Rafael García Cortés (born 18 January 1958) is a Spanish retired

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 defender. He amassed

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 ...

totals of 312 games and 24 goals, having played mainly for

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

and

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

Club career

Born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, García Cortés competed in 12

seasons during his 16-year professional career, having started with

Real Madrid Castilla Real Madrid Castilla Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team that plays in Primera Federación – Group 1 for the 2022–23 season. It is Real Madrid's reserve team. They play their home games at the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium with a cap ...

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 ...

. In the top flight he represented

(three and a half years),

Burgos CF Burgos Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded in 1985, it started to play in 1994. It currently plays in Segunda División, holding home matches at the ''Esta ...

( one season, loaned),

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

(four and a half seasons, having arrived at the club in January 1983),

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, S.A.D. (, ca, Reial Club Deportiu Mallorca , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or just Mallorca is a Spanish professional football club based in Palma on the island of Majorca in ...

(two years) and

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. Rayo was founded on 29 May 1924, and currently compete in La Lig ...

( 1992–93), retiring at the age of 35 with the latter.Rafael García Cortés: "Mi disparo con la zurda venía de serie, no hice pesas en mi vida" (Rafael García Cortés: "My left-foot shot came from doing it again and again, I never lifted a weight in my life")

El Periódico de Aragón ''El Periódico de Aragón'' is an Aragonese daily newspaper, founded in Zaragoza, on 23 October 1990 by Juancho Dumall. It is published by the Grupo Zeta and whose information focuses primarily on Section Aragon, Opinion and Sports. History '' ...

, 26 January 2015 (in Spanish) García Cortés competed in the

1980–81 European Cup The 1980–81 European Cup was the 26th season of the European Cup football club tournament, and was won for a third time by Liverpool, who beat six-time champions Real Madrid in the final. In the 11 seasons up to and including this one, there wer ...

with Real Madrid – during his spell at the

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium ( es, Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, ) is a football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a current seating capacity of 81,044, it has been the home stadium of Real Madrid since its completion in 1947. It is the second-larg ...

, he was part of the team dubbed ''Madrid of the Garcías''– appearing in four matches and starting in three: 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 ...

against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, his 82nd-minute mistake whilst attempting a clearance enabled

Alan Kennedy Alan Kennedy (born 31 August 1954) is an English former professional footballer who played the majority of his career as a left back for Newcastle United and then Liverpool. He was a stalwart member of the latter team that won many honours f ...

to score the game's only goal in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. After retiring, García Cortés returned to Real as youth system coordinator.García Cortés: "El equipo ha ganado en poderío defensivo" (García Cortés: "Team is more powerful defensively")
Real Madrid CF, 23 February 2009 (in Spanish)

Honours

Real Madrid *

: 1978–79 *

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

: 1981–82 Zaragoza *

: 1985–86

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia Cortes, Rafael 1958 births Living people Footballers from Madrid Spanish men's footballers Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players Burgos CF (1936) footballers Real Zaragoza players RCD Mallorca players Rayo Vallecano players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spain men's under-23 international footballers Spain men's amateur international footballers Spanish football managers La Liga managers CD Tenerife managers