Manuel Argüelles Sánchez (9 July 1897-10 December 1958) 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

Gijón Gijón () or () is a city and municipality in north-western Spain. It is the largest city and municipality by population in the autonomous community of Asturias. It is located on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea in the Bay of Biscay, in the cent ...

, he began to play football at the youth ranks of his hometown club Sportiva Gijonesa, for he played until 1913, when at the age of just 16, he joined

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 ...

, featuring alongside the likes of the Villaverde brothers (

Fernando Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. It is equivalent to the G ...

and Senén). After 14 seasons with the club (1913–1927), he left for

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 which he played just one season before retiring.

International career

Because he was a

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 ...

player, he was eligible to play for the Cantabric national team, a side consisting of players from the provinces of

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 ...

and

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

, and in 1917, he was summoned by them to represent them at the 1917 Prince of Asturias Cup, an official 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 ...

. Argüelles was included in the Spain national team for the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games. However, he requested a voluntary withdrawal in order to return to

. Without him, Spain was eliminated in the quarter-finals by the eventual champions

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. Like many other

players, he was summoned to play for the Asturias national team several times, 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, Argüelles was the author of one of the consolation goals. 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 after beating

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,

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 Galicia 3–1 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 ...

Goals for Asturias

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

Honours

Club

International

; Cantabric *

: **Runner-up (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 ...

;

*Prince of Asturias Cup: **Champions (1):

1922–23 Prince of Asturias Cup The 1922–23 Prince of Asturias Cup was the fifth tournament of the Prince of Asturias Cup, which is an inter-regional football competition contested by the regional selections of Spain. The pre-favourites to win were the Catalan team because ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Argüelles, Manuel 1897 births 1958 deaths Footballers from Gijón Spanish men's footballers Spain men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Real Oviedo players Atlético Madrid footballers