Juan Carlos Vidal Cruz (born 25 September 1954) is a Spanish former professional

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 midfielder.

Career

Club

Born in Bilbao, Biscay,

Basque Country Basque Country may refer to: * Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map) * French Basque Country o ...

, Vidal played 145 matches in La Liga between 1972 and 1982, starting his career at hometown club

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 ...

where he was not a first choice and suffered with injuries; he was loaned to second-tier Deportivo Alavés for the full 1976–77 season, meaning he took no part in Athletic's run to two major finals in the campaign. He featured in the UEFA Cup with Athletic, including in a tie against AFC Ajax in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

where he 'scored' a goal which should not have been awarded: his shot struck the outside of the supporting stanchion and rebounded onto the field of play in a similar manner to a legitimate goal earlier in the match, and was mistakenly given by the referee (Ajax won the tie in any case). Vidal then became an important member of the team at Hércules following an 8 million Ptas transfer in 1979, suffering relegation in his final season with the

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in th ...

outfit in 1981–82. He is the only person to have played for both of his main clubs who scored goals for each against the other, finding the net for Athletic in 1975 and Hércules in 1981.

International

Vidal was never selected for the Spanish national team at any level. He did play in one

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

for the unofficial Basque Country representative team against the USSR in 1978.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vidal, Juan Carlos 1954 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Bilbao Association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Tercera División players Bilbao Athletic footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers Deportivo Alavés players Hércules CF players Basque Country international footballers