José Berdié Places (1887 – 31 January 1931), sometimes written as Verdié, was a Spanish footballer who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for Espanyol and

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 ...

. With the latter side, he won one Catalan championship (1913), and two titles in both 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 ...

and the Pyrenees Cup (1912 and 1913).

Club career

Born in Huesca, Berdié joined the first team of Ibèric FC during the 1903–04 season, featuring alongside the likes of Pedro Gibert and Santiago Massana, and they also were teammates at X Sporting Club and RCD Espanyol. For the former side, he played a crucial role in helping the club win the Catalan championship three times in a row between 1906 and 1908. In 1909, the club was effectively relaunched as the Club Deportivo Español, the name which still stands today. He remained loyal to the club until 1911, when his regular good performances drew the attention of

, who signed him in 1911. He was a member of the legendary Barcelona team of the early 1910s that also included the likes of Francisco Bru, Alfredo Massana, Enrique Peris and Carles Comamala, which won back-to-back

titles in

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...

and 1913. In the latter final, Barcelona needed three games to beat

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, ...

, and Berdié scored in the third game (2-1) to help the Catalans win the title. He also helped the Catalan club win the Catalan Championships in 1912–13, and two Pyrenees Cups titles in

and 1913, scoring twice in the final of the latter against Cométe et Simot in an eventual 7–2 victory. He played for Barcelona until he retired in 1914. In total, Berdié played 36 games with the Barcelona team and scored 24 goals.

International career

On 18 November 1909, Berdié made his international debut at the Camp de la Indústria, on the occasion of a benefit match for the injured people in the Second Melillan campaign, starting for ''Equip Blanc'' (White Team) alongside the likes of Francisco Bru, Emilio Sampere, and the Comamala brothers ( Carles and Arsenio), and helping his side to a 6–2 victory over the Catalan national team, which marked Catalonia's first match after a three-year hiatus. Like many other

players of that time, Berdié was eligible to play for the Catalan national team, doing so on three occasions in 1910, including two matches in March against FC Maonès at Mahón, scoring the opening goal of the first match in an eventual 7–0 victory. On 24 July 1910, Berdié went down in history as one of the eleven footballers who played in Catalonia's first-ever international game (although not recognized by

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

), which ended in a 1–3 loss to a

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

XI.

Honours

Club

; X Sporting Club Catalan championship: *Champions (3): 1905–06, 1906–07, 1907–08 ;

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

* Catalan championships **Champions (1): 1912–13 *

: **Champions (2):

and 1913 * Pyrenees Cup: **Champions (2):

and 1913

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berdié, José 1887 births 1931 deaths People from La Litera Footballers from the Province of Huesca Spanish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders RCD Espanyol footballers FC Barcelona players Catalonia men's international footballers