Francisco "Paco" Bienzobas Ocáriz (26 March 1909 – 30 April 1981) 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 le ...

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 ...

. Having spent most of his 16-year career with

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

– 196 official games and 109 goals – he was the first player to win the

Pichichi Trophy In Spanish football, the Trofeo Pichichi is awarded by the sports newspaper '' Marca'' to the top goalscorer of each La Liga season. Named after the Athletic Bilbao striker Rafael "Pichichi" Moreno, the trophy has been awarded annually since the ...

award, given to the top scorer in La Liga.

Club career

Born in

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

, Gipuzkoa, Bienzobas arrived at local

at the age of 17 from amateurs Unión Deportiva de San Sebastián, helping the

Basques The Basques ( or ; eu, euskaldunak ; es, vascos ; french: basques ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Bas ...

win the regional championship in his first year. He reached his first Copa del Rey final with the former in

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...

, facing FC Barcelona in three games (two 1–1 draws and a 1–3 loss). In

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

, a national league was created and Real Sociedad participated in La Liga's first edition, finishing fourth out of the ten teams competing. Bienzobas scored 17 goals during the season, being the first player to be crowned Pichichi; he spent a further four years with the club. In 1934, Bienzobas joined CA Osasuna, at the time in

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 ...

, helping the

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

se club immediately achieve promotion, only to be being relegated back the next season. The Spanish Civil War put a stop to his career for three years and subsequently he returned to Real Sociedad in 1940, retiring from football at the end of 1941–42 (aged 33) after making only five appearances during the campaign. He amassed Spanish top division totals of 92 games and 50 goals, and overall totals of 196 games and 109 goals for Real Sociedad. He was a penalty specialist, failing to convert only one of 75 spot kicks in his career.

International career

Bienzobas appeared for Spain on two occasions, scoring as many goals. His debut came on 4 June 1928, as the national team lost 1–7 against Italy in the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

Coaching and refereeing

After his retirement, Bienzobas worked briefly as a manager with Osasuna. In 1942 he began a

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

in a spell that would eventually feature him in 48 Spanish top flight games, his debut coming in 1948.

Personal life

Paco Bienzobas had two brothers who were also footballers: the older Custodio, a forward, was a teammate at Real Sociedad for two seasons; the younger Anastasio (Cuqui), a midfielder, also started his career at the ''Txuriurdin'' club but became established at Osasuna where he was joined by Paco, and after the Spanish Civil War was a regular in the team at Deportivo La Coruña for most of the 1940s. He died on 30 April 1981, a day after being informed that Real Sociedad had finally won La Liga for the first time.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bienzobas, Paco 1909 births 1981 deaths Spanish footballers Footballers from San Sebastián Association football forwards La Liga players Real Sociedad footballers CA Osasuna players Spain international footballers Olympic footballers of Spain Footballers at the 1928 Summer Olympics Spanish football managers CA Osasuna managers Pichichi Trophy winners Spanish football referees Segunda División players Basque Country international footballers