Francisco Mateo (15 May 1917 - 21 July 1979) was a Spanish-French

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

defender who played as a professional for

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

and

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

. He also was a coach and manager for

RC Strasbourg Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace (commonly known as RC Strasbourg, Racing Straßburg, RCSA, RCS, or simply Strasbourg; Alsatian: ''Füeßbàllmànnschàft Vu Stroßburri'') is a French association football club founded in 1906, based in the c ...

Bio

Mateo was born in

Algeciras Algeciras ( , ) is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. Located in the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, near the Strait of Gibraltar, it is the largest city on the Bay of Gibraltar ( es, Bahía de Algeci ...

. He started his career as a promising youngster playing for a Spanish club in

Tétouan Tétouan ( ar, تطوان, tiṭwān, ber, ⵜⵉⵟⵟⴰⵡⴰⵏ, tiṭṭawan; es, Tetuán) is a city in northern Morocco. It lies along the Martil Valley and is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea, a few miles so ...

, Morocco and quickly attracted the attention of the biggest clubs in the Spanish mainland, joining

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 ...

and then

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 ...

before the outbreak of the

Spanish civil war The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

. Mateo chose the

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

side, spending most of the war in

. Towards the end of the conflict, he was imprisoned due to his political leanings but was released on the insistence of the

Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux (), commonly referred to as Girondins de Bordeaux ( oc, Girondins de Bordèu) or simply Bordeaux, is a French professional football club based in the city of Bordeaux in Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The ...

and was therefore able to emigrate to France shortly before the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In Bordeaux, Mateo played for the Girondins in a local league as the French Championship had been disbanded due to the war. He also met his wife, an Alsatian who had been evacuated to south-west France in 1939. When the war was terminated, he accompanied his wife back to Alsace and quickly joined

where he played until the end of the decade, reaching the final of the cup in 1947. After the end of his playing career, Mateo continued as a youth coach for RC Strasbourg where he taught the likes of

Gilbert Gress Gilbert Gress (born 17 December 1941) is a French football coach and a former player. He was the mentor of Arsène Wenger. Club career Gress was born in Strasbourg. He began his professional football career in the city of his birth with RC St ...

Gérard Hausser Gérard Hausser (born 18 March 1939 in Strasbourg) is a former French footballer. During his career he played for RC Strasbourg (1959–67, 1971–74), Karlsruher SC (1967–68), and FC Metz (1968–71). He earned 14 caps and scored two goals f ...

Albert Gemmrich Albert Gemmrich (born 13 February 1955) is a French former professional footballer who played as a striker. He obtained five caps scoring twice for the France national team. Career statistics :''Scores and results list France's goal tally firs ...

Léonard Specht Léonard Specht (born 16 April 1954) is a French 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, America ...

. He was responsible for the first team between October 1970 and June 1971 but was not able to save Strasbourg from relegation. He died in 1979, shortly after Strasbourg's first and only championship crown.

References

External links

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Racingstub profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mateo, Francisco 1917 births 1979 deaths Association football defenders Spanish footballers La Liga players FC Barcelona players RC Strasbourg Alsace players FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Sevilla FC players Valencia CF players Ligue 1 players Spanish football managers RC Strasbourg Alsace managers