Salvador Martínez Surroca (8 February 1901 - 21 August 1974) was a Spanish

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 as a defender for

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. Found ...

Club career

Born in the

Region of Murcia The Region of Murcia (, ; es, Región de Murcia ), is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain located in the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast. The region is in ...

, he moved to

Sant Just Desvern Sant Just Desvern (; ) is a town near Barcelona, in the ''comarca'' of the Baix Llobregat, Catalonia, Spain. Sant Just Desvern is located in the 2,078317º of longitude and 41,381611º of latitude. It is situated at 122 m (average) above se ...

when he was still a child. Surroca began his career with

in 1920, being a member of a legendary Barcelona team, coached by

Jack Greenwell John Richard Greenwell (2 January 1884 – 20 November 1942) was an English football manager and former player. He is Barcelona's longest serving manager, having coached the club for ten consecutive seasons (initially as player-coach, then as m ...

, that also included

Paulino Alcántara Paulino Alcántara Riestrá (7 October 1896 – 13 February 1964) was a football player and manager who played as a forward. Born in the Philippines, he spent most of his playing career at Barcelona, and also represented Catalonia, the Philipp ...

, Sagibarba,

Ricardo Zamora Ricardo Zamora Martínez (; 14 February 1901 – 8 September 1978) was a Spanish footballer and manager. He played as a goalkeeper for, among others, RCD Espanyol, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. As an international he played for both the Cata ...

and

Josep Samitier Josep Samitier Vilalta (; 2 February 1902 – 4 May 1972), also known as José Samitier, was a Spanish football player, manager and scout who played as a midfielder for FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, OGC Nice, the Catalan XI, and Spain. He lat ...

. During his time at the club he helped them win three Championat de Catalunya titles (1921–22, 1923–24 and 1925–26) and three

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 footb ...

(

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Itali ...

and

1926 Events January * January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece. * January 8 **Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz. ** Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne, the last monarch of Viet ...

). Because of the existence of his teammate Vicente Martínez, he become known in the football world by his last name, Surroca, from a very early age, which was very uncommon among the

Catalans Catalans (Catalan, French and Occitan: ''catalans''; es, catalanes, Italian: ''catalani'', sc, cadelanos) are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citize ...

. He occupied the defensive position, where he stood out for his forcefulness, of which he gave plenty of evidence, for example, during the 1922 Copa del Rey Final held on 14 May 1922 at

Campo de Coia Campo de Coia () was a sporting venue in Coia, Vigo, Spain, which was the home ground of Celta Vigo, and its predecessor Vigo Sporting Club, between 9 February 1908 and December 1928. On 14 May 1922, it hosted the 1922 Copa del Rey Final between ...

, in which with six minutes left in the game, Surroca brought down

Real Unión Real Unión Club, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Irun, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa, near the border with France. Founded on 15 May 1915 it currently plays in Primera División RFE ...

player Patricio in the area, prompting a monumental brawl, which including a field invasion, with the match being suspended for more than twenty minutes, causing a great scandal. In the end, Barça prevailed with a resounding 5–1 victory. In 1926 he joined FC Lleida and in 1927 CE Manresa. In 1929 Surroca won a position as a teacher and moved to the town of El Talladell, in the province of Lleida. There he combined his teaching work with the practice of amateur football in the team of FC Tàrrega, playing with them for three years between 1929 and 1932. During this last campaign, he won the Lleida provincial championship.

International career

Like many other FC Barcelona players of that time, Surroca played several matches for the Catalonia national team, and he was part of the team that won the

1923–24 Prince of Asturias Cup The 1923–24 Prince of Asturias Cup was the sixth tournament of the Prince of Asturias Cup, which is an inter-regional football competition contested by the regional selections of Spain. The pre-favourites to win were the Catalan team because a ...

, an inter-regional

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indiv ...

organized by the

RFEF The Royal Spanish Football Federation ( es, Real Federación Española de Fútbol; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. It is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. It was founded on 14 October 1909 ...

. Surroca started in the final against a Madrid XI and conceded 4 goals in a 4–4 draw, which cost him his place to the team's backup defender, Joaquín Montané, who started in the second leg as Catalonia won 3–2, thus lifting the trophy for the third time in the team's history.

Honours

Club

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 ...

* Catalan Championships: **Winners (4) 1920–21, 1921–22, 1923–24 and 1925–26 *

: **Winners (3)

and

International

;

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

Prince of Asturias Cup The Prince of Asturias Cup (, ) was an inter-regional football competition contested by the regional selections of Spain – selections of players from clubs from the region in question, meaning that players did not need to be native to the region ...

: *Champions (1): 1923–24

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Surroca, Salvador 1901 births 1974 deaths Footballers from the Region of Murcia Spanish men's footballers Men's association football defenders FC Barcelona players Lleida Esportiu footballers CE Manresa players UE Tàrrega players Catalonia men's international footballers