Antonio Sánchez de Neyra Castro (16 March 1884 – Unknown) 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
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 ...
for
Madrid FC
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 ...
,
Club Español de Madrid
Club Español de Madrid was a Spanish football club based in Madrid. The club was originally formed in 1901 after a conflict between Sky Football members caused some of them to leave and create a new club. Español de Madrid collapsed in the summ ...
and
RCD Espanyol
Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...
.
He was one of the most important footballers in the amateur beginnings of
Madrid FC
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 ...
, being one of the main architects of the team's rise to national dominance in the 1900s. He was one of the members of the first Board of Directors of Madrid FC presided by
Juan Padrós
Juan Padrós Rubió (1 December 1869 – 11 May 1932) was a Spanish businessman who was recognised as the 2nd official President of Real Madrid.
He first took office on 6 March 1902, about 2 years after Real Madrid was created. Juan Padros Rea ...
in the club's official establishment on 6 March 1902.
Outstanding goalscorer and a skillful dribbler, he reached the final of the
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 ...
numerous times with three different clubs, becoming over the years one of the footballers who added the most presences in finals, but only won one. Despite being an outstanding football player, a sport to which he owes his career, he was also an outstanding
athlete
An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance.
Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...
who also performed in other modalities such as
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
,
cycling
Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...
,
swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
,
gymnastics
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...
, and
discus throw
The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...
ing among others, even participating in the
Spanish Athletics Championships
The Spanish Athletics Championships ( es, Campeonato de España de atletismo) is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA), which serves as the Spanish national championship for the spo ...
.
His brother
Pedro Sánchez de Neyra Castro, was one of the founders and the first president of the
Spanish Football Federation
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 ...
in 1909 as well as the first president of the
Spanish Velocipedism Federation in 1896.
Biography
Neyra was born in
La Habana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. ,
Captaincy General of Cuba, in Cuba, because his father, the cavalry colonel Don Antonio Sánchez de Neyra Romero, was stationed there, when the country was under the sovereignty of the
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
. They moved to
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 ...
when he was still young. In Madrid, he was part of the
Sky Foot-ball club, the first club that existed in the capital. However, in 1900, a new conflict between Sky Football members caused some of them to leave (including Neyra) and create a new club, Madrid Football Club, currently known as
Real Madrid CF
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 worn ...
, with the official creation of the club being held on 6 March 1902 in the back room of Al Capricho. Neyra was present that day and became a member of the first Board of Directors of Madrid FC presided by
Juan Padrós
Juan Padrós Rubió (1 December 1869 – 11 May 1932) was a Spanish businessman who was recognised as the 2nd official President of Real Madrid.
He first took office on 6 March 1902, about 2 years after Real Madrid was created. Juan Padros Rea ...
.
[
He then become one of the first footballers of the newly formed ]Madrid FC
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 ...
at the age of just 18, playing as a 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 ...
.[ Together with ]Pedro Parages
Pedro Parages Diego-Madrazo (17 December 1883 – 15 February 1950) was a Franco-Spanish footballer, manager, and the 5th President of Real Madrid from July 1916 until 16 May 1926. During his mandate, Madrid FC received the Royal title (''Real' ...
, Federico Revuelto
Federico Revuelto (born 1883) was a Guatemalan footballer who played for the Madrid Football Club from 1902 to 1912.
Biography
Federico Revuelto was born in Cuyotenango, Suchitepéquez, Guatemala in 1883.
Revuelto initially started playi ...
and the Giralt brothers (Mario
is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the ''Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creat ...
, José
José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ).
In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...
and Armando), he was part of the historic Madrid team that played in the first-ever 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 ...
in 1903, and it was he who netted the opening goal 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 ...
although they lost 2–3 to Athletic Club.
Despite some encouraging first steps in the white club, it was possibly the fact of losing the 1903 Cup final that caused a convulsive situation within the entity that led to the departure of several of its founding members, including he and Armando Giralt, abandoning Madrid FC in October 1903 to refound Club Español de Madrid
Club Español de Madrid was a Spanish football club based in Madrid. The club was originally formed in 1901 after a conflict between Sky Football members caused some of them to leave and create a new club. Español de Madrid collapsed in the summ ...
(the club had already been founded in 1901, but collapsed in the summer of 1903) and of which he was named captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
. It was common at the time for players to leave their respective teams to join or found others due to the still dispersed and confusing growth of football, in fact, some of the others departures marched to found the Moncloa Football Club
The Moncloa Football Club was a football team based in Madrid, Spain, which was founded in April 1902 and dissolved in 1907 after being absorbed by Madrid FC. Moncloa FC was only the third football club to have been founded in the Spanish capital, ...
. Under Neyra's leadership, Español de Madrid won the second Centro Championships in 1903–04, hence becoming the second regional champions in Spain after Moderno Football Club who had won the inaugural edition in 1903. In the 1904 Copa del Rey, Español de Madrid was unable to participate 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 ...
, and so, Athletic were declared winners again.
He stayed loyal to Español de Madrid for three years, until 1906, when he saw that it was the "madridistas" - a nickname that would come years later - who began to have a notable growth both institutionally and sportingly, so he returned to the club that he had left in 1903, and participated in Madrid's 1907 and 1908 Copa del Rey winning campaigns, missing 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 ...
of the former, but redeeming himself by being the top scorer in the 1908 edition thanks to his goal in the 1908 final against Vigo Sporting, which ended in a 2–1 win.
In 1908, he headed back to Español, and from there to another back-to-back Copa del Rey finals in 1909
Events
January–February
* January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.
* January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
* Januar ...
and 1910, Neyra's third and fourth in a row, but unlike in Madrid, both finals ended in losses, first to Club Ciclista
Club may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Club (magazine), ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands a ...
in 1909 final and then to 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 ...
in the 1910 final (FEF), and remarkably, he lost the latter in a similar fashion to 1903: being 2–0 up at half-time just to ended up on the losing side 2–3. Neyra then reached a fifth final in a row, now with RCD Espanyol
Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...
, and just like in 1903, he lost to Athletic Club despite scoring in a 1–3 loss. It was in this club where the news of his sports activity was interrupted, suggesting he retired no long after that.
Honours
Club
Club Español de Madrid
Club Español de Madrid was a Spanish football club based in Madrid. The club was originally formed in 1901 after a conflict between Sky Football members caused some of them to leave and create a new club. Español de Madrid collapsed in the summ ...
* Centro Championship:
**Champions (1): 1903–04
*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 ...
:
**Runner-up (3): 1904, 1909
Events
January–February
* January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.
* January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
* Januar ...
and 1910
-
Madrid FC
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 ...
* Centro Championship:
**Champions (1): 1906–07 and 1907–08
*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 ...
:
**Champions (2): 1907 and 1908
**Runner-up (1): 1903
-
RCD Espanyol
Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...
*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 ...
:
**Runner-up (1): 1911
A notable ongoing event was the Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott Expeditions, race for the South Pole.
Events January
* January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ...
See also
* List of Real Madrid CF players
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol is a professional association football club based in Madrid, Spain, that plays in La Liga. The club was formed in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, and played its first competitive match on 13 May 1902, when it entered the ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neyra, Antonio
1880s births
20th-century deaths
Emigrants from Spanish Cuba to Spain
Sportspeople from Havana
Spanish footballers
Cuban footballers
Footballers from Madrid
Men's association football forwards
Real Madrid CF players
RCD Espanyol footballers
Year of death unknown
Date of death missing