Juan Antonio Felipe Gallego (born 24 August 1961), known as Juanito, 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

right-back 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 ...

Club career

Juanito was born in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, being a product of

Real Madrid CF Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

's academy. He spent 10 of his 11 seasons as a senior in the

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 ...

, starting with

Castilla Castile, Castille or Castilla may refer to: Places Spain *Castile (historical region), a vaguely defined historical region of Spain covering most of Castile and León, all of the Community of Madrid and most of Castilla–La Mancha *Kingdom of ...

in 1979–80. On 11 April 1982, Juanito made his only competitive appearance with Real's first team, starting in a 2–1 away win against

CD Castellón Club Deportivo Castellón, S.A.D. is a professional List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Castellón de la Plana, in the Valencian Community. Founded on 20 July 1922, it currently plays in , holding home games at ''Nou E ...

. Previously, he had helped the reserves to reach the final of the

1979–80 Copa del Rey The 1979–80 Copa del Rey was the 78th staging of the Spanish Cup, the annual domestic cup competition in the Spanish football. The tournament was attended by 226 teams from the main categories of Spanish football. The tournament began on 11 Sep ...

against the parent club, losing 6–1; they thus qualified for the subsequent edition of the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

, where the player featured in the 3–1 first-round victory over

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

and retired at the hour mark with a

patella The patella (: patellae or patellas), also known as the kneecap, is a flat, rounded triangular bone which articulates with the femur (thigh bone) and covers and protects the anterior articular surface of the knee joint. The patella is found in m ...

fracture. Following a one-year loan at

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo ( Asturian: Real Uviéu) is a Spanish professional football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926, the club plays in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system. The club plays at ...

, Juanito signed permanently 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 ...

side in summer 1984. He joined fellow second-tier

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in the Villa de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish foot ...

for the 1987–88 campaign; during his tenure, he experienced both

promotion and relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

, shared teams with the likes of

Laurie Cunningham Laurence Paul Cunningham (8 March 1956 – 15 July 1989) was an English professional footballer who played as a left winger. He notably played in England, France, and Spain, where he became the first-ever English player to sign for Real Madr ...

and

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona Franco (30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional association football, football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two ...

's brother Hugo and notably scored twice in a 3–3 draw with Castilla on 24 April 1988 (once in his own net). Juanito retired at the end of 1989–90 aged only 29 due to injuries, with Rayo having finished last. He scored his first goal in the Spanish top flight on 24 September 1989, opening an eventual 1–1 home draw against Oviedo.

International career

Juanito 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 ...

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 ...

held in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, being eliminated at the end of the group stage with three matches and three draws.

Honours

Castilla *

: 1983–84

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Juanito 1961 births Living people 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football fullbacks La Liga players Segunda División players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players Real Oviedo players Rayo Vallecano players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Olympic footballers for Spain Footballers at the 1980 Summer Olympics