José Luis Zabala (14 December 1898 – 22 April 1946) 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 ...

. He played in four matches for the

Spain national football team The Spain national football team ( es, Selección Española de Fútbol) has represented Spain in international men's football competitions since 1920. It is governed by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the governing body for football in ...

in 1923 and 1924, scoring four goals, including a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

on 16 December of 1923.

Club career

Born in

Irun Irun ( es, Irún, eu, Irun) is a town of the Bidasoaldea region in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. History It lies on the foundations of the ancient Oiasso, cited as ...

, he began to play football in the youth ranks of his hometown club Sporting de Irún. After short spells at Izarra de Eibar and Unión de Irun, Zabala joined

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

in 1918, where he played for a season as a

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 boundarie ...

. After inflicting an injury to an opposing player, he was sanctioned by the

Catalan Football Federation The Catalan Football Federation ( ca, Federació Catalana de Futbol, es, Federación Catalana de Fútbol; FCF) is the football association responsible for administering football in Catalonia. It was formed on 11 November 1900 as the Football Ass ...

, earning three months of inactivity. This fact caused him to leave Espanyol and join Real Club Deportivo Oviedo, which would later merge with Real Stadium Club Ovetense to form

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 ...

in 1925. 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 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 ...

and Real Oviedo (Real Club Deportivo Oviedo at the time) held on 25 January 1920, it was Zabala who scored Oviedo's first equalizer on a 2-2 draw. After four seasons at Oviedo, he returned to Espanyol in 1923, and in his second spell there, he became a brilliant forward, earning his first international call-ups for the Spanish and the Catalan national teams. In 1926 he returned to Oviedo and finished his career at

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

in the 1929–30 season.

International career

He made his debut 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 ...

on 28 January 1923 against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and scored his side's second in a 3–0 win. In his next cap on 16 December 1923 he scored again, netting a

in the Iberian derby to help his side to a 3–0 win. In total, Zabala scored 4 goals in 4

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 Java ...

. He scored another hat-trick for Spain in a 7–0 win over a Catalonia XI on 13 March 1924. Being a

, he was eligible to play for the Asturias team, being one of the eleven footballers that played in the team's first-ever game on 4 June 1922, in a friendly against

St Mirren F.C. St Mirren Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley, Renfrewshire, that competes in the Scottish Premiership after winning the 2017–18 Scottish Championship. ...

, and even though they lost 3–7, Zabala was the author of the first goal in the team's history. The Regional Asturian team then played seven official games between 1922 and 1926 in 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 ...

, winning the 1922–23 edition, largely thanks to Zabala who scored twice in their 4–3 win over

Biscay Biscay (; eu, Bizkaia ; es, Vizcaya ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilbao. B ...

in the quarter-finals, followed by a last-minute winner against

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

in the semi-finals and to seal his memorable campaign in style, he netted a second-half brace in 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 ...

to give his side a 3–1 win over Galicia. His brace in the final game of the tournament saw him become the top goal scorer of the tournament with 5 goals. However, the following edition of the competition wasn't as successful because Asturias were knocked out by Biscay in the quarter-finals despite yet another Zabala goal. With those 6 goals, Zabala is the all-time top goal scorer of the prince of Asturias Cup along with Kinké and

Juan Monjardín Juan Monjardín Callejón (24 April 1903 – 13 November 1950) was a Spanish footballer who played as a striker. He played for Real Madrid and earned 4 caps for the Spain national football team, competing at the 1924 Summer Olympics. A histor ...

, who also scored 6 goals. Zabala is also the record-goalscorer of the Asturian team with 7 goals. When he returned to Espanyol in 1923, he become eligible to play for the Catalan national team, however, due to the little statistical rigor that the newspapers had at that time, the exact amount of caps he earned is unknown.

International goals

Goals for Spain

:''Spain score listed first, score column indicates score after each Zabala goal.

Goals for Asturias

:''Asturias score listed first, score column indicates score after each Zabala goal.

Honours

Club

; Unión de Irun *

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 footbal ...

: **Champions (1):

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 ...

International

;

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 ...

XI *

: **Champions (1): 1922-23

Individual

;

XI *Top goalscorer of the

1922-23 Prince of Asturias Cup Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

with 5 goals

Records

*All-time top goal scorer of the

with 6 goals *All-time top goal scorer of

with 7 goals

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zabala, Jose Luis 1898 births 1946 deaths Spanish footballers Spain international footballers Sportspeople from Irun Association football forwards Real Unión footballers RCD Espanyol footballers Real Oviedo players Olympic footballers of Spain Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Footballers from the Basque Country (autonomous community)