Agustín Gajate Vidriales (born 23 March 1958) is a Spanish former professional

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 lea ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. Not a skilled player (he was nicknamed ''Zapatones'' (Big shoes)), he excelled in man-marking, and played for

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

's first team for 15 years.

Club career

Gajate was born in

San Sebastián San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (, ), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border ...

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

. A

youth graduate, he played solely for the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

club, making his first-team debut on 1 January 1978 away against

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

(1–0 win, 90 minutes played); he appeared very rarely for the back-to-back

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

champions – only four matches – as he his favoured position was occupied by another youth graduate, Alberto Górriz, but gradually carved a starting XI niche in place of veteran Inaxio Kortabarria, going on to form an effective centre-back partnership with Górriz. After only missing a total of three games from 1986 to 1988 (adding five goals) as Real won the

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

in one season and finished league runners-up in the other, Gajate retired in June 1992, having appeared in 364 top-flight matches, 469 overall.

International career

Gajate played three times for the Spain under-21 team, also appearing at the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

the nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

exited in the group stage after three draws.

Honours

Real Sociedad *

: 1980–81, 1981–82 *

: 1986–87 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Football in Spain, Spanish football. Founded in 1982 Supercopa de España, 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2 ...

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gajate, Agustin 1958 births Living people 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from San Sebastián Men's association football central defenders La Liga players Tercera División players Real Sociedad B footballers Real Sociedad footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spain men's under-23 international footballers Spain men's amateur international footballers Olympic footballers for Spain Footballers at the 1980 Summer Olympics Basque Country men's international footballers

Club career

International career

Honours

See also

References

External links