Julio Alberto Moreno Casas (born 7 October 1958), known as Julio Alberto, 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 left-back. During his professional career he played mainly for

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 ...

and Barcelona, amassing La Liga totals of 269 matches and 11 goals. A Spain international in the mid-to-late 1980s, Julio Alberto represented the nation at the

1986 World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...

and Euro 1984.

Club career

Born in Candás, Asturias, Julio Alberto came through the ranks of

, appearing rarely for the ''Colchoneros'' in his early years and also serving a

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 ...

loan stint with Recreativo de Huelva in 1979–80. Fully promoted to the first team for the following campaign, he totalled 58 La Liga games over the next two seasons, subsequently attracting interest from FC Barcelona. With ''Barça'', the offensive-minded Julio Alberto played a further nine years, with opposed fates: he was a key element in the side's 1985 league conquest and, in the following campaign, scored a stunning goal against Juventus F.C. in the semi-finals of 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 ...

, in a 1–0 home win (eventually 2–1 on aggregate). He would also start in the penalty shootout loss to FC Steaua București 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 ...

. From 1988 to 1991, however, Julio Alberto only appeared in 29 matches as the "Dream Team" was coming to fruition, retiring after only three appearances in the latter season as Barcelona won the national championship.

International career

Julio Alberto earned 34 caps for Spain over four years, and was included in the squad for UEFA Euro 1984 (appearing in all the games for the runners-up) and the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...

. His debut came on 29 February in a

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

leading to Euro 1984, against Luxembourg, and he received the game's only yellow card in a 1–0 away victory.

Post-retirement

After retiring, Julio Alberto fell into a deep depression which led to a severe drug addiction. Eventually he recovered, becoming a lecturer on the subject while he also began assisting former club Barcelona in a community role, working with fans and the foundation.

Honours

Barcelona * La Liga: 1984–85, 1990–91 * Copa del Rey: 1982–83, 1987–88, 1989–90 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

Copa de la Liga The Copa de la Liga (League Cup in Spanish) was a Spanish football tournament created in 1982. Due to time constraints, saturation and club pressure, the competition only lasted four years, being cancelled in 1986. Winning the trophy helped two ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

* UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1988–89 *

runner-up: 1985–86 Spain * UEFA European Championship runner-up:

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Julio Alberto 1958 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Asturias Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Atlético Madrid B players Atlético Madrid footballers Recreativo de Huelva players FC Barcelona players Spain under-21 international footballers Spain under-23 international footballers Spain amateur international footballers Spain B international footballers Spain international footballers UEFA Euro 1984 players 1986 FIFA World Cup players