Football coach Luis Aragones: biography, career

This coach for a long time was considered just a good specialist, but almost the last chord in his career has translated it into the category of great. After all, it was he who transformed the eternal favorite and the same eternal loser, the Spanish national team, into a formidable and invincible force that first conquered Europe and then the rest of the world.

Carier start

Jose Luis Aragones Suarez was born on July 28, 1938 in the capital of Spain, in the Ortales district, which was considered a business district. Closer than before any Madrid club, from Ortales was to get to the suburbs - Getafe, which was the first refuge of Luis Aragones in the club career. Less than a year of performances for the club from Getafe, as it picked up the breeders of Madrid "Real" and invited to their team. The transition took place in 1958, but the twenty-year-old did not play as a basis for "cream". He was constantly in rent in other clubs, having traveled quite a large number of cities. In addition to the double of the Royal Club, he played in Huelva, Alicante, and Oviedo. It was as a player of "Oviedo" that he played the first match in the highest league of Spanish football. After three years of wandering around the leases, Luis Aragonés, from 1961, finally staged a stable for Sevilla's Real Betis team, for which he spent three full seasons.

With "Atletico" as a player

In 1964, Luis Aragones found his team. It was the second metropolitan team - "Atletico". It is with this club that the greatest successes of Aragones-player and Aragones-coach at the club level will be linked. In the history of "mattresses" (the nickname of the club "Atletico" (Madrid) is associated with the coloring of T-shirts in red and white stripes), this striker entered a good organizer and an excellent end to the attacks. For 360 matches in the highest Spanish league he scored 161 goals.

As part of the "mattress" he was a true leader. He led the team to three championships, two cups of the country. And once - in 1974 - the team stopped a step away from winning the European Champions Cup. Almost the entire final match, Madrid won against Bayern Munich 1: 0 due to the goal of Aragones. But the goalkeeper's mistake in the end of the match led to a draw. Additional time was not then, and in the replay, the Germans of the stone on the stone left from "Atletico", beating an opponent with a score of 4: 0. During the game in "Atletico" Luis Aragones won and an individual award - the prize of the best scorer of the championship of Spain, though, dividing it with two competitors. For the perfect execution of standards, he received from the fans the nickname Zapatones, which literally translates as "big boots".

Playing for the Spanish national team

Some believe that Luis Aragones in his youth was underestimated by the breeders of Madrid "Real". After all, it was very difficult for a young guy to compete with such pillars of the attack of the best European team of the time, like Alfredo di Stefano or Ferenc Puskas. But the strength of the player Luis Aragoness can be judged from the fact that he was summoned to the national team for seven years only for eleven matches, in which he scored three goals.

And these challenges began one year after the first European triumph of the Spanish national team. The first match took place in 1965, and the last one - in 1972. To be fair, it should be noted that no match of the national team with the participation of Luis Aragonés did not end in defeat - the Spaniards won seven wins, and four matches were drawn.

Beginning of the coaching path

The 1974/75 season, Luis Aragones began as a "mattress" player. But after playing a few matches at the beginning of the season, he decided to complete an active career player in the thirty-seventh year of life. From the tenth round of the season in the Madrid team, "Atlético" has a new football coach.

In the first season, Madrid managed to win the intercontinental cup, in which Bayern refused. At the end of the second season, Luis Aragones - coach, led the team to triumph in the Cup of Spain. And a year later - in 1977 - "Atletico" (Madrid) becomes the champion of Spain. This, perhaps, was the peak of the career of a young coach at the club level. A year later, Luis Aragones stopped training the club, he was asked to return, but due to unsatisfactory results he left Madrid before the end of the 1979/80 season.

Club leapfrog

In 1981, Luis Aragones emerged in his first permanent club - Seville's Real Betis - as a player. But after playing and losing the first match, he was forced to leave this team. Next year, he again returns to Madrid as coach of "Atletico". This time for incomplete five years the team wins the cup and the Spanish Super Cup and goes to the Cup Winners' Cup final. The subsequent victories did not follow, and Luis Aragones left the Madrid club after the contract for the sake of working with "Barcelona". In the debut season the Catalan team wins in the Spanish Cup, but the champion does not become and the coach is forced to leave this club. After a year of downtime, Luis Aragones, football coach, takes another Barcelona club - "Espanyol", but with him works out practically to no avail.

A year later - in the season of 1991/92 - he returns to the management for the third time with "mattresses" and the third time with them (the fourth in his career) wins the Spanish Cup as a coach. On this trophy of Luis Aragones at the club level end. Although he coached many teams - Sevilla, Valencia, Real Betis, Real Oviedo, Mallorca, Atletico Madrid (Madrid) for the fourth time. To the credit of Luis Aragones, it should be noted that the last time he took the Madrid team in the second Spanish division and returned it to the elite in one year. To the achievements of his coaching career for this period should include bronze medals "Mallorca" and the opening for the football community of such a star as Samuel Eto'o.

European triumph

The path of Luis Aragoness to coaching in the national team began with a criticism of the acting coach at the time - Inaki Saes. And after another failure of the Spanish national team at the European Championships in 2004, he accepted the invitation of the local federation to lead the country's main team. By the time Luis Aragones has already received the nickname "sage from Ortales" when he was his coach "Atlético" (Madrid). The first match as a coach was victorious, but this victory 3: 2 was harder given to the stronger Spaniards over the modest team of Venezuela. Going to the 2006 World Cup without a single defeat under the leadership of the sage from Ortales, the Spanish team was once again considered one of the favorites. And again I lost. The first match "at the start" brought defeat 1: 3 from the French team. Aragones is already going to leave the national team, but in the Spanish Football Federation decided to extend the contract with this outstanding specialist before the end of the next European Championship in 2008. After that, Luis Aragones took up the job with renewed vigor, making a bet on the new - young players, getting rid of the long-standing "idols" of Spanish fans.

For which he received a lot of criticism from both Spanish and many foreign specialists. But, as time showed, the wise man from Ortales was right, and the Spanish national team returned triumphantly from the 2008 European Championships.

After the most important victory

At the end of the European Championship, Luis Aragones decided not to renew the contract with the Spanish national team. In his place was invited Vicente del Bosque, who led the Spaniards to triumph at the 2010 World Championships and the next European Championships in 2012 . But he took advantage of the foundation laid by his predecessor. And the European champion for the first time in his life left the borders of Spain in order to train the Turkish "Fenerbahce". This season of 2008/09 was the last for him as a coach. After the end of his active career, he still received the "Grand Royal Cross" in 2002 for achievements in sports and became the owner of the trophy "Legend" according to the most famous football newspaper in Spain. So goodbye to great football Luis Aragones.

The reason for the death of this extraordinary coach was known to him long before everything happened. Leukemia undermined the health of the sage from Ortales. He was ill for a long time and died on February 1, 2014. All the matches after his death in Spain began with a minute of silence, during which not one football player, who managed to play under the leadership of Luis Aragones, shed tears.