Francisco Liaño Fernández (born 16 November 1964) 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 lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. Although he represented four clubs during 15 years as a senior, his professional career was closely associated to Deportivo, during their rise to ''Super Depor'' in the early 1990s. He also won two Zamora Trophy awards.

Club career

Racing

Born in Santander,

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

, Liaño began his football career at hometown's Racing de Santander, where he made his first-team – and

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 ...

– debut on 9 September 1984. He spent six seasons at the club, successively backing up two fellow youth products, Pedro Alba and José María Ceballos. In his last season with Racing, 1989–90, with the side now in the second division, Liaño only played once in the league, also being relegated. He then transferred to another club in the third level, Sestao Sport Club, where he won his first Ricardo Zamora Trophy, conceding only 28 goals in 38 games as the team finished in eighth position.

Deportivo

Liaño signed for

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña () or simply Depor, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, that competes in the Segunda División, the ...

in the summer of 1991. Initially he was a backup to Juan Canales, but the latter suffered an injury prior to the start of the season and Liaño played the opening ten matches of the campaign. Both went down with injury later in the season, which prompted third-choice Yosu's promotion to starting duties for 11 contests. Although Canales returned to finish the campaign as number one, he again suffered an injury prior to 1992–93, which gave Liaño another chance in the first team. Now, the team's performances were such that he never lost his status again, winning two consecutive Zamora as Deportivo qualified for the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

for the first time in its history, after finishing third. In the following year, he set a first division record by conceding only 18 goals in 38 games – the lowest goals-to-games ratio in the league's history (along with Jan Oblak in 2015–16 season) – and won his second individual trophy, but the

Galicians Galicians ( or ''pobo galego''; ) are an ethnic group primarily residing in Galicia, northwest Iberian Peninsula. Historical emigration resulted in populations in other parts of Spain, Europe, and the Americas. Galicians possess distinct cu ...

finished second behind free-scoring

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

. In this season, he also became the most goalkeeper to achieve a clean sheet in one season in the history of

, with 26 clean sheets (alongside Marc-André ter Stegen in 2022–23 season). Liaño missed three months of the 1994–95 season through injury, but he was able to help Deportivo win 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 ...

, the first trophy in the club's history.

John Toshack John Benjamin Toshack (born 22 March 1949) is a Welsh former professional football player and manager. He began his playing career as a teenager with his hometown club Cardiff City, becoming the youngest player to make an appearance for the ...

was named as Deportivo's new manager for 1995–96, and he named Canales as his first-choice; after he conceded ten goals in the first seven matches, the Welsh coach decided to reinstate Liaño, who finished the campaign as ''Depor'' ranked ninth.

Later years

Following the arrivals of Petr Kouba and Jacques Songo'o in the summer of 1996, 31-year-old Liaño joined

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting is a Spanish professional association football, football club from Gijón, Principality of Asturias. Founded on 1 July 1905, it plays in the ...

on a free transfer. He spent two seasons with the

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

club before retiring, but he made only two league appearances, being barred by legendary Juan Carlos Ablanedo.

References

External links

*
Biography at Riazor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liano, Francisco 1964 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Santander, Spain Men's association football goalkeepers La Liga players Segunda División players Racing de Santander players Sestao Sport Club footballers Deportivo de La Coruña players Sporting de Gijón players People from Camargo, Cantabria 20th-century Spanish sportsmen