

and

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Las Palmas, on the island of Gran Canaria in the autonomous community of Canary Islands. Founded on 22 August 1949, it plays in Segunda División, holding home games at t ...

but not being picked for

the 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 ...

because the juniors' coach,

Manuel Sanchís Martínez Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name) * Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * M ...

, decided he should play, as captain, in the equivalent match of the category, the opponent also being

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. Found ...

.Real Madrid Fans biography
(in Spanish) After two years with Real Madrid Castilla, San José was promoted to the main squad, appearing three times in

in 1976–77 but amassing 77 appearances in the following three campaigns combined, as the team won consecutive league accolades. However, during a league game at

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, ...

late into 1979, he suffered a

meniscus Meniscus may refer to: *Meniscus (anatomy), crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous structure that partly divides a joint cavity *Meniscus (liquid) The meniscus (plural: ''menisci'', from the Greek for "crescent") is the curve in the upper surface ...

injury which kept him out of the pitches for more than one year; the situation was aggravated after the player, not fully recovered yet, was summoned for the cup final against

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the Spa ...

. In his last two years, San José only appeared in 30 league matches combined, but still contributed to back-to-back UEFA Cups and the 1986 national championship – at that time, he had already lost his position to another youth graduate, Chendo. He retired in June 1987 at nearly 32 after one season with RCD Mallorca, contributing relatively as the Balearic Islands side retained their top division status. After retiring, San José stayed connected with Real Madrid, running football camps for children connected with the club's foundation alongside former Real Madrid teammate Enrique Magdaleno.

International career

San José earned 13

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the Spain national team in two years. His debut came on 30 November 1977 in a 1978 FIFA World Cup

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 ...

in Belgrade against

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

, and he was also picked for the final stages in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, playing all three matches in an eventual group stage exit (one win, one loss and one draw). Previously, San José also competed internationally at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 P ...

Honours

;Real Madrid *

: 1977–78, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1985–86 *

: 1973–74, 1979–80, 1981–82 * Copa de la Liga:

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

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 ...

: 1984–85, 1985–86

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:San Jose, Isidoro 1955 births Living people Footballers from Madrid Spanish footballers Association football defenders Association football utility players La Liga players Tercera División players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players RCD Mallorca players Spain youth international footballers Spain under-21 international footballers Spain amateur international footballers Spain international footballers 1978 FIFA World Cup players Olympic footballers of Spain Footballers at the 1976 Summer Olympics UEFA Cup winning players