Domenec Balmanya

Domingo Balmanya Perera (Gerona, Spain, December 29, 1914 - Barcelona, Spain, February 14, 2002) was a Spanish soccer player and coach. He was in charge of the Spanish team between 1966 and 1968.

Trajectory

As a player

Domingo Balmanya began playing soccer in his hometown, Girona, in whose first team he played in the 1934/35 season, in the Second Division of Spain.

The following year, Girona FC transferred him to F. C. Barcelona. With his new team he will be proclaimed champion of the Catalonian Championship in 1936. However, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War interrupted the league competition and also Mingu Balmanya's career at Barcelona.

Even so, he did not abandon the practice of football, and after going to France, he joined FC Sète in 1937, a team with which he was proclaimed League champion in the 1938/39 season.

After the Spanish war was over and France was already immersed in the Second World War, in 1941 he returned to FC Barcelona, where he would serve for three more seasons. In the first of them he would be proclaimed champion of the Generalissimo Cup in 1942. With the F.C. Barcelona shirt he played more than a hundred matches.

In 1944 he closed his second stage with the Blaugrana and signed for Gimnàstic de Tarragona,

He would remain in the Tarragona team until 1950, ending his time as a footballer after a brief spell at UE Sant Andreu.

In his last year at Gimnàstic de Tarragona, he combined his position as a player with that of coach of the same club, thus beginning what would be his prolific career on the bench.

As a coach

Already retired as a player, his first exclusive assignment as coach was Girona FC, which he directed in the 1952/53 season in Group 3 of the Third Division.

The following seasons he was in charge of Real Zaragoza, with whom he made his debut as a coach in the First Division, and Real Oviedo, and in 1955 he returned again, this time as coach, to F. C. Barcelona.

He won his first title as a coach at the helm of Barcelona: the 1957 Copa del Generalísimo.

After three seasons on the Barça bench, he was hired by the French team of FC Sète, where he had previously been a player. He stayed in France for two seasons, after which he returned to Spain, leading Valencia CF for two years, with whom he won the Fairs Cup in 1962.

His next destination will be two Andalusian teams: Real Betis, which he managed in the 1963/64 season, and CD Málaga, with which he achieved promotion to the First Division a year later.

In 1965 he was signed by Atlético de Madrid, where he stayed for a single season, 1965/66, in which he was proclaimed League champion. At the end of it he is named national coach.

After his time as coach ended, Balmanya, after a rest period, signed again for the club where he had made his debut in the First Division, Real Zaragoza, which he coached for ten days in the 1970/71 season. His His next stop was at Cádiz CF, at the helm of which he remained for two seasons between 1972 and 1974. After his time with the Cadista team, and as had happened in his years as a player, he would sign for UE Sant Andreu, where he would finish his coaching career.

Spanish team

In 1966, Domingo Balmanya was named Spain's national coach, replacing José Villalonga, who had also been his predecessor on the rojiblanco bench.

For two years he directed the national team in the qualifying phase for the Eurocopa in Italy 1968, although in the end he did not achieve that goal.

With Balmanya on the bench, the team played a total of eleven games (eight of them official), with a balance of four wins, three draws and four losses.

The complete list of Domingo Balmanya's matches as coach is as follows:

Date	Competition	Stadium	City	Party
23/10/1966	Euro Cup Italy 1968	Dalymount Park	Dublin, Ireland	Ireland	0:0	Spain
07/12/1966	Euro Cup Italy 1968	Mestalla	Valencia	Spain	2:0	Ireland
01/02/1967	Euro Cup Italy 1968	Ali Sami Yen	Istanbul, Turkey	Turkey	0:0	Spain
24/05/1967	Friendly	Wembley	London (England)	England	2:0	Spain
31/05/1967	Euro Cup Italy 1968	San Mamés	Bilbao	Spain	2:0	Turkey
01/10/1967	Euro Cup Italy 1968	Slavia	Prague, Czechoslovakia	Czechoslovakia	1:0	Spain
22/10/1967	Euro Cup Italy 1968	Santiago Bernabéu	Madrid	Spain	2:1	Czechoslovakia
28/02/1968	Friendly	Sánchez Pizjuán	Sevilla	Spain	3:1	Sweden
03/04/1968	Euro Cup Italy 1968	Wembley	London (England)	England	1:0	Spain
02/05/1968	Friendly	Malmö	Malmö (Sweden)	Sweden	1:1	Spain
08/05/1968	Euro Cup Italy 1968	Santiago Bernabéu	Madrid	Spain	1:2	England

Technical Secretary

Retired from the bench, Domingo Balmanya would continue to be linked to the world of soccer. Thus, in the following years he would carry out the work of technical secretary both at FC Barcelona and at RCD Español, also directing the Catalan School of Coaches.

Also, and for many years, he worked as a commentator on various radio programs directed by sports journalist José María García.

Teams

As a player

Club	Country	Year
Girona FC	Spain	1934-1935
F. C. Barcelona	Spain	1935-1937
FC Sète	France	1937-1941
F. C. Barcelona	Spain	1941-1944
Gimnàstic de Tarragona	Spain	1944-1950
EU Sant Andreu	Spain	1950-1951

As a coach

Club	Country	Year
Gimnàstic de Tarragona	Spain	1949-1950
Girona FC	Spain	1952-1953
Real Zaragoza	Spain	1953-1954
Real Oviedo	Spain	1954-1955
F. C. Barcelona	Spain	1956-1958
FC Sète	France	1958-1960
Valencia CF	Spain	1960-1962
Real Betis	Spain	1963-1964
CD Malaga	Spain	1964-1965
Atletico de Madrid	Spain	1965-1966
Spanish Selection		1966-1968
Real Zaragoza	Spain	1970-1971
Cadiz CF	Spain	1972-1974
EU Sant Andreu	Spain	1977-1978

Titles

As a player

• 1 French League: 1938/39 (FC Sète)
• 1 Cup of the Generalísimo: 1942 (F. C. Barcelona)
• 1 Catalan Championship: 1936 (F. C. Barcelona)

As a coach

• 1 Spanish League: 1965/66 (Atlético de Madrid)
• 1 Cup of the Generalísimo: 1957 (F. C. Barcelona)
• 1 Fairs Cups: 1962 (CF Valence)