Ramón Moreno Grosso (8 December 1943 – 13 February 2002) was a Spanish

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 ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. He spent 12

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 ...

seasons with

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 ...

, appearing in 366 competitive matches (75 goals scored) and winning 11 major titles, including the 1966 European Cup.

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 ...

, Grosso reached

's youth system at the age of 15. He returned after a short loan at neighbouring

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

where in was instrumental in avoiding relegation from

in the 1963–64 season, going on to remain 12 years 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 ...

. Even though his teammates included the likes of

Amancio Amaro Amancio Amaro Varela, (born 16 October 1939), commonly known simply as Amancio, is a Spanish former football player. Nicknamed ''El Brujo'' (The Magician) he played outside right for Deportivo de La Coruña, Real Madrid, and the Spain nationa ...

Francisco Gento Francisco "Paco" Gento López (21 October 1933 – 18 January 2022) was a Spanish footballer who played as an outside left. He was voted by IFFHS (International Federation of Football History and Statistics) as the greatest Spanish footballer ...

Ferenc Puskás Ferenc Puskás (, ; born Ferenc Purczeld; 1 April 1927 – 17 November 2006) was a Hungarian football player and manager, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the sport's first international superstar. A forward, ...

, Grosso was team top scorer in his first two seasons, scoring 17 goals from 28 appearances in 1964–65 and 11 in 29 in

the following ''The Following'' is an American crime thriller television series created by Kevin Williamson, and jointly produced by Outerbanks Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television. The first season follows former FBI agent Ryan Hardy ( Kevin Bacon) ...

. He made his debut in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

on 23 September 1964, scoring in the 5–2 away win over

Boldklubben 1909 Boldklubben 1909, known as B1909, is a Danish association football club currently playing in the Denmark Series. They play at Gillested Park in Odense on Funen, which has a capacity of 6,000. Founded in 1909, the club spent a total 38 seasons ...

. In the following years, Grosso played in several positions for Real Madrid, even being placed as

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

in the

Ramón de Carranza Trophy The Ramón de Carranza Trophy ( es, Trofeo Ramón de Carranza) is a pre-season football tournament organised by Cádiz City Hall, in memory of its former mayor, Ramón de Carranza – after whom the Cádiz F.C. stadium used to be named as well ...

match against

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

. For his "team-first" approach he was eventually dubbed ''Obrero'' (

worker The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual labour, manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via wage, waged or salary, salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also "Designation ...

), and he left his main club in June 1976 at the age of 32, retiring from football subsequently. Grosso continued to work with Real in the following decades, as a manager: he started in the youth sides, then worked as head coach 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 ...

in two separate

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 ...

campaigns (23 games in 1986–87 and one in 1996–97, suffering relegation in the latter), and finally as assistant to the main squad; on 24 March 1991, following the dismissal of

Alfredo Di Stéfano Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxon name Alfred and a common Italian, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name. People with the given name include: *Alfredo (born 1946), Brazilian footballer born as Alfredo Mostarda Filho ...

and before the appointment of

Radomir Antić Radomir Antić ( sr-Cyrl, Радомир Антић, ; 22 November 1948 – 6 April 2020) was a Serbian professional football manager and player. Following a 17-year playing career as a defender, most of which he spent playing at Partizan, wit ...

, he acted as

interim An interim is a period of temporary pause or change in a sequence of events, or a temporary state, and is often applied to transitional political entities. Interim may also refer to: Temporary organizational arrangements (general concept) *Provis ...

to the latter in a 1–1 home draw with

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 ...

International career

Grosso won 14

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in three years. His debut occurred on 1 February 1967 in a 0–0 draw against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

at the

Ali Sami Yen Stadium Ali Sami Yen Stadium ( tr, Ali Sami Yen Stadyumu) was the home of the football club Galatasaray S.K. in Istanbul, Turkey, from 1964 to 2010. It is named after the founder of the club, Ali Sami Yen. The stadium had a capacity of 23,477 (all-seater) ...

for the

UEFA Euro 1968 The 1968 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Italy. This was the third UEFA European Championship, an event held every four years and organised by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 5 and 10 June 1968. It ...

qualifiers, and he scored in the second contest between the two teams, a 2–0 victory in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

International goals

Death

After a long battle with cancer, Grosso died on 13 February 2002 in his hometown of Madrid, aged 58. He was survived by his wife Amparo and five children, including the oldest María Ángela, who married Real Madrid player Paco Llorente.

Honours

Real Madrid *

: 1964–65, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1971–72, 1974–75, 1975–76 *

Copa del Generalísimo 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 footb ...

: 1969–70, 1973–74, 1974–75 *

: 1965–66

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grosso, Ramon 1943 births 2002 deaths Spanish footballers Footballers from Madrid Association football forwards Association football utility players La Liga players Tercera División players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Atlético Madrid footballers Real Madrid CF players UEFA Champions League winning players Spain amateur international footballers Spain B international footballers Spain international footballers Competitors at the 1963 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in football Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Spain Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División managers Real Madrid Castilla managers Real Madrid CF managers