Luis Miguel Arconada

Luis Miguel Arconada Echarri (San Sebastián, June 26, 1954), is a Spanish former soccer player who played as a goalkeeper and spent his entire professional career at Real Sociedad de Fútbol between 1974 and 1989. He was also a goalkeeper for the Spanish team between 1977 and 1985.

Beginnings

He played for Lengokoak in his hometown, from where he was signed by Real Sociedad in 1970. After spending several seasons at San Sebastián CF, a subsidiary team of Real Sociedad, he was promoted to Real Sociedad's first team in 1974 just turned 20 years old.

In his first seasons at Real, two other great goalkeepers, Pedro María Artola and Urruti, closed Arconada's path to ownership in the "txuriurdin" team. However, Artola signed for Fútbol Club Barcelona in 1975. This allowed Arconada to become the squad's second goalkeeper and debut for Real in a UEFA Cup match against Liverpool FC on October 22, 1975. season he already took the starting position in the goal "txuriurdin" during the last quarter of the League, ousting Urruti, who was forced to sign for the Real Club Deportivo Español de Barcelona to continue enjoying playing minutes.

Career at Real Sociedad

Since 1976, Arconada was the undisputed owner of the San Sebastian goal for 13 years. He was considered one of the best goalkeepers in the world at his time and was always faithful to Real Sociedad de Fútbol, where he spent his entire professional career. He played a total of 551 official matches with Real Sociedad, 414 of them in the Spanish Soccer League. He won with this club all the titles that he has in his record, participating in the greatest achievements in the history of this club. Arconada was the captain of the best generation of Real Madrid footballers along with Jesús Mari Zamora, López Ufarte, Jesús María Satrústegui, Alberto Górriz, Juan Antonio Larrañaga, José Mari Bakero, etc. under the orders of Alberto Ormaetxea and in the final part of his career, under John Benjamin Toshack.

It was runner-up in the League in 1980, breaking Real's unbeaten record in the Spanish soccer league that was not surpassed until many years later. Arconada obtained his first Zamora Trophy that season. In the following two seasons came the two Liga de la Real titles and, on a personal level, another two Zamora Trophies. In 1982 Real won the first edition of the Spanish Soccer Super Cup and in the 1982-83 European Cup Real reached the semifinals where they were eliminated by the future champion, Hamburger SV. The second leg of that semifinal, which was played on April 20, 1983 in Hamburg at the Volkparkstadion, was not without controversy, since the entire second part, due to the alleged injury of a linesman from the arbitration trio (at that time they only traveled the regular referee and his two linesmen), a German linesman who apparently was watching the game at the stadium acted in his place. This improvised substitute did not point out the clear offside in which the German player Von Heesen found himself when in the 84th minute, he scored the winning goal for Hamburg. This goal threw to the ground the fantastic defensive work carried out by Arconada and a whole Real that that day dragged the casualties of its starting center forward (Satrústegui), its brain in attack (Zamora), and the axis of the defense (Gajate and Kortabarria). The controversy of the match, however, could have started much earlier with the appointment as the main referee of that match, the Swiss Bruno Galler, a German-speaker, born in 1946 in Baden, a town in German Switzerland.

In his entire career, Arconada was only affected by a serious injury, which occurred on the first matchday of the League of the 1985-86 season, which caused him to miss that entire season. His role in the team was played with remarkable performance by a young goalkeeper named Agustín de Carlos Elduayen. The following year Elduayen signed for Atlético de Madrid and Arconada resumed ownership.

In 1987, his brilliant performance in the round of penalties allowed Real to win the Copa del Rey title, after drawing 2-2 in the final with Atlético de Madrid. The following year, in 1988, in Arconada's last great campaign with Real, the team finished second in the League and Cup. The controversy this time arose from the fact that before the Cup final was played between Real Sociedad and FC Barcelona, the latter already had Bakero, Beguiristain and López Rekarte signed for the following season, and if Barça did not win the final, they would not play in European competition the following year for the first time in their history. Hence, John Benjamin Toshack (Real coach), at the end of the game, pointed out that, that day they had played against 14.

His retirement from Real Sociedad and football came in 1989, also being a regular for the team in his last season. At the time of his retirement he was about to turn 35 years old.

His charisma, both on and off the pitch, made him the idol of many soccer fans, who were not necessarily Real Sociedad supporters.

The phrase of the fans "txuriurdin" became famous: "Nothing happens, we have Arconada". Upon his withdrawal, his position in the goal was occupied by José Luis González. All the goalkeepers who have passed through the realistic goal since 1989 have had to suffer the fact of being compared to the mythical figure of Arconada.

Since his retirement, Arconada has remained on the fringes of the world of soccer. Since January 1992, he has been a director and member of the board of directors of the company Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF). Although his name has come up on a recurring basis as a possible candidate for the presidency of Real Sociedad, it has never been recognized. materialize.

Spain national team

Arconada was the regular goalkeeper for the Spanish national team between 1977 and 1985. He held the captaincy of the national team in numerous games.

In total, he made 68 appearances with the national team, in which he conceded 62 goals. He is still among the 20 players with the most games played in the Spanish team, having held the record for caps with Spain for a while.

Before making his debut with the senior team, Arconada had been part of the Olympic team, with whom he played 2 games at the 1976 Olympic Games.

He made his debut with the Spanish team on March 27, 1977 in a Spain-Hungary friendly match. He was part of the squad for the 1978 Soccer World Cup in Argentina, where he was a substitute for Miguel Ángel González Suárez. Later he was the starting goalkeeper for the Spanish team in the 1980 Euro Soccer Cup in Italy, in the 1982 Soccer World Cup in Spain and finally in the 1984 Soccer Euro Cup played in France.

Arconada's greatest success with the Spanish team was the runner-up finish in the 1984 Euro Cup in France. Arconada had a great championship in said Eurocup, although he is mainly remembered for the mistake he made in the final against France, where he conceded an inexplicable goal after a ball that he had saved slipped under his body after a free kick by Michel Platini. That goal is known in Spain as "Arconada's goal". Years after this ruling, after the Spanish team won the Euro Cup in its 2008 edition, the goalkeeper Andrés Palop went up to collect the gold medal that Platini was going to give him as president of UEFA with the shirt that that day Arconada dressed. Palop stated:

"It deserved an important homage, I had the opportunity to get his shirt, I brought it and it was clear that if we raised the cup, I was going to have this detail, because historically it is remembered for a claw failure, but it is fair that I had to remember that it was also a huge goalkeeper and that made great stops, both with the Real and with this shirt that I wore. »

Another famous controversy that Arconada had was his supposed refusal to wear the official socks of the national team that included the colors of the Spanish flag during the 1982 World Cup. This refusal was attributed by some to his being Basque, while others They attributed it to superstition, since Arconada always wore white socks at his club and kept that custom in the national team. However, during his career as a player for the national team, Arconada played matches wearing the official socks and with the captain's armband (which included the colors of the Spanish flag, as well as wearing the shield on his shirt). Another superstition or hobby of Arconada with his sportswear is that he did not change the model of the shirt as long as he did not lose a game. Thus, in the 1979-80 season, in which Real Sociedad only lost the penultimate game, Arconada played the entire season with the same model of shirt.

In 1985, the serious injury suffered by Arconada kept him out of the national team, and he was never called up again. His place in the Spanish team was taken by another Basque, Andoni Zubizarreta, who would go on to far exceed Arconada's number of caps.

Arconada also played some friendly matches with the Basque Country soccer team.

Participations in World Cups

World	Selection	Outcome
1978 Football World Cup	Spain	10th
1982 World Cup Soccer	Spain	Twelfth

Participation in Eurocup

Euro	Selection	Outcome
Italian Euro Cup 1980	Spain	First phase
French Euro Cup 1984	Spain	Subfield

Curiosities

• He has a younger brother, Gonzalo Arconada, who has stood out as a football coach. He has trained the Royal Society in the Spanish First Division for a few months in 2006 and the UD Almería during the start of 2008-09. In the 2007-2008 season, the CD Numancia was promoted to First Division. Since 2015 he trains Real Jaén CF.

• The maternal uncle of Arconada, Ignacio Echarri, was defense of the Royal Society between 1954 and 1964.

• The magazine "JUGÓN!" has been giving since 2009 a trophy to the goalkeeper with more games imbedded of the season with its name (Trofeo Arconada) that coincidentally, the first to receive it was its follower and admirer Andrés Palop.

• A reference is made to him in the song "When we changed the voice" of Mikel Erentxun's "Detail of Fear" album, who even identifies it as Arconada in a direct allusion to the Portero de la Real Sociedad so it is also known in the models of the album and in the concert repertoires.

Clubs

Club	Country	Year
San Sebastián CF	Spain	1970-1974
Real Society	SpainSpain	1974-1989

Titles

National Championships

Title	Club	Country	Year
League	Real Society	SpainSpain	1981
League	Real Society	SpainSpain	1982
Supercopa	Real Society	SpainSpain	1982
Copa del Rey	Real Society	SpainSpain	1987

Individual awards

• 3 Trophies Zamora al portero menos goleado: 1980, 1981 and 1982.