José Luis Ortiz Peláez (19 March 1931 – 17 January 2001), more commonly known as Pepe Ortiz was a Spanish 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 ...

who played his entire career for

Real Gijón Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (201 ...

as a

right winger 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 ...

attacking 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 ...

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 ...

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 community in northwest Spain. It is coextensiv ...

, Ortiz firstly played in several teams of the city before joining

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, ...

, in that years named as ''Real Gijón'', in 1949 at the age of 18. He played is entire career with the ''rojiblancos'' achieving two promotions to the top tier in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

and

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

. Ortiz became famous in 1961 when Real Gijón, after the end of the

1960–61 Segunda División The 1960–61 Segunda División season was the 30th since its establishment and was played between 10 September 1960 and 30 April 1961. Overview before the season 32 teams joined the league, including two relegated from the 1959–60 La Liga and ...

was relegated to the third division after losing the relegation playoffs against

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of ...

. Weeks later, the resignation of Condal to continue playing in the second tier allowed Sporting to play a repechage playoff against

Sevilla Atlético Sevilla Atlético is a Spanish football team based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1950, it is the reserve team of Sevilla FC. It plays in Segunda Federación, and holds home games at '' Estadio Jesús Navas'', w ...

and Castellón. In the first match, Sporting tied 3–3 against Castellón. The winner of the match would be decided by a

coin toss A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...

. After winning the two previous coin tosses during the match, choosing tails in both, captain Pepe Ortiz decided to choose again tails, and Sporting became the winner of the game, thus avoiding the relegation of the club for the first time ever. After his retirement, Ortiz continued vinculated to Sporting Gijón, acting as delegate until 1995, when he retires. Placa Pepe Ortiz

On 17 January 2001, Ortiz died. Three days later after his death, the main pitch of the Escuela de Fútbol de Mareo, the club's academy, was renamed to pay tribute to him and also a street was named as him in Ceares, his home neighbourhood.

UC Ceares Unión Club Ceares is a Spanish football team based in the neighbourhood of Ceares, Gijón, in the autonomous community of Asturias. Founded in 1946, it plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 1, holding home games at ''Campo de La Cruz'', whic ...

named their summer trophy ''Memorial Pepe Ortiz'', considering him the best footballer in the history of the neighbourhood.

References

External links

Pepe Ortiz
at Aranda Arquitectos * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ortiz, Pepe 1931 births Footballers from Gijón Spanish footballers La Liga players Segunda División players Sporting de Gijón players 2001 deaths Association football forwards

Club career

See also

References

External links