Luis Aragonés

Spanish football legend who shared the Pichichi Trophy and led Spain to Euro 2008 glory.

Luis Aragonés Suárez (28 July 1938 – 1 February 2014) was a Spanish football player and manager. He 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 were national champions four times, reached the 1974 European Cup Final. Between 1964 and 1974, he played 265 Primera Liga games for Atlético and scored 123 goals. He also played for several other clubs, but never made a senior appearance for Real Madrid, and played 11 times for Spain, scoring three goals. Apart from Atlético he also coached seven other La Liga clubs as well as the Spain national team, whom he led to their second European Championship title in 2008. He then became the head coach of the Turkish club Fenerbahçe after the tournament, the only time he coached outside his native Spain.

Quick Facts

Affiliation: Real Betis
Years active at club: 1961–1964

Lore & Background

Aragonés began his playing career with Getafe Deportivo in 1957. 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 and playing for AD Plus Ultra, the Real Madrid reserve team. In 1960, he joined Real Oviedo and made his debut in the Primera División. Between 1961 and 1964, he played for Real Betis, making 86 league appearances and scoring 33 goals. In 1964, Aragonés was signed by Atlético Madrid where he acquired the nickname 'Zapatones', meaning 'big boots', since he was known as a free kick specialist. Aragonés picked up silverware in his first season at the club, winning the Copa del Rey (then known as the Copa del Generalísimo). He then helped Atlético to win the La Liga title in 1965–66 and again in 1969–70, where he shared the Pichichi trophy for the highest scorer in the league with his fellow Atlético forward José Eulogio Gárate and Real Madrid's Amancio. A second Copa followed in 1972 and the team achieved a third league title in 1972–73. The following year, Atlético reached the final of the European Cup played against German champions Bayern Munich. During the match, Aragonés scored a goal late in extra time to give Atlético a 1–0 lead. A 119th-minute equaliser from Georg Schwarzenbeck, however, sent the final to a replay, where Bayern prevailed with a convincing 4–0 victory. His retirement followed soon after and he was appointed Atlético coach for the first time in the same year. Until 2024, Aragonés remained Atlético's all-time top goalscorer and is ninth in the club's all-time appearance list. Aragonés made his international debut for Spain on 8 May 1965 in a 0–0 friendly draw away to Scotland. The first of his three goals for Spain was in a friendly against France in Lyon, in a 3–1 win on his seventh cap on 17 October 1968. He captained the side for the sole time on his 10th of 11 caps, a 3–0 win over Northern Ireland in Seville on 11 November 1970 in qualification for UEFA Euro 1972. He scored in the match.

Reader's Guide

In his first season in charge at Atlético Madrid, Aragonés led Atlético to success over two legs in the 1974 Intercontinental Cup, where the team beat Copa Libertadores winners Independiente of Argentina 2–1 on aggregate. Atlético went on to claim the Copa del Generalísimo and La Liga title in 1976 and 1977 respectively. Aragonés took over at Real Betis in 1981. His time in Andalusia, however, was brief and he returned to the Vicente Calderón in 1982. In his fourth spell at the club, his Atlético side came close to achieving a historic double during the 1984–85 season, winning the Copa del Rey and finishing runner-up in La Liga. The following season, the team reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup, where it was beaten 3–0 by Dynamo Kyiv. Aragonés' success saw him appointed as manager of Barcelona in 1987, where he spent one season, winning the Copa del Rey. He then spent a season at fellow Barcelona based club Espanyol before rejoining Atlético for a fifth spell, where he won the sixth Copa del Rey of his career in 1992. After leaving the club for a fifth time in 1993, he went on to coach Sevilla, Valencia, Real Betis, Real Oviedo and Mallorca. His biggest success during this period was in the 1995–96 season coming within four points of winning the La Liga title with Valencia. In 2001, with the club in the Segunda División, Aragonés took over at Atlético for a sixth time and led the team to promotion back to the Primera División as champions in the 2001–02 season. He left the club for the seventh and final time in 2003 and remains its most successful manager with eight trophies won. Aragonés returned to Mallorca on 2 October of the 2003–04 season, after the dismissal of Jaime Pacheco for a poor start to the season. He steered the club to 11th by the end of the season. On 1 July 2004, he took the job of Spain national team after Iñaki Sáez resigned due to public disapproval for failing to qualify the team from the group stage at UEFA Euro 2004. On taking over the national team following the UEFA Euro 2004 humiliation, Aragonés made changes to the team, dropping experienced players such as Míchel Salgado and Raúl and revamped with some new blood.

Did You Know?

He led Spain to their second European Championship title in 2008, their first international honour since 1964.
He had a superstitious fear of the colour yellow and called Spain's change kit 'mustard'.