José María Ygnacio Sansinenea Goñi (1 August 1896 - 11 August 1924), simply known as Sansinenea, 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 ...

Club career

Born in

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 ...

, Sansinenea found his way into the home of a very prominent club in the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

Madrid FC Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

, with whom he played for 5 seasons (1916–1921). At the club he formed a great attacking partnership with

Sotero Aranguren Sotero Aranguren Labairu (7 May 1894 – 26 February 1922), was an Argentine footballer born in Buenos Aires who spend his youth in Basque Country. He was a midfielder and played most of his career for Real Madrid CF. He and his brother Eulogi ...

and

René Petit Renato Petit de Ory, better known by its French name, René Petit (8 October 1899 – 14 October 1989) was a Franco-Spanish engineer, known for being a footballer in his youth. He was one of the most popular players in Spanish football in the 19 ...

, and the highlight of his career came in the

1917 Copa del Rey The Copa del Rey 1917 was the 17th staging of the Copa del Rey, the Spanish football cup competition. The competition started on 11 March 1917, and concluded on 15 May 1917, with the final, held at the Camp de la Indústria in Barcelona, in which ...

, being one of the most outstanding players in the tournament with a total of four goals, including the winner in the semi-finals against España FC, although he failed to score 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 ...

against Arenas de Getxo as Madrid won 2–1. He also helped the club win three Centro Championships in 1916–17, 1917–18 and 1919–20. He remained loyal to the club until 1920, when the club's board of directors decided that his recent low form did not allow him to continue defending Madrid's colors, and so, he ended up in the neighboring club,

Athletic Madrid Athletic may refer to: * An athlete, a sportsperson * Athletic director, a position at many American universities and schools * Athletic type, a physical/psychological type in the classification of Ernst Kretschmer * Athletic of Philadelphia, a ba ...

, for whom he played for just one season, but his impact at the club was nonetheless pivotal, as he played an important role in the club's first-ever piece of silverware, the 1920–21 Centro Championship. Unfortunately, he did not participate in the subsequent

1921 Copa del Rey The Copa del Rey 1921 was the 21st staging of the Copa del Rey, the Spanish football cup competition. The competition started on 9 April 1921, and concluded on 8 May 1921, with the Final, held at the San Mamés in Bilbao, in which Athletic Bilb ...

campaign, which ended in a 1–4 loss to

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

in the

. At the end of the 1920–21 season, he left for

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 ...

, where he ended his career in the mid-1920s.

International career

Like many other Madrid FC players of that time, he played several matches for the 'Centro' (Madrid area) representative team during the 1910s, being part of the Madrid side that won the 1918 Prince of Asturias Cup, an inter-regional

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...

organized by the

RFEF The Royal Spanish Football Federation ( es, Real Federación Española de Fútbol; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. It is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. It was founded on 14 October 1909 ...

. Sansinenea missed the previous edition in 1917 because the tournament coincided with the 1917 Copa del Rey Final between

and Arenas, which prevented the Madrid national side from using the Madrid FC players, so Sansinenea showed all his class in the 1918 edition, which basically consisted of a two-legged final against Cantabric, and he scored a goal in both games (3–2 and 3–1 victories), thus contributing decisively in the capital side's triumph. With these two goals, he was the joint-top scorer of the tournament alongside

Senén Villaverde Senén Villaverde Lavandera (1896 – 7 April 1950), also known as Villaverde III was a Spanish footballer who played as a forward. His brothers, Saturnino and Fernando, were also footballers and also played for Athletic Club de Madrid. Club ca ...

and teammate

Ramón Olalquiaga Ramón Olalquiaga Borne (30 August 1898 – 31 January 1990), sometimes spelled as Ramón Olalkiaga, was a Spanish footballer who played as a forward for Athletic Madrid, and later a coach, engineer and professor of agronomy. Club career Born ...

Honours

Club

* Centro Championship **Winners (3): 1916–17, 1917–18 and 1919–20 *

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 ...

: **Winners (1):

1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...

;

* Centro Championship: **Champions (1): 1920–21

International

;

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

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 ...

: **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 ...

References

1896 births 1924 deaths Footballers from San Sebastián Spanish footballers Association football forwards Real Madrid CF players Atlético Madrid footballers Real Sociedad footballers {{Spain-footy-forward-stub