Félix Zubizarreta
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Félix Zubizarreta Ezpeleta | ||
| Date of birth | 3 May 1894 | ||
| Place of birth | Bilbao, Biscay, Spain | ||
| Date of death | 1943 (aged 49) | ||
| Place of death | Caracas, Venezuela | ||
| Position(s) | Forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1913–1917 | Athletic Club | 29 | (27) |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Félix Zubizarreta Ezpeleta was a Spanish
His family emigrated to Venezuela after the Spanish Civil War. His grandson Iker Zubizarreta played in the football tournament at the 1980 Summer Olympics.[4]
Biography
Born in Bilbao, Zubizarreta began his career at his hometown club Athletic Club during the 1913–14 season, and he quickly became one of the club's benchmarks at the time, netting a whopping five goals on his debut in a 12–0 win over Sporting de Irún, thus becoming the first-ever player to score five goals in an official match with the Basque team, in addition to achieving the first-ever hat-trick at the San Mamés Stadium, which had been inaugurated five months earlier.[5]
Zubizarreta was part of the legendary attacking front that Athletic boosted in the 1910s, which also included
On 1 January 1917, just a few months after the 1916 Cup final, Athletic welcomed Madrid FC in their first-ever visit to the San Mamés Stadium, but this time Zubizarreta had a bad performance, and although he had got a hat-trick for a title, the public of San Mamés did not forgive his performance and kept booing him (in those days the fans were not light-handed when it came to criticizing the footballers), and so, in the second half, when Athletic was already playing with 10 men due to Luis Hurtado's injury, Zubizarreta, given the increasing boos towards him, decided to leave the field with a quarter of an hour to go. "He left bitter and disgusted by the attitude of a public that always censors, systematically his work, be it good or bad...”.[7] Zubizarreta did not play any more matches with Athletic or with another team, retiring from football on that evening at the age of just 23, having scored 27 goals in 29 official matches for Athletic. So Madrid's first match in San Mamés was Zubizarreta's last.
He dedicated himself to his studies and his name only came up again 20 years later during the Spanish Civil War when he was appointed head of the Basque Government's enlistment and recruitment section. Due to his position and his nationalist significance, Zubizarreta went into exile in Venezuela with his wife, Juanita Torre, and his nine children. He set up a wood business in Caracas and died there at the age of 49.[7] The other members of the family returned to the Basque Country.
Honours
- North/Biscay Regional Championship:
- Champions (3): 1913–14, 1914–15 and 1915–16
References
- ^ "Félix Zubizarreta - Player: Striker". www.athletic-club.eus. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
- ^ "Félix Zubizarreta Ezpeleta - Footballer". www.bdfutbol.com. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
- ^ a b "Spain - Cup 1916". RSSSF. 20 January 2000. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
- ^ "Iker Zubizarreta: el nieto de león que pudo ser cachorro" [Iker Zubizarreta: grandson of a lion who could have been a puppy] (in Spanish). Gara. 6 August 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
- ^ "Athletic Club VS Irun Sporting 18/1/1914". www.athletic-club.eus (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 August 2022.
- ^ "Spain - Cup 1915". RSSSF. 20 January 2000. Archived from the original on 7 December 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
- ^ a b "La retirada de Félix Zubizarreta" [The withdrawal of Felix Zubizarreta]. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
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