José Luis Aragonés Suárez
(born July 28, 1938 in Hortaleza, Madrid
), usually
referred to as Luis Aragonés and sometimes simply
as Luis, is a former Spanish
footballer
and national coach.
Aragonés has spent the majority of his career as a player and coach
at
Atlético Madrid. He was a
prominent player and then coach of the successful Atlético team of
the late 1960s and early 1970s. The team won
La
Liga four times, reached the final of the
European Cup and won the
Intercontinental Cup.
Between 1964 and 1974 he played 265
La Liga
games for Atlético and scored 123 goals. Aragonés has coached the
club on four separate occasions. He has also played with several
other clubs, most notably
Real Betis, and
played 11 times for
Spain, scoring three goals.
Apart from Atlético he has also coached seven other
La Liga clubs as well as the
Spanish national football
team who he led to their 2nd European Championship title in
2008.
He became the head coach of the Turkish
football team Fenerbahçe
after Euro 2008, and this
is the first time that Aragonés has coached outside of his native
Spain.
Early career
Aragonés began his playing career with
CD
Getafe in 1957 and that was also where he picked up his
nickname "the elf". In 1958 he signed for
Real Madrid but never made it into the senior
team. He spent most of his time at Real Madrid on loan to other
clubs, including
Recreativo de
Huelva and
Hércules CF and
Úbeda CF and playing for
AD Plus Ultra, the Real Madrid
reserve team. In 1960 he joined
Real Oviedo and made his debut in the
Primera Division. Between 1961 and 1964 he played
for
Real Betis, making 86 league
appearances and scoring 33 goals. He was part of the team champion
of Euro 1964, being reserve in the quarterfinals against
Ireland
Atlético de Madrid
While at Atlético, Aragonés acquired the
nickname Zapatones, meaning
big
boots and he was known as a
free kick
specialist. He was a regular goalscorer and in 1970 he shared the
Pichichi with his
fellow Atlético forward
José Eulogio Gárate and
Amancio. In 1974 he scored in the 1-1
draw with
Bayern Munich as Atlético
held the German team in the
European Cup final before losing 4-0 in
the replay. After retiring as a player Aragonés was appointed
Atlético coach for the first time in 1974. He soon earned himself a
new
nickname,
El Sabio de Hortaleza
(The Wise Man from Hortaleza). But after Aragones started
going to the gym he changed it to the "Ogre" because of his
appearence and maximum trained muscles.
Spanish national football team
At the
2006 FIFA World Cup,
Spain won all three group games before facing France in the Second
Round. After taking the lead through
David
Villa, they lost 3-1 following goals from
Franck Ribéry,
Patrick Vieira and
Zinedine Zidane. At
Euro 2008, Spain also won all three group games,
beat 2006 World Cup champion Italy on
penalty kicks in the quarterfinals, beat
Russia 3-0 in the semifinal, and in the final defeated Germany 1-0
through a
Fernando Torres goal,
giving Aragonés his first trophy as Spain's manager, and the first
for the country in 44 years.
Aragonés, apparently a superstitious person, made known his dislike
for Spain's away kit which they had to wear during the crucial
semifinal match against Russia. He insisted that the jerseys were
"mustard" and not "yellow".
Thierry Henry incident
In 2004 Aragonés was appointed coach of
Spain. During a training
session in the same year, a Spanish TV crew filmed Aragonés trying
to motivate
José Antonio
Reyes by making offensive references to Reyes'
Arsenal F.C. black team-mate,
Thierry Henry, saying:
The
incident caused uproar in the British
media with
calls for Aragonés to be sacked. After an investigation into
the events during the match,
UEFA fined the
RFEF
100,000
Swiss francs/87,000
USD and warned that any future
incidents would be punished more severely.
UEFA
noted that possible punishments could include suspension from major
international tournaments or the closure of Spain's home
international matches to supporters.
In response to this, Aragones has said in public that he is not a
racist, and claimed that he had black friends.
Brazilian
-born black midfielder Marcos Senna stated:
Managerial statistics
Performance by club
Honours
Club
Manager
Individual
References
Source: http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/450301.asp
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