Francisco Pagazaurtundua González-Murrieta (22 October 1894 – 18 November 1958), better known as Pagaza, 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 lea ...

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) ** Smal ...

. He was a member of the Spanish team that won the silver medal in the

1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (; ; ), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (; ; ) and commonly known as Antwerp 1920 (; Dutch language, Dutch and German language, German: ''Antwerpen 1920''), were an international multi-sport event held i ...

as well as a

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 ...

winner with

Arenas Club de Getxo Arenas Club de Getxo is a Spanish football club based in the town of Getxo, near Bilbao, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1909, it currently plays in , holding home games at Campo Municipal de Gobela, with a 2,000-se ...

Club career

Born in

Santurtzi Santurtzi (; ) is a port of Bilbao, port town in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, Spain. It is located in the Bilbao Abra bay, near the mouth of the Nervión river, on it ...

to an architect and a piano teacher, Pagaza began playing football at Colegio Orduña and during his time as a student in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He began his career with Arenas Club in 1912, where he stood as a phenomenal winger, so he was signed by Athletic Club de Madrid in 1916. After two years he returned to Arenas in 1918, where he played a pivotal role in helping the club win the

Biscay Championship The Biscay Regional Championship ''(Campeonato Regional de Vizcaya)'', also called the North Regional Championship ''(Campeonato Regional Norte)'' in its early editions, was an official football tournament in Spain organised by the North Footbal ...

and the

1919 Events January * January 1 ** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (later Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia. ** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off th ...

, starting in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

as Arenas defeated the powerful

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 ...

5-2. At that time living exclusively out of football wasn't easy, and therefore he had a second job, working in the harbor of Santander, which is why he signed for

Real Racing Club de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Spain, Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spani ...

in 1920. He also spent a season at

Gimnástica de Torrelavega Real Sociedad Gimnástica de Torrelavega is a Spanish football team based in Torrelavega, in the autonomous community of Cantabria. Founded on 28 September 1907 it is the oldest football club in the region, and currently plays in , holding home ...

and

Racing Club de Madrid Racing Madrid 1914 Fútbol Club (officially Sección de Acción Deportiva Racing Ciudad de Madrid) is a Spanish football league teams, Spanish football team based in Madrid. Founded in 1914, they play in . The club was originally known as Racing C ...

, finishing his career with the latter in 1928.

International career

Being an Arenas Club player, he was eligible to play for the Biscay representative team, and he was one of the eleven footballers that played in the team's first-ever game on 13 December 1914 against fellow Basques

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 ...

, held at San Mamés, and Pagaza scored the winning goal in a 2-1 victory. During this time he was also summoned to play for the Norte team, a side consisting of Basque players including

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 ...

, but usually featured only players from the Basque provinces of

Biscay Biscay ( ; ; ), is a province of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the Bay of Biscay, eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilb ...

and

, each of which also organized their own representative matches occasionally such as the one mentioned before. Pagaza was one of the eleven footballers that played in Norte's first-ever game on 3 January 1915 against

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, and once again he scored in a 6-3 win. In May 1915, he was selected to represent the Norte team in the first edition of the

Prince of Asturias Cup The Prince of Asturias Cup (, ) was an inter-regional football competition contested by the regional selections of Spain – selections of players from clubs from the region in question, meaning that players did not need to be native to the regio ...

, an inter-regional competition organized by the

RFEF The Royal Spanish Football Federation (; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. Founded on 29 September 1913, it is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. RFEF organizes the national cup competitio ...

. He played both games as the Basque team secured the first-ever trophy of the competition with a win over Catalonia and a draw with the Centro team (a Castile/Madrid XI). He also represented

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in the nation's international debut at the

, being one of the eleven footballers who participated in Spain's first-ever victory (1-0) over

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on 28 August 1920. He featured in all of Spain's first four internationals at the Summer Olympics, but missed the decisive game against the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, which saw Spain win 3-1 to win the silver medal. In total, he earned seven caps for Spain, four at the 1920 Olympics and three in friendlies, the last of which was on 17 December 1922 at Estádio do Lumiar in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

in a 2-1 win over

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. When he joined

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Spain, Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spani ...

, he become eligible to play for the Cantabria representative team, and he was one of the eleven footballers that played in the team's first-ever game on 9 March 1924, but this time he failed to score in a 3–0 win over

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

. This means he was a member of the first-ever line-ups of four different teams, Biscay, Norte (Basque Country), Cantabria and Spain.

As a manager

After his retirement as a player, he began a career as a coach. He coached Racing de Santander thrice, as well as the likes of

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Pamplona, Navarre. It was founded on 24 October 1920 and plays in La Liga, the top division of Spanish ...

(1930-1931),

Real Sporting de Gijón Real may refer to: Currencies * Argentine real * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Nature and science * Reality, the state of things as they exist, rath ...

(1933-1934),

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

(1939-1941),

Hércules CF Hércules de Alicante Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team in Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded on 25 October 1922, it currently plays in Primera Federación and plays its home games ...

(1944-1945) and

Elche CF Elche Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional football club based in Elche, Province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community, Spain. Founded in 1923, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025–26 season, holding home matches at ...

(1945-1946).

Honours

Club

; Arenas Club *

**Winners (1): 1918–19 *

**Champions (1):

;

* Cantabrian Championship **Champions (4): 1922–23, 1924–25, 1925–26 and 1926–27

International

;

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

: **Silver medal (1):

1920 Events January * January 1 ** Polish–Soviet War: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. ** Kauniainen in Finland, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its ow ...

; Basque Country *

: **Champions (1)

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January *January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 * ...

References

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pagazaurtundua, Francisco 1894 births 1958 deaths Spanish men's footballers Spain men's international footballers Footballers at the 1920 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Spain Olympic silver medalists for Spain Arenas Club de Getxo footballers Atlético Madrid footballers Racing de Santander players Spanish football managers Racing de Santander managers CA Osasuna managers RCD Mallorca managers Hércules CF managers Elche CF managers Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1920 Summer Olympics Men's association football forwards Basque Country men's international footballers Footballers from Biscay People from Santurtzi