Juan María Emery Alza (18 February 1933 – 10 May 2015) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He spent most of his career in the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

, appearing in 204 games over 14 seasons.

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 ...

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...

, Emery began playing professionally with

CD Logroñés Club Deportivo Logroñés, S.A.D. was a Spanish football team based in Logroño, in the autonomous community of La Rioja. Founded in 1940, it last played in ''Regional Preferente de La Rioja''. Due to financial problems, since 2009 the club has ...

, making his

debut in a 2–1 home win over Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa on 7 November 1954. After the club's relegation at the end of his third season, he moved to his hometown side

Real Unión Real Unión Club, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Irun, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa, near the border with France. Founded on 15 May 1915 it currently plays in Primera División RFEF ...

, suffering the same fate in 1959. Subsequently, Emery signed for Deportivo de La Coruña, where he spent a further three campaigns in the second division. He contributed 14 games as his team promoted to

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's ...

in 1962, as champions, but remained in the former tier until his retirement, in representation of

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 ...

, Recreativo de Huelva and Granada CF, before retiring in 1967 after a spell with amateurs Real Jaén. Emery was comparatively short for a goalkeeper at 1.73 m, but was remembered for his quick reflexes.

Personal life

Emery's father,

Antonio Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

, was also a footballer and a goalkeeper, playing mainly for Real Unión. His son, Unai, was 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 ...

who later went into management, notably with Valencia CF and

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA Euro ...

; his elder brother, Román, was also a midfielder, and the two shared teams at Logroñés. Emery died on 10 May 2015 in

Hondarribia Hondarribia ( eu, Hondarribia; es, Fuenterrabía; french: Fontarrabie) is a town situated on the west shore of Bidasoa river's mouth, in Gipuzkoa, in Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, Spain. The border town is situated on a ...

, aged 82.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Emery, Juan 1933 births 2015 deaths Sportspeople from Irun Spanish footballers Footballers from the Basque Country (autonomous community) Association football goalkeepers Segunda División players Tercera División players Deportivo Alavés players Burgos CF (1936) footballers CD Logroñés footballers Real Unión footballers Deportivo de La Coruña players Sporting de Gijón players Recreativo de Huelva players Granada CF footballers Real Jaén footballers Emery family