Eugenio Leal Vargas (born 13 May 1954) is a Spanish former

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

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 ...

. He spent most of his 12-year professional career with Atlético Madrid, appearing in more than 230 competitive games and winning two

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' ...

championships. A Spain international for one year, Leal represented the country at the

1978 World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by t ...

Club career

Born in Carriches, Province of Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha, Leal finished his youth career with Atlético Madrid. After alternating between the first team and the amateur reserves to start with, he was loaned to fellow

team

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, ...

, returning to the

Vicente Calderón Stadium The Vicente Calderón Stadium ( es, Estadio Vicente Calderón ) was the home stadium of Atlético Madrid from its completion in 1966 to 2017, with a seating capacity of 54,907 and located on the banks of the Manzanares, in the Arganzuela distr ...

late into the 1973–74 season to

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

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 footb ...

as the foreign players were not eligible for the tournament. He started playing football as a forward, but manager and former teammate

Luis Aragonés Luis Aragonés Suárez (; 28 July 1938 – 1 February 2014) was a Spanish football player and manager. Aragonés spent the majority of his career as a player and coach at Atlético Madrid. He was a prominent player and then coach of the succe ...

reconverted him in a

. In a

derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

against Real Madrid in 1979, Leal suffered a knee ligament injury following a challenge from Juan Sol from which he never fully recovered. He left the ''Colchoneros'' in June 1982 after only eight games in two years and, after a few months at

CE Sabadell FC Centre d'Esports Sabadell Futbol Club, S.A.D. () is a Spanish football team based in Sabadell, a city in the province of Barcelona in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1903, it plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 2, holdin ...

to help them prevent

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

from Segunda División, which eventually did not befell, he retired at the age of 29. Leal helped Atlético to the

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

and 1977 domestic leagues, contributing a total of 42 matches and four goals to the achievements. After retiring, he settled in Granada and worked as a stockbroker.

International career

Leal earned the first of his 13

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 Ja ...

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 ...

on 16 April 1977, in a 0–1 away loss against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

for the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Six months later, in the same phase and facing the same opponent, he scored in the 2–0 win in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

. Selected to the finals in Argentina by coach

László Kubala László Kubala ( sk, Ladislav Kubala, es, Ladislao Kubala, 10 June 1927 – 17 May 2002) was a Hungarian-Slovak professional footballer who also had Spanish citizenship. He played as a forward for Ferencváros, Slovan Bratislava, Barcelona, ...

, Leal featured in three games in an eventual group stage exit.

International goals

Honours

Atlético Madrid *

: 1972–73, 1976–77 * Copa del Generalísimo: 1975–76 * Intercontinental Cup: 1974

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leal, Eugenio 1954 births Living people Footballers from the Province of Toledo Spanish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Atlético Madrid footballers Sporting de Gijón players CE Sabadell FC footballers Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's amateur international footballers Spain men's international footballers 1978 FIFA World Cup players