Jesús Antonio Castro González (23 January 1951 – 26 July 1993) was a Spanish 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

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 ...

. He appeared in 315

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 ...

games over 14 seasons with his only club,

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 ...

Club career

Born in

Oviedo Oviedo () or Uviéu (Asturian language, Asturian: ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains th ...

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 ...

, Castro spent his entire professional career with neighbouring club

, signing on 11 March 1968 from local amateurs

CD Ensidesa Club Deportivo Ensidesa is a former Spanish football team based in Asturias. History Ensidesa was founded in 1956, as Club Deportivo Llaranes. The club carried this name until 1965, being then bought by company and renamed as Club Deportivo E ...

. He totalled 64

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

appearances in his first three seasons, including all 38 games in 1969–70 to help the team to promote to

as champions. Castro made his debut in the top flight on 13 September 1970, in a 2–0 away loss against

RC Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta Vigo, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), the club was fou ...

. He finished the campaign with 25 matches, in an eventual 12th-place finish. From

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

until

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

, Castro all but competed in the top tier. Following the emergence of fellow youth graduate Juan Carlos Ablanedo and a

herniated disc A disc herniation or spinal disc herniation is an injury to the intervertebral disc between two vertebrae, usually caused by excessive strain or trauma to the spine. It may result in back pain, pain or sensation in different parts of the body, ...

injury from which he never recovered and that led to him becoming the first Spanish player to be eligible for a disability grant, he retired at the age of 36. Over the course of three separate editions, he appeared in eight

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 ...

games.

Personal life

Castro's older brother, Enrique (generally known as

Quini Enrique Castro González (; 23 September 1949 – 27 February 2018), known as Quini , was a Spanish professional footballer who played as a striker. In a career totally connected with Sporting de Gijón and FC Barcelona, he was widely regard ...

), was also a footballer. A striker, he too spent several years with Sporting, also representing

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 ...

and

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 ...

. With 763 appearances between the siblings in the Spanish top flight, they ranked second in this list behind

Julio Julio is the Spanish equivalent of the month July and may refer to: *Julio (given name) * Julio (surname) * Júlio de Castilhos, a municipality of the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * ''Julio'' (album), a 1983 compilation al ...

and

Patxi Salinas Francisco 'Patxi' Salinas Fernández (born 17 November 1963) is a Spanish former footballer who played as a central defender, currently a manager. He amassed La Liga totals of 432 games and 11 goals over 16 seasons, with Athletic Bilbao and Ce ...

at the time of their retirement.

Death

On 26 July 1993, aged 42, Castro rescued two English boys and their father from drowning in the beach of Pechón, in

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 ...

. He managed to do so but, exhausted, died shortly after.

Honours

: 1969–70, 1976–77

References

External links