José Antonio Santamaría Vaqueriza (16 March 1946 – 19 January 1993) was a Spanish footballer. After retiring from football he had a career as an entrepreneur in the hospitality sector. He was murdered in a terrorist attack at the age of 46.

Playing career

During his career as a professional, he played for SD Eibar (1963 to 1964),

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

– reserve team of

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

– (1964 to 1967), the aforementioned club's first team (1967 to 1971),

Hércules CF Hércules de Alicante Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a Spanish football team in Alicante, in the autonomous community of Valencian Community. Founded on 25 October 1922, it currently plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 3 and plays its hom ...

(1971 to 1974) and finished his career at CE Sabadell FC (1974 to 1975).

International

Santamaría played for his country at the under-23 level and was shortlisted to play for the senior team on several occasions.

After football

After retiring from football, Santamaría with other partners opened a nightclub in

called the Ku Nightclub. This club was a great success and would become one of the hottest spots in town. In 1978, along with two other partners, he expanded the Ku franchise to the island of

Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...

, acquiring and expanding existing premises that would become known as Ku club Ibiza (Now Privilege Ibiza). During the 1980s, the open-air Ku Club Ibiza became one of the most famous and fashionable 'super clubs'in the world, even being included in the

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

. Santamaría had among his personal friends personalities such as the film director Roman Polanski, who at that time had a house in Ibiza. He was killed in an attack committed by

ETA Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

in 1993.Football celebrity 'killed by Eta'
The Independent, 21 January 1993

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santamaria, Jose Antonio 1946 births 1993 deaths Spanish footballers Footballers from San Sebastián Association football defenders SD Eibar footballers Real Sociedad footballers Real Sociedad B footballers Hércules CF players CE Sabadell FC footballers La Liga players Segunda División players Tercera División players People killed by ETA (separatist group) Assassinated businesspeople 20th-century Spanish businesspeople People murdered in Spain Deaths by firearm in Spain Nightclub owners