Miguel Valdés Padró (13 October 1867 - 5 May 1951) was a Spanish gymnast and

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 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 ...

for

Català FC Català Futbol Club, and later Català Sport Club, was a football team based in Barcelona, Spain, which existed from 1899 until its dissolution in the late 1920s. It was one of the most important entities in the amateur beginnings of football in C ...

and

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

. He was one of the founding members of Català FC in 1899, but immediately moved to city rivals FC Barcelona, which he helped to a win the

1901–02 Copa Macaya The 1901–02 Copa Macaya was the 2nd staging of the Copa Macaya. This tournament is best known for being the very first trophy won by the Spanish club FC Barcelona. The competition was held on the road between 22 December 1901 and ended on 12 Marc ...

, the club's very first piece of silverware. Besides football, he was also an outstanding

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

who also performed in other modalities such as

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

, rowing and gymnastics in the specialty of

weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift Weight training#Equipment, weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various t ...

and

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

. He was also a Spanish businessman, founder, and owner of ''Lotería Valdés'', considered one of the most emblematic and popular lottery administrations in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and FC Barcelona's first unofficial meeting point.

Early life

Born in Barcelona, he began his gymnastics career somewhere in the early 1890s, when he joined the Tolosa gymnasium, which was popular at the time for its innovative system created by Jaime Vila, a native of

Lleida Lleida (, ; Spanish: Lérida ) is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital city of the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It is also the capital city of the Segrià comarca, as ...

who worked at the Tolosa gym as a teacher. He practiced several sports including athletics, where he won several athletic events. He was the first

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

athlete to be timed in the distance of 100 meters, on 18 November 1900 in Barcelona, reaching a mark of 12 seconds. He had also practiced boxing, rowing, and weight lifting.

Footballing career

Football began taking root in the city in the late 1890s, and soon it gained followers among members belonging to the gym, by virtue of being an outdoor activity. As a lover of

sport Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...

and physical culture, he also began practicing this new sport at the

Velódromo de la Bonanova The Velódromo de la Bonanova was a sports venue in the city of Barcelona, Spain. It was the first velodrome in the city, although it was located in the neighboring municipality of San Gervasio, which in 1897 was annexed to the Catalan capital. L ...

, and thus he was one of the founding members of Català FC in October 1899, with Valdés being appointed as the club's

treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

. However, he soon left for another newly founded club, FC Barcelona, where he was one of the first players to wear the club's shirt. His first match with the Barça shirt was the second in the club's history, on the

christmas eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...

of 1899, in a 3-1 victory over his former club, Català. During the first years of

football in Catalonia Football is the most important sport in Catalonia and was introduced in the late 19th century by a combination of mostly British immigrant workers and visiting sailors, and students returning from Britain. Catalonia led the way in the development ...

, FC Barcelona and Català FC had a very strong rivalry and the polemics about who was the first official club of Barcelona (the club dean of the city) finished when the blaugranas proved that they had been the first club to be registered in the civil registry on 29 November, only a few days before Català FC, who did it on 17 December. Together with Joan Gamper,

Arthur Witty Arthur Whitty Cotton, also known as Don Arturo, was a footballer, club president and businessman. Whitty played for FC Barcelona in the first Copa del Rey final and later served as club president between 1903 and 1905. He was also a successful ...

, and John Parsons, he was part of the side that competed in the inaugural edition of the

Copa Macaya The Hispania Athletic Club Tournament–Alfonso Macaya Cup, popularly known as the Copa Macaya, was a football competition contested by clubs from Catalonia which ran from 1900 until 1903, disappearing at the same time of its organizers, Hispania ...

, the very first football competition played on the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

, starting in the decisive match against Hispania AC which ended in a 1–1 draw that proved enough for Hispania to win the title. In the following season, however, Valdés played a crucial role in Barça's first-ever title, the

, being a solid physical presence in the midfield and starting in the tournament's final matchday on 23 March 1902 in a 15–0 victory over his former club. The Copa Macaya is now recognized as the first Catalan championship. At Barça, Valdés played for two seasons as a midfielder, and even though he did not score a single goal for the club, he was known for his skill as a ball retriever. In addition to serving the club on the field, he was also a member of the board of directors as treasurer, thanks to his accounting experience. He was also in charge of preparing the

playing fields A pitch or a sports ground is an outdoor playing area for various sports. The term ''pitch'' is most commonly used in British English, while the comparable term in American and Canadian English is playing field or sports field. For most sports t ...

. Back then, it was impossible to live exclusively out of football, and in Valdés' case, his source of income came from his

tobacconist A tobacconist, also called a tobacco shop, a tobacconist's shop or a smoke shop, is a retailer of tobacco products in various forms and the related accoutrements, such as pipes, lighters, matches, pipe cleaners, and pipe tampers. More specia ...

on La Rambla. In 1905 he received state permission to practice as a lottery, as well as a tobacconist, and thus, in 1905, he founded the ''Loteria Valdés'' at 95 La Rambla de Barcelona. Soon the cramped shop became the unofficial home of the young FC Barcelona, where players, fans, and members of the Board came to chat after dinner. The unusual opening hours of the lottery administration helped these impromptu gatherings. The lottery administration did not close until one in the morning, to take advantage of the euphoria of the wealthy spectators of the Liceu when leaving the night function. In addition, the lottery safe played a key role in the running of the club: it housed the expensive leather foot-balls imported from

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

. The back room of his premises became a warehouse for the club's sports equipment and a meeting point and gathering point for its members, with numerous club meetings being held at his premises on La Rambla. However, discrepancies with his teammates led him to leave FC Barcelona in 1902 to join direct rivals Hispania AC. After a short spell at X FC, he retired from football.

Later life

Later he was a patron of the Unió Atlètica d'Horta, a club where he continued to play occasionally until he was 50 years old. Years later, in 1931, he returned as

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

to FC Barcelona, assuming the vice presidency. The ''Loteria Valdés'' became one of the most popular lottery administrations in the country. In 1946 he handed out the Christmas jackpot, repeating five more times until 1988, in addition to giving four first prizes in the Children's raffle. A bad loser, he got upset the few times that another administration overtook him in sales. On the other hand, he had a very good relationship with Doña Manolita, who ran the oldest lottery administration in Spain. Valdés died on 5 June 1951 at the age of 83 and she died the next day, thus "it seems that they had finally agreed".

Honours

FC Barcelona *

: ** Champions: 1901–02 ** Runner-up: 1900–01

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valdés, Miguel 1867 births 1951 deaths Spanish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders FC Barcelona players Footballers from Barcelona