Manuel Fernández Fernández (21 January 1923 – 12 June 2012), known as Pahiño, 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 striker. Over 12 seasons, he played 278 games in

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 ...

, scoring 211 goals for Celta,

Real Madrid 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 ...

and Deportivo. He won one

Pichichi Trophy In Spanish Association football, football, the Pichichi Trophy () is awarded by the sports newspaper ''Marca (newspaper), Marca'' to the top goalscorer of each La Liga season. Named after the Athletic Bilbao striker Pichichi (footballer), Rafael ...

each with the first two clubs.

Club career

Born in the neighbourhood of San Paio de Navia in

Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...

, Province of Pontevedra, Pahiño joined

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 ...

in 1943, immediately becoming a starter. He only scored four

goals in his first season (from 15 appearances), being relegated. After the team's return to the top flight, Pahiño never scored less than 15 times until his departure. In the 1947–48 campaign, his league-best 21 goals helped them finish a best-ever fourth and reach the final of the Copa del Generalísimo. In summer 1948, both Pahiño and Miguel Muñoz signed for

. He continued to find the net at a regular rate for his new club, winning his second ''Pichichi'' at the end of 1951–52. However, he lost his importance in the squad following the arrival of

Alfredo Di Stéfano Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé (; 4 July 1926 – 7 July 2014) was an Argentine professional footballer and coach who played as a forward, widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time. Nicknamed "Saeta Rubia" ("Blond A ...

, who later admitted his frustration of never having played alongside him; across all competitions, he scored 124 goals in 143 matches, ranking 13th in the all-time scoring list at the time of his death. Until his retirement in 1957, at the age of 34, Pahiño represented

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 ...

(top division, three seasons) and

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol (), known simply as Granada or ''"Graná"'', is a professional List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that currently plays in Segunda ...

(

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 ...

). On 30 October 1955, whilst at the service of the former, he scored twice in a 2–1 win over his former employer at the

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (, ) is a retractable roof association football, football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a seating capacity of around 83,000 following its extensive renovation completed in late 2024, the stadium has the second-largest ...

. Over a fortnight in February 1956, Pahiño acted as

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

for Deportivo. The team conceded 12 goals in three games, which included losses against

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 ...

(0–7, home) and

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually known as Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Basque ...

(2–4).

International career

Pahiño earned three

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

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 ...

, over seven years. He scored on his debut on 20 June 1948, against

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, adding a brace in his final appearance, a 2–2 draw with the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

in another friendly.

Style of play

An ambidextrous player that excelled in the physical aspects of the game, Pahiño possessed a powerful shot with either feet as well as a tremendous heading ability. In 1945, during a

promotion play-offs Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

clash against Granada, he played more than 40 minutes with a broken

fibula The fibula (: fibulae or fibulas) or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. ...

after a challenge by José Millán, in an eventual 4–1 away win.

Personal life

Pahiño received his nickname after a variation of his father's second surname, ''Paíño''. He was an avid reader of the works of

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian literature, Russian and world literature, and many of his works are consider ...

and

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

. A

half-time In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...

incident during the international with Switzerland, in which he sarcastically grinned as the team was being harangued by General Gómez Zamalloa, who was also vocal to the National Sports Delegation, may have led to the small number of appearances for his country. He died in the capital

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 ...

on 12 June 2012, aged 89.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Spain's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Pahiño goal.''

Honours

Individual *

: 1947–48, 1951–52

References

External links

* *
Biography at Real Madrid Fans
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pahino 1923 births 2012 deaths Footballers from Vigo Spanish men's footballers Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players RC Celta de Vigo players Real Madrid CF players Deportivo de La Coruña players Granada CF footballers Spain men's B international footballers Spain men's international footballers Pichichi Trophy winners Spanish football managers La Liga managers Deportivo de La Coruña managers 20th-century Spanish sportsmen