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Manuel de Castro

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Manuel de Castro
De Castro circa 1919
President of the Galician Football Federation
Personal details
Born(1885-08-09)9 August 1885
Vigo, Galicia, Spain
Died27 August 1944(1944-08-27) (aged 59)
Vigo, Spain
Association football career
Full name Manuel de Castro González
Position(s) Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1904–1907 Sporting de Vigo
Managerial career
1921–1922; 1925–1927 Spain
1929–1930 Galicia
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Manuel de Castro González[a] (9 August 1885 – 27 August 1944), better known as Hándicap, was a Spanish sports journalist, football executive, manager,[1] referee, and politician.[2] He was one of the most important figures in the amateur beginnings of football in Vigo, being noted for his prominent role in promoting football in the city and as the fundamental head behind the foundation of Celta de Vigo in 1923.[3][4]

As a football executive, he held the presidency of the Galician Football Federation. As a coach, he managed both the Spain national team in ten games between 1921 and 1927,[5] as well as the Galicia national team.[2] And as a referee, he founded the College of Arbitrators of Galicia.[2] He also promoted athletics, of which he also served as president of the Galician Athletics Federation.[4] He was a defensor of the idea of "complete athletes", people who dedicated themselves to more than one modality.[2]

Early years

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Born in Vigo, he was one of the pioneers who began playing football in Vigo on the Malecón field in the early years of the 20th century.[3][6] He began his journalist career as an editor for the Sprint newspaper, and already in 1909, he wrote in the magazine Letras y Deporte, the first sports magazine in Galicia, later moving on to Faro de Vigo (1912–1930), in which he became a fervent disseminator of sporting activity, signing his articles under the pseudonym Hándicap.[3][6] He is thus considered "the dean" of sports reporters in Vigo.[2] He also wrote for Vida Deportiva, the magazine where the first campaign in favor of building a stadium in Vigo appeared.[3][6]

Managerial career

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In 1921 he began to carry out the functions of coach of the Spain national team, as part of a Selection Committee of Spain made up of Julián Ruete and José Berraondo, and the first match this Committee oversaw was a friendly against Belgium 9 October 1921, which was Spain's first-ever game after the Olympics as well as their first-ever game on home soil.[7] This Committee was formed and reformed numerous times in its history, also partnering with the likes of Ezequiel Montero and Ricardo Cabot in 1925–27.[5] He oversaw a total of 10 games, winning 9 of them, which results in a ratio of 0.90 wins per game, a national record still unmatched.[2] During his time at the head of the national team he would develop a great friendship with Ricardo Zamora.[2] In addition to the Spanish team, he also managed the Galician national team on numerous occasions, in a time when most of the team was made up of Celta players.

Legend of the origin of the Furia Roja

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He was at the Antwerp, Paris, and Amsterdam Olympic Games and dedicated two books to the first two.[3] On 1 September 1920, Spain faced Sweden in the quarter-finals of the 1920 Summer Olympics, and they were trailing 0–1 when the captain, José María Belauste, launched a voice to teammate Sabino Bilbao that was picked up in the chronicles by the only Spanish journalist present at the match, Hándicap, who thus collected one of the most mythical phrases in the history of Spanish football: "¡A mí el pelotón, Sabino, que los arrollo!" ("Send me that ball, Sabino, I'll crush them!" in Spanish).[6][8] And that is how it went, with Belauste scoring the equalizer, thus immortalizing this phrase that was subsequently viewed as the reason why the national team was dubbed Furia Roja (Spanish Fury).[9]

Celta Vigo

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He combined his work as national coach with the role of vice president of the Real Vigo Sporting, a position he used to promote, together with Juan Baliño [es] and Pepe Bar [es], the idea of merging Sporting with his city rival Fortuna de Vigo, to achieve a more powerful team that could successfully compete against the likes of Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and Athletic Bilbao.[3] He began to work on the idea in the mid-1910s, which would fail in his first attempt in 1915, but this did not discourage him, and in his second attempt in 1923, he reached an agreement between the two sides;[2] taking advantage of the fact that the Galician national team, a combination of the best players from Vigo, had reached the final of the 1922–23 Prince of Asturias Cup after beating the likes of the Centro team (a Castile/Madrid XI) by a score of 4–1,[10] and despite losing the final, the Galicia fans were very pleased with the team's performance in the competition, thus welcoming with tremendous enthusiasm the idea proposed by Manuel de Castro, and hence, on 23 August 1923, Celta de Vigo was born.[10]

Later life

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In 1924, with the help of his brother, the former football player and athlete Fernando de Castro, he founded the Galician Athletics Federation.[2] In the following years, he would limit his activity to refereeing, even founding the Galician College of Arbitrators.[2]

Death

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Sculpture of Manuel de Castro Hándicap in the vicinity of the Balaídos stadium.

On 27 August 1944, he was "the victim of a tragic accident" when he was run over by a train in the vicinity of the Eijo Garay Gardens when he was leaving an exhibition. His death caused deep sorrow throughout the footballing world, where Hándicap enjoyed great prestige at a local, regional and national level.

Legacy

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A bust of him, sculpted by Rafael Álvarez Borrás in 1946, has been located on the street that bears his name in front of the Balaídos stadium since 20 May 1956.[3]

In 2011, the "Manuel de Castro" award was established[11] to reward the best Celta player of the calendar year,[12] election made by vote among the entire Celta environment (fans, media, players, etc).

Notes

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  1. ^ In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Castro and the second or maternal family name is González.

References

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  1. ^ "Manuel de Castro González – Manager". www.bdfutbol.com. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "El cronista deportivo artífice del nacimiento del Celta" [Manuel de Castro "Hándicap": father of Celta and sports journalism from Vigo] (in Spanish). www.farodevigo.es. 12 June 2011. Archived from the original on 3 November 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Manuel de Castro "Hándicap": padre del Celta y el periodismo deportivo vigués" [The sports chronicler who created Celta] (in Spanish). www.farodevigo.es. 11 January 2021. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  4. ^ a b "History of Handicap, the creator of Celta" [History of Handicap, the creator of Celta] (in Spanish). www.lavozdegalicia.es. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Manuel Castro González, football manager". Eu-football.com. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d "69 años de la muerte de Manuel de Castro, precursor del Celta" [69 years since the death of Manuel de Castro, precursor of Celta] (in Spanish). www.moiceleste.com. 27 August 2013. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  7. ^ "Spain vs Belgium, 9 October 1921". Eu-football.com. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  8. ^ Garma, Jorge (23 December 2005). "Algo más que un grito" [More than a cry]. El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 6 September 2017. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  9. ^ Rivas, Jon (15 June 2008). "El inspirador de la "furia española" fue un vasco" [The inspirer of the "Spanish fury" was a Basque]. El Mundo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 3 November 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  10. ^ a b Vicente Martínez Calatrava (17 August 2009). "La Copa Príncipe de Asturias" [The Prince of Asturias Cup] (in Spanish). CIHEFE. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  11. ^ "Nolito received the Manuel de Castro "Handicap" award" [Nolito received the Manuel de Castro "Handicap" award] (in Spanish). www.farodevigo.es. 11 January 2015. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  12. ^ "Entrega de premios Manuel de Castro" [Manuel de Castro awards ceremony] (in Spanish). web.archive.org. 17 March 2014. Archived from the original on 17 March 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
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